Just $5 to make this meal that feeds us for 2 Days

Today I thought I would share one of my families favorite (and cheapest) belly-filling meals. It is a simple recipe. It only uses four ingredients plus whatever seasonings you want to add. Usually there's enough to feed my family of four until we're ready to pop, with enough leftovers for the next night. My grandmother used to make it when I was little and called it Italian Spaghetti. Now that I'm grown I know that there are recipes for American Goulash that are very similar to what we make. But, I continue to call it Italian Spaghetti. So here is the recipe if you'd like to try it out. Different seasonings result in different flavors, of course. The recipe is very versatile as you will see in the ingredients. I use what I have on hand in the quantities I have in hand.

Amanda's Italian Spaghetti 

Ingredients:

1. Ground beef approx 1 lb ( I tend to buy the five pound chubs at my local grocery store and then separate them into six or seven packages so it differs each time I make this) approx $3
2. Part of an onion ( I use whatever I have leftover in my fridge, usually somewhere between a quarter and a half of a small to medium yellow or white onion) approx $0.20
3. A can of diced tomatoes around $0.80
4. A box of pasta approx $1.00

Total approximate $5.00 depending on what brands you use and sales prices

Prep time depends on how long it takes you to chop the onion! Sometimes the tears slow me down. 

Cook time around twenty minutes. 

1. Brown and crumble ground beef with the onion and your seasonings. I prefer some oregano and basil (or Italian seasoning if I have it), salt, pepper, and garlic powder
2. While beef is cooking, prepare pasta according to packaging in a separate pan, drain
3. Add pasta and diced tomatoes to ground beef/onion and simmer for ten minutes  
4. Enjoy 

I was going to take pictures of the steps, but my son cooked tonight and had it done before I realized he had really started it! Bonus points for him for cooking dinner for all of us, negative points for me for not taking the pictures. My son even filled bowls and brought them to us! Here is a picture of the dish after it was cooked and mostly eaten.

yummy

This is how much was left after the four of us had eaten PLUS my husband and son both got a second bowl full!
So there's only about two bowl fulls left probably. But that is fine. It still made about eight bowls full. And when I say bowls full, I mean full to the top!

I'm trying to learn how to have different pages and tabs!

I want to separate my sweepstakes and giveaways on here from my crafting and other things I am into. That way people can read about what they come here for and not have to search through all of it to find it. That said, here is my first knitting update after about ten days of knitting solely on my husband's blanket.

Enter to Win an Outdoor Fireplace from the Purex 31 Days of Fun Sweepstakes

Today is the 21st day in the Purex 31 Days of Fun Sweepstakes. Today's prize is an Outdoor Fireplace with a value of $200!

Enter Here for your chance to win this prize. Please remember that I do have a $10 Amazon Gift Card for all you to win also. Just take THIS URL and share it with your social media sites like facebook and twitter. Come back to this post and comment letting me know where you shared it and with how many people. It's that easy. Each time you do that, you will get an entry to win the gift card. As of right now I only have one person in the running for the card! I am not sure if no on is interested in winning this, or if I was unclear on how to. Anyway, enter today to win the sweepstakes and then enter my contest for the gift card. You never know. You might win both!

Blogger Opp Soda Stream Giveaway

We are giving away

Blogger Opp Samsung Chromebook Giveaway

Day 20! Purex 31 Days of Fun Sweepstakes

It is already the 20th of August! Where has this month gone? Before you know it, the holidays will be here. What better way to celebrate the holidays then by baking up some deliciousness in your kitchen? That was my not so subtle lead in to today's prize. Today's prize is a New KitchenAid Mixer and Bakeware Set (a $250 value)! Now wouldn't that make the holiday baking easier?  ENTER HERE for your chance to win this prize.

Free Blogger Opp Autumn AMP Giveaway Open to US and CANADA

Fall is almost upon us! I, for one, can't wait for the cooling temperatures and the color changes. Early fall is my favorite time of the year. The Parenting Patch has decided to honor the seasons changing by offering us a chance to win an AMP cloth diaper prize pack! The pack has a value of $83.10 and includes 3 AMP One-Size Duo Pocket Diaper in red, orange, and yellow; 2 two-layer AMP Boosters; 3 AMP microfiber inserts; and 1 three-layer Amp Booster!

YumEarth Organics Fruit Snacks Giveaway

It is time for back to school. Worried that your kids will be eating junk at school? Pack them some YumEarth Organics Fruit Snacks. They are:

Lysol Power & Free Review

As a BzzAgent, I recently received two Lysol Power & Free products to try out. Here I will tell you what I thought of them.

Sloppy Turkey Sandwiches, or is it Turkey Joes?

I am probably the last person to have tried using ground turkey in sloppy joes! I have seen other people blog about it and have run across many recipes for it, but had never gotten around to trying it myself. So today, while trying to figure out what to cook and not in the mood to do anything complex, I decided to go for it. I chose the simplest route of course!