VeganMoFo Day 28 - Bachelor's Bounty

I haven't used as many recipes from Dr. Pinckney as I originally planned and hope this one makes up for it. It's another quick, dump, heat and eat one, at least after the pasta is cooked.

Bachelors' Bounty
Amazingly simple and easy one dish dinner for people who don't cook 

1 1/2 C whole wheat macaroni
1 can beans in tomato sauce
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 T ketchup
1/4 C BBQ sauce
1 T taco seasoning
crushed chili peppers or hot sauce to taste

Cook macaroni, drain. Add everything else. Stir and simmer a few minutes.

2 huge servings, each 584 calories:  3% from fat (2.34 g), 82% from carbohydrates (129.1g), 15% from protein (24.0 g). Sodium 365* mg, Fiber 22 g.   *when made with no salt added beans and tomatoes

Healing Heart Hints:
Adding shredded fat-free soy cheddar and/or soy parmesan cheese when cooking gives this dish a TexMex flavor.

Any diced vegetables can be added, but they should be steamed or microwaved for a few minutes before mixing them in.

Cooking pasta requires plenty of water, at least three cups for each cup of pasta. Bring water to a full boil and slowly add pasta, stirring at first to prevent it from sticking together or to the pot. Most white pastas take about 6 to 9 minutes to cook, whole wheat pasta a minute or two longer. No oil or salt needs to be added. Check to see how well done it is by taking out a piece and biting into it. When done, rinse immediately in cool water to stop it from cooking more. Overcooked pasta can be gruesome. Pasta can be warmed just before serving by rinsing in warm water. If you make more than you can eat, put it into a baggie and freeze it; a few minutes of microwaving will have it as good as new. 

©2001 Dr. Neal Pinckney / Healing Heart Foundation
When the web site's servers are fixed, it'll be found here again, but for now you can grab it from Susan V's Fat Free Vegan page for it.

I make mine a little bit different than this, because although this says it makes 2 servings, we want a little more so we can have some leftovers, too.

I use a whole box/bag of pasta. For this I'm using Tinkyada's Fusilli.

I need low/no salt added products, so I'm using 2 cans of mild Health Valley no-salt chili purchased from VitaCost instead of beans in tomato sauce. Doing that also eliminates the need for taco seasoning.

I would have tossed some spinach or kale into the pasta water, but after yesterday's problem with the soup my hubby requesting NOTHING GREEN for today. I can't say that I blame him. The rehab nurse even called the house before she left for the day to make sure he was feeling alright again, so I wonder how bad be looked when all that was happening.

You know at the beginning of every episode of Futurama there's always a billboard for Bachelor Chow? This is the stuff they had in mind. But it's not a perfect bachelor food - there are too many ingredients. The pasta and 2 cans of the tomato-y beans/chili would have been enough. I've lived with bachelors, my husband was one and we used to visit his friends' places before we all got married. To them, a meal is tomato soup made with hot water and ketchup. This is way too fancy for the bachelors I have known, including my own son. He said it was too spicy, too many flavors in one bowl.

My husband declared it almost as good as our usual Friday night pizza. Almost. He still prefers to keep up our family traditions, so next week it's back to pizza again for Friday's dinner.