Quick, Easy, Healthy and Cheap Recipe

Last night my husband had to work very late which threw off my plan for dinner. 

I was going to make a new recipe from Rachel Ray Magazine but I wanted my husband to try it too so I scratched that one. I could have just made the kids something quick but I was hungry and wanted a real meal.

That is when I decided to go to my old standby recipe- Parmesan Tomato Spaghetti. It is the easiest recipe (if you even want to call it a recipe) and is healthy and cheap too. Plus, my kids love it which is amazing because they can be pretty picky.

The ingredients I use are whole wheat spaghetti, a can of diced tomatoes, parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper. The pasta was free and the tomatoes were most likely less than .50 a can.

Pour the tomatoes into a pan and season with salt and pepper. You could also add whatever else you have on hand such as onion, peppers, spices, etc. Simmer tomatoes to cook down. As my tomatoes simmer I like to chop them up a bit because my family doesn't like big chunks. While simmering the tomatoes, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.

Here is what my tomatoes looked like after simmering- yum!

Drain cooked pasta and dump into a bowl. Add olive oil and mix together. Then add your tomato mixture and mix it all up so that the tomatoes are evenly distributed. Add as much or as little parmesan cheese as you want and mix. That's it- your yummy spaghetti is done!

Here is what my dinner looked like- I love parmesan cheese so much that I added a lot more to my pasta.   I also had some string beans and a piece of whole wheat bread with butter.

In case you're wondering what I feed my kids, here is one of their plates. My kids are not big on the veggies so I just put one string bean on each plate and make them at least try a tiny bite. I gave each of them half a pear to make up for their lack of vegetables. To round it out they each also got a piece of whole wheat bread with butter and a Simply GoGurt. I am not big into making separate meals so my kids pretty much eat what my husband and I eat.

So that was it- a quick, easy, healthy and cheap recipe that everyone enjoyed.