WHADDA WE EATIN WEDNESDAY! Recipe for One-Pot Spaghetti!

Hey everyone!

Well, better late than never, right?  I realize Wednesday is almost over, but, hey, it's STILL Wednesday so it's still not too late to share my newest recipe for

WHADDA WE EATIN' WEDNESDAY!!!

I have a confession to make...

I tend to be a creature of habit when it comes to making certain meals.  I just know how to make them, and I do it the same way....pretty much every time.   Every once in a while I will make a very small change to a spice or ingredient, but once I know how to make a recipe, I rarely change the entire way that recipe is made.

Well, that all changed last night!

Today, I want to share with you a recipe I recently found for "One-Pot Spaghetti"   I have made spaghetti for years for myself, my hubby and my kids, and even for crowds, but I have always made it pretty much the same way....one pot boils and cooks the pasta, a colander drains that pasta, one pot cooks the meat and sauce...then you mix the two together...dirty two pots and a collander, and that's that.

Well, my friends, this was a wonderful change to that "same ol', same ol'" recipe.

I found this recipe on Sarah's blog - The Fantastical Sharing of Recipes and thought it looked "Pinteresting".   She found the recipe from Lynne at Lynne's Kitchen Adventures.  Thanks to both Lynne and Sarah for sharing this great recipe and helping me to think out of the "recipe box" for a change! 

I almost passed this recipe by...thinking to myself at first...."I know how to make pasta, I don't need to change anything."  I'm really glad I decided to just give this a shot.

I didn't get a chance to take the pictures of this recipe being made because I was out most of the afternoon at a playdate with the kids, so I'm going to use the picture from Sarah's blog.  Next time I make this (which will be SOOOON!)  I will make sure to take some good pictures and replace it with them.  Mine did not look exactly like this...I tweaked the recipe, but only very slightly.

My 9 year old son helped a lot in making this with me...he really seems to enjoy cooking, and I love that we can cook together!  I'm also hoping that I'm training a little chef who will one day cook us up some incredible meals when he gets older!  haha!

Source

Here are the ingredients...

1 box of spaghetti
1 lb ground meat or ground turkey (if you use ground turkey, you may want to consider adding a few spices to it, like paprika and garlic powder, and browning it in a little Olive oil.)
3 cups chicken broth  (the recipe called for 1 can, but I realized I needed a little more so it wouldn't be so dry.)
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. minced onion
1 jar (28 oz) of pasta sauce (I used Aldi's meat flavored pasta sauce...delish!)
1/2 cup of grated parmesean cheese

Brown the ground meat and add the minced onion and the minced garlic.  Drain if needed. 

Keep the heat up and add the pasta sauce and chicken broth...bring to a boil.

Add your spaghetti, cover and lower the heat so it will simmer.   Let it cook for 17-20 minutes...stirring occasionally.  You may need to add some water as you go, so it doesn't get dry.

Once cooked, add your parmesan cheese, stir and serve!

Here was our family's reaction....  

My boys (hubby and son) liked it, but my hubby thought it was a little dry...he said it almost tasted like a baked spaghetti, but without all the cheese on top...which I personally love, but he prefers more "sauce".  Next time I will make sure to add more of the chicken broth and I think that may help....or I may add more sauce after it's all cooked and that may also give it more of that saucy consistency that he prefers.

My daughter LOVED it, and so did I.  I really loved the flavor the chicken broth brings to the dish and I would love to make this more often.  I also loved the easier cleanup...just one pot! 

Thanks for joining me for another WHADDA WE EATIN' WEDNESDAY!  Hope to see you again soon!  =D