I never know what to cook for dinner. My friends often use Pinterest to find recipes so after hearing about all of these Pinterest success stories (where people try out a recipe they pinned and it turns out delish) I finally decided to get back into cooking again. You know where I turned to figure out what to make for dinner yesterday. I’m glad I did because my bro & Ant loved the stir fry pasta!
I wanted a quick & easy recipe because of Monday Night Football. 99% of the time I don’t allow us to have dinner in front of a TV but Monday’s & Thursdays are an exception. I’m playing Fantasy Football this year so yes, it is crucial that I catch these games ;).
I used this recipe for inspiration and switched it up a bit. It took 10 minutes to shop for the ingredients and about 15 minutes to cook. Dinner was ready in under 30 minutes and I finished 5 minutes before kick-off. Score!
Ingredients
1lb ground beef (93% fat free)
1/2 red bell pepper (diced into small cubes)
3 green onions (finely chopped)
1 package of Taco Seasoning
1 can Tomatoes with Green Chiles
1/2 cup water
1lb Medium Shell Pasta
1/4 cup canned corn
2 cups Mexican blend cheese
Instructions
1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook pasta to al dente
2. While pasta is cooking, brown meat, red pepper cubes & green onions in a large pan or wok
3. Stir in taco seasoning, water and canned tomatoes until it boils
4. Once pasta is cooked, drain and rinse pasta with cold water. Then add into pan with meat.
5. Add cheese & corn then mix the pasta and meat (I used tongs which made this step easy!)
6. Sprinkle a few pinches of salt then serve immediately
Original Recipe vs My Recipe
- The original recipe calls for 1 whole red bell pepper and 1 cup of frozen corn. Anthony & my brother don’t love bell pepper so I opted for just half a pepper. I used only 1/4cup of corn because I didn’t want it to overpower the dish. Instead of using frozen corn I used canned corn and you will see why in bullet #3
- I chose shell pasta instead of macaroni because it has more of a bite. I’m also not a big fan of macaroni.
- The original recipe says to cook the pasta in the meat/veggie mixture. To speed up the cooking & stir frying process I cooked the pasta first. That way the meat doesn’t over cook and the veggies don’t get too tender. If you add too much water, the flavor gets diluted and if you don’t add enough water the pasta doesn’t cook thoroughly. The original recipe asks for frozen corn because it gets cooked while the pasta is cooking.
Dreamscape 