Chop Suey

We tend to eat a lot of pasta with ground chicken or turkey. Here's a good one that I made last night. My oldest had seconds and asked to take leftovers for lunch today.

1. In large pot brown 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey with diced onion and garlic (however much you like--I used one clove of elephant garlic).
2. Meanwhile, cook 12-16 oz of pasta (we like elbows), and I add some chicken broth to the water to give the pasta a little extra flavor.
3. To the cooked meat mixture, add 2 cans of condensed tomato soup, and one can of petite cut diced tomatoes. I rinsed each can with just a small amount of water and added that in, too.
4. Add some black pepper, a dash of crushed red pepper, and some Italian seasoning (which we were out of so I used pizza seasoning). I don't really measure my spices unless I'm following a recipe, so maybe about a teaspoon or so of the seasoning.
5. Stir well. Then add about 1 cup of shredded mozarella (or a cheese of your liking).

I am a big fan of these kind of meals: one pot (ok, in this case a pot to boil pasta), kid-friendly, ingredients on-hand, and make in the afternoon and eat it whenever you're ready for dinner.

Enjoy!

Remember Today 4.4.09

{remember} yet another cheesecake fiasco. Remember this one. Well, I've managed to botch another cheescake. Our back doorknob suddenly stopped turning this afternoon with no warning what-so-ever. Shouldn't something that you use every single day give you some kind of a heads-up before it just quits working on you?! Anyway, my cheesecake, which might have been a bit overcooked as I was busy getting the boys showered, jammied, and brushed while it baked, had just gone under the broiler. C was on the phone with P telling him about said door and I busied myself trying to figure out how to open said door, rather than watching my cheesecake grow "attractive spots of brown." Something smelled a bit off. "Oh, (insert bad word muttered under breath), the cheesecake!" as I leap over two children and throw open the oven door. Forget the brown spots, this thing was blackened and in flames!! Lots of bad words trying to force their way from my lips as I put every effort into keeping it PG-13 for my kids. "Shoot, fffff, crap, damn" and lots of grumbles and groans as I scrape the singed top off and hope that the rest of it doesn't taste like an ashtray. It's only for my family, and if it tastes like we're chewing cigarettes, they'll still love me anyway.