Mighty Fine Macaroni: Easy to Make Meal My Kid's Love to Eat

An easy to make macaroni dinner kids and grown-ups alike love to eat!

My better half and I have two children. We urge them to practice good eating habits. They have diverse tastes in food so the challenge is preparing a healthy meal they both like to eat.

Generally what happens is one of the kids will like the dinner I prepare and the other will decline to eat it.

Thankfully, there are a few healthy meals they can both agree on. One of them is this Mighty Fine Macaroni dish.

The fennel, barbecue sauce, and sweet apple flavor, taste so great with the cooked ground pork.

And, the whole dish can be made in one pot. Makes it simple.

What's more, melted Cheddar on top makes it look extra good - the kids can't resist!

---

Mighty Fine Macaroni
(recipe from The Cook-a-Palooza Experience cookbook)

---

PRINT FRIENDLY VERSION

Makes: 4 servings

Hands-on Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz (227 g) uncooked elbow macaroni (about 2 cups)
• ½ lb (227 g) lean ground pork
• ½ cup diced onions
• 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp fennel seed, crushed
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• ½ cup apple juice
• 1 cup thawed frozen peas
• ¼ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup (packed) shredded cheese (1 oz / 28g)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large cooking pot, cook macaroni according to package directions. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water before draining pasta in a colander. Set aside.

2. In the same pot you used to cook the pasta, cook pork, onions and red peppers over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink. Reduce heat to low and add barbecue sauce, garlic, fennel and red pepper flakes to pot. Cook and stir for one minute more. Add apple juice and reserved cooking water. Stir.

3. Stir in cooked pasta and peas. Season with salt and pepper. Remove pot from heat, sprinkle cheese on top, and cover pot with lid. Wait 3 minutes to allow the cheese to melt. Serve.

Pin Recipe For Later

---

Weekly Updates

Keep up to date about the latest ways to get healthy homemade dinners on your plate each week. It's free!

---

Brent Garell is the author of The Cook-a-Palooza Experience and 15-Minute Money Saving Meals for Students. When he is not enjoying the outdoors, he is on the look-out for simple #mealprep solutions to fit healthy and responsible meals into his family's busy schedule. Let's see what works!

| Get the Newsletter | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube