Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Cooking Strategy

I tried to make it pretty clear when I started this blog that I am by NO means a great cook.  I consider myself merely mediocre at best, and I rarely make up my own recipes (I prefer to steal them from other people).  I would love to be a kitchen goddess, but I don't have the time, energy, or money to spend on that dream right now (too busy following that other dream of a degree that leads to a well-paying, stable career NOT in the kitchen). 

So what do I do when I'm clueless?  When I just don't have the energy to search for a new recipe or attempt one I've already found?  I make pasta.  I buy any kind of noodle, any kind of meat, any kind of sauce, and put it together with mushrooms, olives, Italian seasoning, and garlic.  That's basically covers any type of pasta you could want, think about it...

Chicken/Shrimp Alfredo= straight (flat) noodles, chicken or shrimp, alfredo sauce
Spaghetti- straight (smaller, rounder) noodles, ground chuck/turkey, marinara sauce
Ravioli- stuffed square noodles, whatever meat is stuffed in there, either sauce
Tortellini- round stuffed noodles, sausage (in my house), marinara

If you want to be really fancy you can do stuffed shells or attempt lasagna (which is something I have yet to get right).  But you see my basic point.  With those three categories & some personalized tweaks, you can create a HUGE variety of meals. 

The best part?  It's fairly cheap, and if you're really broke (which sometimes I think I am) you can omit the meat to be even cheaper & still end up full.

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