From My Stovetop to Yours

Today I bring you another weekly staple from our household and another wonderful Weight Watchers recipe.

Whole Wheat Chili Mac
Serves 6
Weight Watchers PointsPlus Value: 4

Ingredients:

12 oz uncooked lean ground beef (with 7% fat)

1 medium onion, chopped

14.5 oz canned stewed tomatoes, Mexican-style, undrained

1 1/4 cup(s) canned tomato sauce

2 Tbsp canned green chili peppers, diced, drained

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 cup(s) dry whole-wheat elbow macaroni

15 oz canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Instructions:

In a large skillet, cook beef and onion until meat is browned, about 10 minutes; drain off fat. Stir in undrained stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili peppers, chili powder and cumin; bring to a boil.

Stir in uncooked macaroni and kidney beans. Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until macaroni is tender, about 15 minutes. Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.

The Fabulous Way

Instead of using whole wheat macaroni noodles, we use whole wheat rotini. We also switched out the chili peppers for jalepeno peppers--it gives it a bit of an extra kick (if you are prone to heartburn, stick with the chili peppers!) I also don't bother measuring out the tomato sauce and just use the entire can since it is only an extra 1/4 cup and it helps keep the mixture a bit more moist. I also only reduce the heat to medium, because otherwise the noodles don't cook all the way through. But keeping it on a higher heat requires you to stir every few minutes so it doesn't start to stick. It took me a couple of times to perfect this recipe but I suppose that is the joy of cooking: taking someone else's recipe and making it your own :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Thanks to Weight Watchers for the picture!