Jenny-Approved Hamburger-Spinach-Tomato-Pasta One Dish Meal

My family loves this dish which tastes especially good as left-overs. This is the perfect middle of the week meal when you don't want the pressure of coming up with several dishes to serve. It's a very healthy meal -- I recommend using either whole wheat or PLUS pasta and 'no salt added' diced tomatoes and then seasoning the ground beef with salt and pepper. Hint: If you're really in a rush and need to save time, use powdered garlic instead of fresh; use 1 can stewed tomatoes in place of 1 can diced tomatoes and the chopped onions; and either omit the carrots or use the pre-shredded carrots you can find in the produce section at larger grocery stores.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• 2  lbs ground beef
• 1  medium onion (chopped)
• 3  garlic cloves (either chopped or use a press)
• 1 (16 ounce) bag frozen spinach
• 1  cup carrot, shredded
• 1 (14 1/2ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (14 1/2ounce) can crushed tomatoes (Whole Foods has an excellent Crushed Tomatoes with Rosemary, but you can use regular crushed tomatoe)
• 8  ounces macaroni (Barilla Plus elbows are best)

Directions

1. Put a pot of water on to boil.
2. Brown the ground beef with the chopped onions and garlic.
3. Add pasta to boiling water -- cook as long as advised by box directions.
4. Put frozen spinach and shredded carrots into a microwave-safe bowl and zap (cook in the microwave) for 7 minutes (stir at about 4 minutes).
5. Add both cans of tomatoes to cooked meat, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Add spinach and carrots to the meat mixture, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.
7. Drain pasta and place in a HUGE serving dish.
8. Put meat and veggie mixture into the HUGE serving dish and mix thoroughly with the pasta.
9. Serve hot.