Aunty Conny's Spaghetti

This recipe has a kind of cult following within my family. My Mum started making it for us when I was maybe 8 years old, and she got the recipe off our Aunty Conny, hence the name! It is just a basic pasta recipe, and although it wouldn't win many awards for how it looks, it is an easy mid-week meal, or quick enough to put together instead of resorting to junk food. I consider it to be a fairly cheap meal, and it's handy because all the ingredients are what I consider pantry staples.

It is great to stretch over two nights (though I would add a bit more mince and pasta), and it tastes even better the second time round. It also goes well frozen, just make sure you reheat it thoroughly.

My little family of four (2 adults, one finicky nearly-6-year-old and a ravenous 2 year old) generally eat it as it is, with crusty bread and butter on the side, but it is also great with a fresh salad, or even some hot veges along side it, for more of a vitamin fix and to ensure more left-overs.

Ingredients:

300 grams, give or take, beef mince - the best quality you can afford
1 large onion, diced
1 packet of dry chicken noodle soup
1 tin of diced or whole tomatoes
1 tin of condensed tomato soup
About 2 cups of uncooked pasta - we use either small spirals or penne (I prefer the spirals)

Method: 
Brown your mince in a large frying pan (the deepest one you have!), breaking it up as you go, and while it's doing it's thing, throw on some water to cook your pasta.

Once the mince is cooked through, add the onion. Once the onion has softened, sprinkle over the dry chicken noodle soup, and mix the mince/onion/soup all together. Add the tomatoes and the tomato soup. If you've got the whole tinned tomatoes, use a spoon to break them up into bite-size pieces. I also always rinse the cans out with a little water and add the liquid to the pan and mix it through.

Let the sauce simmer away while you cook the pasta, usually about 10 minutes in the boiling water. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and mix it through the sauce.

You can leave this all simmering if you're waiting for someone to arrive home, or for the table to be set, or for the kids to calm down and let you serve dinner. Just make sure you give it a stir every few minutes, and keep the heat down low, or it will potentially stick to the bottom of the pan and dry out a little.

Notes: My family would eat this as it is, but if you're feeling fancy you can add some herbs to jazz it up. (I've done that on the odd occasion and for me it didn't taste quite 'right', but please yourself!) The quantities I have listed would do us a pretty filling dinner, with enough left over for Anthony and the girls to have for lunch the next day.