A new family favorite

Twenty-Minute Stove-Top Goulash
Cooking Healthy Across America Copyright 2005

2 cups macaroni I used Smart Taste
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 medium-size onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium-green pepper, chopped
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1 cup frozen corn I left the corn out since we had corn on the cob on the side
1 10 ¾-ounce can undiluted cream of tomato soup I used the 25% less sodium version

Cook the macaroni according to package directions.

In a Dutch oven or electric skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, onion, garlic, and salt until the beef is brown and cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the green pepper, mushrooms, corn and soup; simmer for 15 minutes. (I sautéed the green pepper and mushrooms with the meat - I prefer sautéed veggies.) Serve over the macaroni.

Serves 6 (1 ½ cups meat mixure and ¾ cup macaroni per serving)

Per serving: 340 cal, 8.6g fat, 26mg chol, 730mg sodium, 44g carbs, 2.6 g fiber, 22g protein
(hopefully my numbers were a bit better using the Smart Taste pasta and lower sodium soup - should be more fiber and less sodium in my version.)
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I'll admit that what drew me to this recipe, besides the simplicity, was the tomato soup. I just love the smooth tomato flavor of condensed tomato soup. If that isn't your thing, I'm pretty sure that canned tomato sauce would work well in this recipe too but personally I loved it with the tomato soup. Everyone did - there wasn't a noodle leftover. My older son asked for seconds and said how good it was (minus the mushrooms which he picked out). The baby ate it too (he spit out the mushrooms).

I cooked the meat mixture and macaroni on Sunday but kept them separate until we ate this on Tuesday. I just cooked the meat mixture until it was very hot and I added the macaroni and cooked it a bit longer. I may have used a little more than 2 cups of macaroni. I had cooked the entire box since I usually boil up macaroni for the baby's lunches and I just added macaroni to the meat mixture until I felt there was enough to feed us with the right ratio of meat sauce:macaroni.

This is one of those recipes that I'm sure I'll be making for years to come.

This cookbook is a real gem I think. It's a little uneven since the recipes are contributed by various dieticians but overall I think it's a winner.

P.S. There's that corn again! It seems to be lurking in the background of just about every picture these days but it's so good and 1/2 dozen ears (which apparently is 7 ears of corn at the stand my husband has been getting the corn) is only $1.75 and last us three meals. That's cheaper than canned veggies.

Question of the Day: What are your feelings on condensed tomato soup? Like it? Would you prefer to avoid it?