Pasta with Meat Sauce and Hunger Challenge Day 2 Recap

Posted on | April 21, 2009 | 18 Comments |

We are on Day 2 of the hunger challenge. This challenge is way harder than I imagined. Tuesday- Hunger Challenge Apart from having to cook three times a day, keeping track of the ingredient list and not being able to use random ingredients are the most challenging factors for me. I am the type of cook who throws this and that in to any dish, and not being able to use “this or that” has been really cramping my style. I really wanted to use some balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil today, but that would have taken me over the daily budget. I am trying to stick with using just a couple of spices in each dish.

Total tally for the day 2 came to $9.26, as we had leftover pasta for lunch. Instead of the usual cereal, we had an omelette filled with sautéed mushrooms and spinach, served on whole wheat toast with avocado slices for breakfast. This was quite filling and tasty, though I could really use some cheddar or feta crumbles in that omelette, and a couple of slices of bacon would’ve been heaven!

As our breakfast and lunch were quite heavy today, we decided on something simple for dinner and a brown rice salad with pan-fried Kale and chickpeas with a lemony-yogurt dressing was just perfect. Only sad part is that there are no leftovers and I haven’t done any prep-work today. I might have to make the Egg Salad sandwiches again tomorrow, but I am not complaining.

Moving on to that Pasta with Meat Sauce recipe I promised from yesterday, this one is a really simple recipe that I often make with ground chicken, or even chicken sausage with the casings removed. I normally top it off with sautéed broccoli rabe or broccolini, and a generous sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano. This one is a cut down version, but quite satisfactory nevertheless.

Whole Wheat Penne with Spinach and Meat Sauce

Ingredients

(For 4 generous servings)

Ground lean beef – 1/2 lb
Whole Wheat Penne Rigate- 1/2 lb
Tomato paste – 2 tbsp
Baby Spinach – 4 oz
Cilantro, chopped – 2 tbsp
Milk – 1 cup
Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Red chili powder – 1/2 tbsp
Diced Onions – 1 cup
Sliced Garlic – 6 cloves
Oil – 2 tsp
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid before draining the pasta.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and saute the onions till soft. Add the ground beef and season well with salt and pepper. Saute till the beef starts to brown. Stir in the garlic, red chili and coriander powders, and mix well. Cook on low heat for 3-4 minutes till the spice powders are well cooked. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add the milk and 1/2 cup of water and bring this to a boil. Let the liquid cook down almost completely, leaving a thick saucy mixture. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the spinach and chopped cilantro. Add the cooked pasta into the pan along with just enough reserved liquid to loosen up the liquid, if the sauce has gone too thick. Mix well to combine.

Serve hot. While heating up the left overs, add more milk if the pasta looks too dry.

Check out how my fellow challengers have been doing on their first two days in their blogs.

For a day-by-day recap and for more information about the hunger challenge, check out UWKC’s blog: http://uwkc.wordpress.com

Category: Beef or Veal, Hunger Challenge, Pastas

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« « Egg Salad Sandwich and Hunger Challenge Day 1 Recap| Brown Rice Salad with Pan-fried Chickpeas and Kale and Hunger Challenge Day 3 Recap » »

Comments

18 Responses to “Pasta with Meat Sauce and Hunger Challenge Day 2 Recap”

SuperChef
April 21st, 2009 @ 10:56 pm
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hmm…even i miss throwing this and that into the food while making it..this was gonna be my theme for tomorrows post as well looks like we are thinking exactly alike…how do you manage to post after dinner?? im generally very blah and ready to go to dream land..thats why you see my posts the next day.

The pasta looks delicious and great job with the chickpea salad as well cya again tomorrow.
- sig
  April 22nd, 2009 @ 11:14 pm
  Reply
  
  After dinner is the only time I get to blog.. if I don’t do it in the night, I know I won’t do it at all!
Raaga
April 22nd, 2009 @ 2:42 am
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this looks wonderful. Last night I was thinking about what the Indian equivalent to this might be. $12 in INR is way too much for a day… Maybe $5, which is Rs. 250. It feels lavish even then.
- sig
  April 22nd, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
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  You know, I have no idea how much things cost in India! You should just see what your normal weekly budget for food is, then halve it and go from there.
sra
April 22nd, 2009 @ 2:53 am
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Oh well, look at it this way, Sig. If you can’t throw in all you want into a dish, maybe you’ll lose some weight?
Kay
April 22nd, 2009 @ 3:26 am
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Wow! I should do one of these challenges… gives so much to think about, eh!

I’m so glad you are doing it. I might follow your footsteps soon. somebody in Alberta did a similar challenge in eating healthy for $80 per person a month.. and this has been in my mind since then, but seeing you do it, makes me think maybe I can give it a try too.
Soma
April 22nd, 2009 @ 4:12 am
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You are coming up with some nice food:-).. but really hats off to you.. i could not do this, even if I was alone.
Asha
April 22nd, 2009 @ 4:44 am
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Very good effort. Only thing I noticed is there is no fruits in the shopping list and also in the menu. Why don’t you add few apples and oranges as snack. That makes the food pyramid complete. Otherwise the menu is so great. I cann’t even think about doing something so measured
- sig
  April 22nd, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
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  Hi Asha, good to see you after a long time . Yeah, the only fruits I could afford were bananas I should’ve planned a bit better.
Happy Cook
April 22nd, 2009 @ 4:45 am
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Wow each day your price is getting lesser sig, way to go.
Love the pasta dish looks so yummy delicous.
Mamatha
April 22nd, 2009 @ 5:18 am
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This challenge is a great exercise in planning Sig, goes to show how a little bit of it can go a long way.

In other news, I started SBD Phase 1 today. I’ll have to wait for 2 more weeks before I can give this recipe a try.
Ann
April 22nd, 2009 @ 7:01 am
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simply great…sig,brilliant idea and a professional photograph..
Nurit - 1 family. friendly. food.
April 22nd, 2009 @ 10:00 am
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Yes, i also feel like I think twice about anything i use because the food has to last for 5 days. Yesterday I only used a little splash of lemon with the arugula becuase lemons are expensive.
elra
April 22nd, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
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Delicious pasta, whole wheat is a good choice even if you are not on diet.
Cheers,
elra
alice
April 22nd, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
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This looks so wonderful. I love the taste of whole wheat pasta.. its just more filling. Looking forward to reading the rest of the week.
A&N
April 23rd, 2009 @ 8:25 am
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I love that brown rice salad. I dunno if I will be able to do it as meticulously as you are!