Now Or Never: Making The Effort

I went grocery shopping today, actual grocery shopping, probably for the first time since I moved here. I mean obviously I've bought food since moving to the beach because I had to eat, but I've been so broke that groceries were actually one of the last things I was spending money on. Today I changed that. I found a delicious recipe for some savory muffins online at one of the blogs I frequent and decided, after my last post, why not try to make the change now?

I must say the one thing I wish I could get further from is pasta. Carbs are so easy to come by in the stores and are probably the cheapest meal you can get, so naturally I bought a bit of that. I also got some frozen veggies (thanks Claire for the tip on a much earlier post about canned/fresh/frozen veggies), frozen strawberries, cheese, snacks for lunch, Gatorade, and a few other odds and ends. Reading over that last sentence I realize it does not look like the shopping trip to end all trips, but I really did come away with what I hope to be the makings of a good few weeks. First off I was dying to make this recipe for Cheese and Scallion Muffins and had to really think what I could make to go with them... pasta seemed like a simple enough addition. Here's my meal plan from this evening, (Note: I'm really proud of myself with the pasta and sauce because I only made enough for 2 meals instead of 12 that will end up in the trash later)

Farfalle pasta with meat sauce:
1/2 pkg of Farfalle pasta
1/2 Jar Prego Roasted Garlic & Herb pasta sauce
1/2 lb Lean Ground Beef cooked and drained
2 cloves of Garlic (yep I purposefully bought pre-made garlic sauce and added more LOL)
a few leaves of fresh sweet basil
A dash of all of the following:
Seasoned Salt, Italian Seasoning, Thyme, Chili Powder, & Pepper
Sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese

While the pasta boiled, I cooked the ground beef then drained it and added the spices. Then I threw in the sauce and added the fresh garlic and sweet basil leaves. Next I drained the pasta and tossed it in a bowl with some of the sauce and sprinkled the cheese on top. Nice and Simple, and in the right portion healthy. The only thing I think I missed out on in this recipe was mushrooms, that would have made it oh so much tastier...not that it wasn't already super delish.

Before I started the pasta I whipped up the muffins and let the bake. I followed the recipe linked above except I doubled it so I'd have lots of extra muffins to share...except now I kinda wish I'd tried the smaller recipe first lol. Special note: These muffins seriously taste like they're missing something...I think instead of the dash of salt the recipe calls for, it might need more like 2 tsp of salt? I dunno, I'll need to experiment on it later. It might even be fun to add a little garlic lol (I will reiterate once more: I LOVE Garlic!).

I'm not going to type out the whole baking process here because it's easy enough to just follow the recipe link. But I did take some wonderful pics to share...so enjoy the deliciousness of savory muffins for dinner.