Monday, December 21, 2009

Johnny Mazzetti Recipe

There are about as many recipes for Johnny Mazzetti as there are people cooking it. Growing up, the recipe was elbow pasta, ground pork, green peppers, onions, black pepper, Parmesan cheese and tomato soup.

Mine is different, since ground pork is usually over $2 per pound and tomato soup has corn syrup.

I make the sauce from

12 ounces cooked pork shoulder - $1.20
1 can, 28 ounces, tomato puree - $1.08
1 pound peppers and onions, chopped - $1.00
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped - $0.14
1 tablespoon black pepper - $0.03

Stir in

whole wheat pasta - $0.24

For the peppers and onions I will do one of two things. I can get a bag of peppers and onions chopped and frozen for $1 per pound. They have green, yellow and red peppers. It is a variation of my mom's recipe, but it is still good. Or, if I can find green peppers for under $1.60 per pound, I will buy large ones. One large pepper and one large onion bring the average cost for the produce to just under $1 per pound, so it still fits into my produce rule. If the price is good enough, I buy several and chop them and freeze them for this meal. It tastes more like home with the green peppers.

26 comments:

Lindsay said...

Color makes all the difference in the pictures of your meals. I am starting to love the whole color thing. Thanks for sharing!

vm said...

Are you concerned at all about the BPA leaching from canned tomatoes? How do you balance that concern with frugalism?

Amy@TheCircusMcGurkus.blogspot.com said...

It amazes me that you can feed your family for less than $3. I'm going to have to start breaking down the costs of my meals to see how much they actually are.

Amy @ thecircusmcgurkus.blogspot.com

Emily said...

vm, I am concerned about BPA, but there is little I can do about it. The cheapest tomatoes I can find are $1.19/lb, so I replace some canned tomatoes with fresh, but not all. I'm going to try to grow a large tomato crop this year.

Sam said...

Does the advertisement have to be in the header or would BlogHer let you move it to the upper part of one of the side bars? It takes away from the flow of the blog, makes it look interrupted if that makes any sense. I love the never background though - super cute!

crabcakes said...

Emily,

That looks yummy! I'm concerned about BPA too but sometimes I just have to "give" a little. I avoid chemicals in so many other foods that once in a while I'll use my Pastene cans.


(PS I don't like the format with the ad right at the top, it's off putting)

Rachel said...

I have never heard of Johnny Mazetti before. It looks easy to make, I might try it.

Emily said...

Sam and crabcakes, BlogHer lets me put the ads where ever I want as long as they are at the top (they have guidelines of where), but I thought it was such a waste of space to just have a header up top. They have banner ads, but those would push down the post and sidebars. I understand what you mean about it looking interrupted. I think ads in general make the blog look interrupted, but I guess it is a trade off. I'm going to try a few other spots and think it over.

Anonymous said...

Emily - You know how cans are lined with that white stuff? That is BPA. If your cans don't have that - don't worry.

Also, I love love LOVE the color...but sincerely hate the ads. The one on top especially because it kept expanding and covering your pretty header.

And occasionally you have ones that pop up that you need to x out of before reading...it's annoying.

I know, I know. It's your blog...but if you don't care about the money, then why not delete or at least minimize the ads? Or, maybe I should just keep my trap shut and start subscribing through reader, eh? :P

Anonymous said...

I agree with Athiest Mama... the ads are really distracting (esp the one at the top), and take away from the quality infomation in your blog.
-Mandy

Amber said...

Quite frankly I'm happy for every penny that Emily gets and I wouldn't dream of complaining about a few ads. Just scroll down and read what she has to say... if you truly appreciate her blog then the ads won't bother you.

Emily said...

Thank you Amber. Now I feel bad about any snark I have sent your way. (:

As I said, I want this to be a resource, so I am working on making the ads less intrusive. I'ts definitely work, especialy knowing that people can see my mistakes as I make them.

I am thankful for all of the continued feedback. I am still working on it...

crabcakes said...

"if you truly appreciate her blog then the ads won't bother you."

-With all due respect Amber, I do appreciate her blog but that one placement of the ad bothered me enough to make it difficult to continue reading. I have vision problems that maybe others don't have to deal with.

Offering an opinion on placement of an ad in no way is indicative of one's level of appreciation. My appreciation is "true" Emily, regardless of my feeling about one detail on your blog. I hope you'll not let someone else define how much I appreciate your blog.

Atheist Mama, thanks for that tip! Pastene Kitchen ready does not have a white lining so I'll happily keep using them. When they go on sale for .77 I buy two cases. Nothing makes red sauce like Kitchen Ready.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know, I am not particularly interested in what ads you have on here, I will read either way. However, I do like the look of them on the right side that you have right now :-)

Unknown said...

The only thing the ads do is take lots of time for my pages to load . My computer is dial up and has hardly any RAM left on it , so the ads make it not want to pull up at all. How do you use a reader?

Emily said...

Lisa, click on the big orange button right below the FAQ picture, it will take you to my feed, which will have the posts on an white page. You can read my blog in that feed instead of coming to the site. I'd rather peopel read in a reader than not read at all. (:

Liz said...

Thanks for sharing this recipe! I have not heard of it but we are going to try it soon. Thanks to your blog I have been paying more attention to total meal cost and have been able to further cut our food budget. Please keep sharing meals they do help.

Anonymous said...

I sit next to my husband at dinner and it is very common for us to add up the cost of dinner. We usually come in around $6 or $7 for the 10 of us. I always plan the super low cost meals for when daddy has to work through dinner. We had pancakes/sausage/oranges for dinner tonight. We will have a macaroni/chicken casserole tomorrow and Wednesday when daddy is home will be a pot roast.

Arden
mom to 8

Lori said...

I really like the new format. Kudos.

Rachel in Fl said...

I am Rachel in florida, and like Rachel and others above, i have never heard of Johnny Mazettie. It sounds really good though. I found a recipe for crabcakes that I want to make. I intended to use real crabmeat, but when I saw that a small container was $14.99, I went with the imitation!

Anonymous said...

Is this the same as Johnny MARzetti or is this a different recipe? I don't eat tomatoes, so I don't know on site, but I have heard of Johnny Marzetti, but not Johnny Mazetti. I was wondering if they are 2 different meals?

Anonymous said...

Get over the ads people! Man, do people love to complain about small stuff.

Anonymous said...

Emily I am curious about something. If you continue to have children at the rate you have so far how will you feed them in a few years when there ar emore of you, and bigger eaters?

Emily said...

Anon, it is the same as Johnny MARzetti, but my parents never pronounced it with an "r" so I didn't know it had an "r" until yesterday (after I published) when I did a search to see how other people made it.

Hopewell said...

Where do you get whole wheat pasta for 24cents--or is this your homemade noodles? If store bought you'd get about 3 pieces of pasta per person!! lol... Like your post on Santa, by the way!

Anonymous said...

Not all tomato soup has corn syrup...you can get a decent deal on the kind in a box (I think it may be campbells) and sometimes I get a pretty good deal on an organic kind....might not fit into your budget rules but just thought I'd add.
MG

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