Hello Everyone. Sorry it's been awhile since I posted to the blog. Since we are all facing some difficult times, I thought I would post a recipe that is cheap, easy, quick, and yummy.
Feed a Family of 6 for $6 With Pasta "Frugal"-esca:
Prepare 1 one pound bag of Penne al dente, drain, $1 bag from Dollar Tree
While Penne is preparing, saute 3 stalks celery (0.50 estimate, you can use equivilant of 1 1/2 cups diced or chopped veggie you have on hand, grated carrots are wonderful also) with 1 one pound package of Jimmy Dean Country Mild Sausage, or any sausage you have on hand, Mine was $2.00 from Sav-a-Lot. Stirred in 1 Tablespoon each dried Thyme and Sage from my garden and a few dashes of garlic powder(pennies)
Add one can of Hunts Traditional Spaghetti sauce, $1 from Dollar Tree. You can use any pasta sauce you have on hand, or crushed tomatoes work well also. Only have diced tomatoes on hand? No problem, stick them in the blender a minute, and use instead. Leftover whole fresh tomatoes in the summer? Blanch a few in boiling water a minute or so to loosen the skin, peel, dice and blend. If it's tomatoes you grew, well, this dish is even cheaper :)
Mix all of the above ingrediants together.
Grate one block of pepper jack or some other block cheese you have on hand. I got the marked down cheese at Food Lion for $1.50
Put half of the cheese in the pasta mixture and stir. Turn out into a 9 X 13 glass baking dish. Top with remaining grated cheese and serve.
Congratulations, You've just fed a family of 6 for $6. You can make the dish more expensive by adding more vegetables and serving with homemade italian bread, but why would you want to?
