Sunday 2/22

Pampered Chef Salad Spinner.

Swimsuit Season.

Yes, those two go together and it just so happens that I just purchased the salad spinner. I am excited to us it. The other thing, we just won't talk about right now.

I planned 5 salads and 2 pasta dishes for this week and in the spirit of what I wanted to accomplish last week I will try to list what I actually spent for the dishes. You may have to check back for the price because I have not been to the store yet but I do have the plan.

Beef & Feta Pasta Bake

1 pound elbow pasta
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk, heated
3/4 pound feta cheese, crumbled
1 big can tomato sauce or puree
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente; drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Whisk in the flour for 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium, whisk in the hot milk and cook, whisking, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the feta.
3. In a large bowl, combine the tomato sauce and cooked meat, cinnamon, cloves and sugar; stir in half of the pasta. In another large bowl, stir together the feta sauce and the remaining pasta. Transfer the meat-coated pasta to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; top with the feta-coated pasta. Bake until golden, about 30 minutes.

Depending on what fruit I see that looks decent I will slice up some fresh pineapple or some kind of melon.