Vegetarian Goulash

Easy, tasty, loaded with starch and protein, and very little measuring required!

Preparation/cook time: 45 minutes; serves 6-ish

Ingredients:

• 4-ish servings of spiral pasta
• Half a package of vegetarian "ground beef" (Quorn, Morning Star, etc.)
• One large can of stewed tomatoes
• One can of corn (or half a package of frozen corn)
• Half a jar of tomato sauce
• Two fistfuls of grated cheese
• Sliced green olives (the more the better)

Preparation:

• Boil the pasta until it's slightly al dente; drain well
• Mix pasta, "ground beef," tomatoes, corn, olives and cheese in a large casserole dish
• Add pasta sauce until everything is sufficiently gooey, but not so much the casserole is floating in it
• Sprinkle with more grated cheese, if desired
• Bake 30 minutes on 350℉

Variations:

• Substituting Italian olive salad for the plain green olives is pretty fantastic.
• If you know something about cooking (or are just feeling adventurous) you can experiment with adding herbs and spices - it's tasty on its own, but it was particularly good when I added "Pasta Sprinkle" (sweet basil, Turkish oregano, thyme and garlic).
• Note: you can make this with gluten-free pasta, but it can't be simultaneously gluten-free and vegetarian - most meat substitutes use some form of gluten to hold it together, so you have to use real meat for the gluten-free variety.

Baked Mac & Cheese

As seen at Sunday night dinner!

1 lb of pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard
2 cups grated cheddar
Ground pepper to taste

- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Bring water to boil and cook the pasta.
- Heat oil over low to medium heat and stir in flour with a whisk. Add in the milk, continuing to stir until the lumps dissolve.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in the salt, pepper, mustard, and cheese.
- Put the pasta in a casserole dish, mix in the sauce, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Makes about 6 servings. Multiply ingredients as needed for more.

(note: feel no pressure to actually bake, as it will still be delicious if you don't)