National Pasta Day 2024 is on Thursday, October 17, 2024: Easy, Delicious Pasta Recipe?

Thursday, October 17, 2024 is National Pasta Day 2024. 10 Drool-Worthy Dishes for National Pasta Day‎ Stay in-the-know with the daily news from Zagat.

The link below is for the National Pasta Association - between them and the Food Network, you CAN'T go wrong if you don't have your very own well-loved recipes. The only "plus" for the Food Network is they have recipe ratings, so you won't have to guess whether the recipe is half-decent or not.

www.ilovepasta.org

As for me, give me a big bowl of hot cooked pasta, a lot of pecorino romano and a basic tomato sauce and I'm set:

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

Two 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

1/4 tsp dried oregano

4 fresh basil leaves, torn up

In a large sauce pan or deep frying pan, brown garlic in olive oil until lightly golden. Add tomatoes, oregano and salt. Bring to boil and reduce, and simmer about 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Five minutes before serving, add the basil leaves.

Today is for some a Day of Prayer, for others a Day of Reason. So, when is the National Day of Pasta?

October 25th.

$200 of food for 30 days?

I usually spend $35-40 a week for food. That does not include eating out. When you are conserving money or on food assistance - eating out is not a good use of your limited resources.

I think the best thing about being on a food budget is to do it well - you end up eating better food, because you can't afford to eat a lot of processes and pre-packaged food.

Typically the first thing I do is figure out how much protein I need for the week. I figure this is the most expensive part of the week, so I figure out how many portions I need - and then I buy what is on sale that week.

Same goes for fruits and vegetables - i buy what is on sale. There is ALWAYS foods in both the meat and produce department that are on sale - never buy at full price if you can avoid it.

I buy white potatoes and sweet potatoes - they are inexpensive and filling. Diced white potatoes are great roasted in the oven with some seasoning and it tastes "gourmet." Make oven fries if you miss fast food French fries.

If root vegetables are on sale that week, (especially in the winter) then I make root vegetable stew. If i have any left over meat - it goes in as well. Some bouillon cubes, root veggies, extra meat and barley makes for a very inexpensive and filling meal and I usually make enough for two days. Since it is mainly left overs and water - it is like getting free meals.

Winter squash are inexpensive and filling.

Do you like rice porridge? (Congee, jook, etc) that is another great way to use up leftover veggies and meat. Congee is good for any meal.

Miss fried foods like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, etc? Then learn how to bread using cheap bread crumbs and egg wash and fry on the stove. It is fast and simple to do.

I don't do a lot of dried beans - as you can get them canned as much the same price. They are good in soups, salads and of course - hummus. All very cheap to put together.

Want something sweet? Buy flour and sugar from the bulk food aisle - and get the recipe for "brownies in a cup" or any of the "cake in a cup" it is just a few ingredients (flour, sugar, oil, water, salt, egg, vanilla extract or cinnamon) and you can whip up an individual serving of cake in the microwave, in a coffee mug in under 2 minutes. The recipes are in on the Internet.

Ramen noodles - buy them when they are on sale and stock up. You don't have to use all the seasoning packet if you don't want to - and add veggies to it. Pasta is very cheap - if not available in the bulk foods aisle, get it from the dollar store. Canned sauce is cheaper than sauce in jars - and spaghetti sauce is only cheap to make when you grow your own tomatoes so just stick to canned sauce. Alternately - make spaghetti with olive oil and garlic (plus a little salt and any dried green herbs you have) for an authentic Italian meal.

Another trick with the Ramen noodles is to save the seasoning packet and put it in the water for white rice. This makes great fried rice the next day, too.

Every town has a bread outlet run by the local bakery - get day old stuff here for less than half of retail - or cheaper! Buy a few loaves at a time and freeze what you aren't going to use right away.

You can do it - it does take some planning, but many people eat on less money that $200 a month.

Another option - unless you have health issues, consider fasting one day out of the week and drink only water that day. It is great for your health and your budget.