Since I have been living on my own my “go to” dinner dish has always been spaghetti. No matter how I try to expand my food horizons if I’m in a pinch I go running back to spaghetti. My usual dish has ground beef and a jar of Ragu (Mushroom or Original) and noodles. Some variations include adding green peppers, mushrooms, onion and any other suitable veg. Sometimes I may substitute the meat but none the less its spaghetti. I can say I probably make it once a week.
I’ve recently started to wonder why this is the dish I fall back on and I have come up with a few reasons.
1. Spaghetti is easy to make. Even if I had a ball hockey game there is always time to make a big pot of noodles and sauce at the very least.
2. Spaghetti can include most of the food groups. Protein, Vegetables, Starch, and Dairy (add some cheese) which basically just leaves out fruits.
3. Spaghetti is easily stored and reheated for lunch the next day. Both my fiancee and I eat lunch at home during the week (I work from home and he works close by) so having something pre-made makes things much easier.
I’ve come to realize that everyone probably has their own go to dish. What is yours?
Cassie
Hey I was just curious, I see you say you use ground beef but I was under the impression this is a vegan cooking blog. Do you use soy meat crumbles? Those are pretty good. Also, Ragu has high fructose corn syrup, so I usually avoid that brand and go for a yummy vegan organic brand if I don't just make my own.
bradgosse
Koolmeg is our resident non-vegan. She gives us a different perspective.
With regards to Ragu. Here in Canada we don't see the dreaded high fructose corn syrup. Our govt doesn't subsidize corn like the US does so we get real sugar much of the time 🙂
Claire Gosse
Hey Meg,
Maybe as a part of your meatless Mondays, you should use veggie ground round in place of the ground beef:)
Cassie
Oh wow! That's good about the lack of HFCS. I still like to make my own though, and it takes about as much time to do that as it takes for the pasta to cook. I put so much veggies in my sauce that it's flavorful. My hubby doesn't miss the meat.
bradgosse
Agreed homemade is best 🙂 Sometimes we need quick and easy. That's when we turn to the jar lol.
I bet your sauce is awesome!
James Kimbell
This would be a super easy candidate for veganization. You could add faux-meat, or if you don't like that you can just pile on the veggies with maybe some chickpeas or mushrooms.