Pasta with Red Sauce (Loaves and Fishes Cookbook)

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October 2013 Meal

I made this recipe for my family last week!  We are 6 (but my son eats enough for 2!) –we had dinner twice and I gave a meal to a friend and froze the rest of the red sauce down–so if you do Once a Month Cooking–this would be a good recipe to make and freeze.

Red Sauce (make 2 gallons)

makes 1 gallon=16 cups=32 1/2 cup servings

We need two gallons of red sauce to feed 50–I would rather have too much than not enough.

Ingredients:

3 lbs of ground beef

2 cups of diced onions

2 cups of diced peppers

1 head of garlic minced (that is about 6-8 cloves)

8  25 oz jars of red sauce

Brown the ground beef with the onions, peppers and garlic.

Add 8 jars of store-bought red sauce.  Of course I try to buy organic :-) but make sure that you are buying 25 oz per jar–I’ve noticed that some jars only have 23 and when you are making a big batch like this 2 oz multiplied by 8 is 2 servings!

I let the red sauce simmer in a huge pan to let the flavors meld.

Pasta

I cooked up regular spaghetti and farfalle pasta to determine to see if there was a difference in how much it “grew” in the cooking process.  I discovered that the yield is the same BUT the ease of serving is much better with the smaller pasta.

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side by side comparison

1 cup of pasta 1/2 cup of red sauce

Making it for your own home:

For my family I add 2 cups of carrots and 2 cups of celery.  I use Laura’s ground beef, organic carrots, onions, peppers and celery–most prices are fairly close.  The ground beef is more expensive BUT I feel, at this time, it is the best choice–I’m doing more research of factory farming.  Most of my family eats a plant based diet so the cost of meat is less of an issue for us.  I can stay on budget while eating really good, healthy food grown without chemicals and pesticides.

I might use fettuccine or spaghetti for this recipe because in my house I’m not that concerned about serving size.  I know if I cook a pound of pasta we will eat it!

Be Blessed as you prepare food for your family, a gathering of friends or a homeless shelter.

Egg info graphic (Giada’s Frittata starter)

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Each week I find a dozen organic eggs in my CSA box!  That might seem a lot but if we make a batch of muffins–we only have 8 left . . . not enough for 6 of us to have eggs for breakfast but it is plenty for a quiche or Frittata. egginfo

I’m always at Target . . . and one day I was buying Giada’s pasta and happened upon this starter.  I bought two–both were very good.  I of course added onions and some other veggies.  I made two at the same time–ate one and kept the other to see how it would reheat for breakfast (research for my Blessed By Breakfast cookbook http://blessedbybreakfast.com).  Both were great!  one of the starters!fresh chives from the garden!This is bigger than 8x8--4 servings would be ok, anything more you need soup or a salad. (or a giant piece of cheesecake:-)

What I really love about quiche is how versatile this meal is–a savory breakfast, lunch or dinner; a side of soup, salad, hash browns or fruit.  The re-heatability (is that even a word?) is nice for busy nights or rushed breakfast.

Be Blessed as you explore the simplicity of cooking.

P.S.  I’m writing a breakfast cookbook–Blessed by Breakfast, my goal was to break my families habit of eating boxed cereal every morning and instead offering real food!   Thinking out of the cereal box!  

Linking up with Best of 2013–Finding Joy in my Kitchen.

Does Organic mean non-GMO?

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Question:  Does organic mean GMO free?

organic vs. con

I did not make this info graphic

I’ve been re-evaluating my food choices over the last year for these reasons:

  1. I wanted to lose 70 lbs.  I still want to lose weight but it is coming off more slowly the closer to 50 I get!  I’ve had some success but not nearly as much as I would like.  I met with several nutritionist who had different views with one common theme–I needed a cleaner diet.  
  2. I’ve had a food aversion to eating meat.  This isn’t a new phenomenon for me–with each pregnancy I opted not to eat meat with a bone, read meat, cured meat, or meat in any type of sauce.  These aversions were very surprising because I love meat–I love preparing meat–or at least I did.  So when this new food aversion began about a year ago–I laughed it off and thought I was going through a phase–NOT.
  3. Self love and honoring myself was not something that I really ever did–but now I’m learning that I am not my past or my future–I am now, and what I eat in this moment matters.
  4. Each morning I wake up and look at my kids.  I am reminded that I need to be responsible for what they eat and help them make good choices–I need to model those choices.
  5. My daughter decided that she did not want to eat dead animals.  “I do not want to harm any living thing.” So I honor that.  But it really challenged how I looked at food.
  6. I joined a CSA, planted my own garden and found a chicken farmer who loves his hens!
  7. Let’s be honest–I’m going through my second puberty and I’m just questioning everything that everyone has ever told me.  I want to make my own choices about what is safe and good for me.

But I wondered . . . does organic mean GMO-free?  I wrote here about GMO’s and how they may not be a healthy food choice but I’ll like to offer this video trailer as well–can’t wait for the movie.

Answer:  The easiest way is to avoid GMOs is to buy organic produce, avoid processed foods, avoid foods and ingredients on the Non-GMO Project’s high-risk list and look for products with the Non-GMO Product seal.

This article states:  It’s hard enough to find time to grocery shop and put food on the table, let alone become an expert in the details of food labels. 

I can totally do that!

What I have discovered is a series of loopholes in the wording.  I’ll be writing about that soon–but this is more great information on “organic” and “gmo”.

History of GMO standards in U.S. organic agriculture

  • In 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its draft National Organic Program rule. At this time, they proposed that organic allow the use of GMOs. This proposal was unacceptable to consumers, manufacturers, retailers, farmers, and basically anyone who had anything to do with organic.
  • The organic community united to “Save our Organic Standards” and deluged the USDA with comments. After receiving more than 275,000 comments from the public opposing the use of GMOs in organic, the final USDA organic rule, which went into effect in October 2002, prohibited the use of GMOs in the production and handling of organic products.
  • The final rule outlines that an organic operation has to document that it has not used GMOs and takes reasonable steps to avoid contact with GMOs. Whether a product is labeled “100% organic,” “certified organic” (with an allowance of 5% non-organic ingredients) or “made with organic” (a minimum of 70% organic ingredients), none of the ingredients are permitted to use genetic engineering.That means in a “made with organic” cereal containing 70 percent organic ingredients, the remaining 30 percent non-organic ingredients cannot be produced from genetic engineering. Providers of non-organic ingredients being used in organic products, must also be able to provide proof that their ingredients are non-GMO.
  • An organic certifier may require testing when there is reason to believe that an organic product has come in contact with GMOs.

Be Blessed as you make mindful choices for your mind, body and spirit.

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