Spaghetti Sunday

Time for some comfy food once again! Pasta Sunday is the best that I can think of. I did prepare easy spaghetti for today’s dinner and this time, I did not include any mushroom, just plain minced beef, spaghetti sauce (not from can) of course and some grated cheese.

Spaghetti and Buttered Bread


please bear with me since I am just using a mobile cam here, soon I will have our new digicam!


I was just disappointed that I cannot take a snap of what I cooked because our cam got drenched in the rain and I am patiently waiting to get our new cam which hubby was able to purchase online but of course the delivery would take 4-7 business days.

Okay, going back to the spaghetti preparation, I also did not like the cheese that I bought. It was so soft like a quick melt cheese and it was difficult for me to grate because it was sticking in the grater, yucks! But I am just thankful to have a cheese at least since I really needed to taste spaghetti and I have checked my blog that I haven’t included spaghetti yet, maybe other pasta that I have prepared like penne arabiata and some pesto, but not yet this easy to make spaghetti.

Here is what you needed for quick spaghetti:

Onion (chopped)
Garlic (chopped)
Tomato sauce
Ketchup (sweet and spicy)
Brown sugar
Minced beef (1/4 kilo)
Spaghetti pasta
Salt
Ground black pepper
Oil
Water
Cheese

How to Cook Spaghetti pasta:

Step 1: Boil water for the pasta. Cook your pasta according to the instruction given at the back label. The pasta I have says 13 minutes to be cooked, so I followed it. Some brands are okay with 8-10 minutes, so just follow the instruction. You can definitely now when your pasta is aldente. Once your pasta is done, put it on a colander and drain the water off. Wash it with cold running water and set it aside.

Step 2: On a separate pan, put the minced beef with little amount of water and sprinkle some salt. Be sure that the water drains and the minced beef is almost dry before putting oil into the pan. Once you have put oil, you can now fry the minced beef into medium flame and then sauté it with chopped garlic and onions.

Step 3: After sautéing, you can now put the tomato sauce and ketchup and put ample amount of water into it as well as the right amount of sugar. Put into boil for 3-5 minutes and taste your sauce. You can sprinkle some ground black pepper into it with salt if you wanted to.

Step 4: You can now combine the pasta and the sauce you made and grate some cheddar cheese or whatever type of cheese you want for your spaghetti. Serve with toasted garlic bread or bread with butter.

Penne Arrabiata

I got interested in trying this pasta recipe because it was so simple to make and it does not need a lot of ingredients. I prepared it for only 5 minutes of course not inclusive on how I cooked the penne pasta. Penne Arrabiata is an Italian dish and Arrabiata means “angry” because in this recipe you would need to put chili to make it spicy.
If you are not fond of spicy foods then this recipe will not be included in your list. However if your tongue wants to venture out about something chili yet delicious; then you should try this wonderful recipe.
What I used for this recipe are two pieces of medium size fresh tomatoes. I don’t have tomato puree at home or any tomato sauce so I just used the blender to crush and make tomato sauce. It was really delicious and tempting once you see how the color changes in cooking penne Arrabiata. You can try tomato ketchup if you like it sweet and sour and kinda tangy. This recipe is really good to pair or match with garlic bread and fried chicken. You can also try it together with pizza, ohh now I’m feeling hungry again. Here is the instruction on how to cook Penne Arrabiata.
Ingredients for Penne Arrabiata:
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (or you can use any vegetable oil)
1 bird’s eye chili (red/ chopped)
Tomato sauce or tomato puree
200 grams of penne pasta (good for two people)
Coriander leaves (for garnishing)
Grated cheese (any hard cheese will do if you don’t have parmesan or pecorino-romano cheese)
Salt (to taste)

Preparations and Method for Cooking Penne Arrabiata:

On a pot you have to boil the penne pasta and make it aldente. For best result, just follow what is on the packet on what you bought. It does mention how many minutes that you have to boil the pasta. It can be from 9-15 minutes depending on the brand. Be sure to add a bit of salt to your water and a few drops of oil too. Once your penne pasta is ready, keep it aside.

My delicious Penne Arrabiata Pasta


On a heated pan put the olive oil and sauté the garlic and the bird’s eye chili which is chopped into smaller rings. Once it is done you can now add the sauce. Simmer the tomato sauce in minutes to blend the spicy taste of the chili and then put some salt. After this you can now put the penne pasta that you have already cooked earlier and then stir well. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and grated cheese for finishing touches. You can now enjoy your Spicy Penne Arrabiata Pasta. Best serve with any toasted garlic bread and pizza or whatever food that you like.

I am sure that you will like this recipe and it’s good for mommies who are always busy and does not have much time to cook food. You can also experiment with this recipe by putting Spanish sausage depending on availability of course. Enjoy cooking and eating!

Pizza, Pasta and Iced Tea at Shakeys Restaurant

We went to SM Mall of Asia last week since this was the first time that we spend a vacation with my mom-in-law. We stroll along Manila Bay View of SM MOA and enjoyed the sunset. We also played bowling because we changed our mind on ice skating spree since time is not enough for us.
Now when we got tired, it was time to go to our favorite hang-out restaurant which is Shakeys. One thing that I can say is that I like pizza and pasta and having this at Shakeys was really one of the best deals in town because the offer was cheaper but the quality was really great.
Well to start, we waited for our turn to be seated inside since I won’t enjoy eating outside with all the smokers puffing their cigarettes. It took around 5 to 10 minutes to be seated that time and once we were seated, we were given the menu and we selected Shakeys Family Deal No. 1 since it was good for 3-4 persons. This menu includes:
Spaghetti Platter or Solo Pack Chick and chips (3 pcs. shakeys flavorful chicken)
Large thin crust (Managers choice*)
1 pitcher of House Blend Iced Tea
This Isn't Beer, its Blended Iced Tea

What we ordered was Carbonara instead of Spaghetti. The large thin crust of Manager’s choice was just fine although we should have opted for another one but I was so tired to ask if that was possible. The pitcher of Iced tea was great although we were aiming to change it for another but they said they don’t have an upgrade for that kind of order so we just settled for that selection.
Almost finish, good thing I clicked some

The price for our order was just P545 exclusive of 12% vat of course. So you just need to add that tax and you already know how much did we pay for our order. I have nothing against the taste of our orders. The pizza was really crunchy and the mozzarella cheese was really tempting. Every bite is really memorable since we don’t enjoy this kind of Pizza in India. Sorry guys but this was just my personal opinion. I will never have the same pizza experience like this whenever I am in India. So again, the Iced tea blend was enjoyable as well but tasting much of lemonade rather than the tea.
Thin Crust Pizza

I am sure that my mother-in-law had experience eating Italian dishes for the first time since her tongue can always taste for masala and hot spices of India. But this time, it was Italian menu and I hope she did enjoy what we ate.
Isn't it Yummy!