Lazy One-Pot Pinoy Pasta

"Too lazy to cook that full course dinner? Too lazy to go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for that red pasta dish that you've been craving for? Or maybe you have few of the ingredients to cook that pasta? Well my friend, you are up for a delicious and hearty dinner."

For tonight's pasta, you would only need few ingredients to cook it. From watching a lot of videos about saving and cooking tips, I've learned that it is so much easier (if going to the market is an issue, which for me is often times an issue: just too lazy for the commute and generally too impatient to spend my weekend hours waiting in line to pay for my groceries) to pantry-shop or to check for any available ingredients in your own pantry and cook something out of them. Clever idea, right? I thought so.

So, I found the following ingredients in my pantry and fridge:

• 1 bag of shell pasta (not really going to use the whole bag, unless I have friends coming over)

• approximately 6 tablespoonfuls of sautéed ground beef

• 2 pieces of red longganisa

• 1 pack of tomato paste

• 1/2 bar of cheddar cheese

• several pieces of ripe tomatoes

Also in this recipe, I used (or sometimes your choice if you want to include them) the following:

• 1.5 cup of water

• 1 large chopped onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 teaspoonful of olive oil

• black pepper, chili powder, and salt to taste

In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic. Once your desired color of the onion and garlic has been achieved, add the ground beef and longganisa (remove the skin). Make sure that the meat is not clumpy. Any of the two, ground beef or longganisa, will do but if you want to stick with the Pinoy theme, longganisa is the perfect choice. In my pasta, I just included the ground beef since I wanted to use it already and didn't want to see it anymore in my fridge.

Once the longganisa started caramelizing, I added the sliced tomatoes, 1 tablespoonful of tomato paste, a cup of shell pasta, and water. I cooked the mixture on high heat until I saw bubbles popping on the surface.

I added black pepper, chili powder, and salt to taste. Also, you may add whatever amount of cheese you want in your pasta. I stirred the mixture occasionally until the sauce achieved my desired thickness.

#BetterTasteTip: Three days is the maximum length of time this pasta will be able to keep its taste if you'll be keeping the extra servings in the fridge.

Feeling My Oats

"A jar of overnight oats is what I want whenever hunger strikes even in the middle of the night."

I decided to have overnight oats in my refrigerator since I started to crave for something in the middle of the night. Yeah! I'm in that point of my life now where I have to eat whenever I feel like eating. I started with the recipes available on Pinterest. My go-to flavors are peanut butter, honey-banana, and fruit delight.

I always use the no-cook oats. I find the flavored oats more appetizing compared to the unflavored one. I usually buy banana flavored whenever I go to the supermarket. It goes well with my three go-to flavors.

I always fill one-third of my jar with oats and add milk until the oats are fully submerged. After that, I fill the second one-third with Greek yogurt and top it with whatever flavor I want to have.

My number one choice for toppings is peanut butter specially for Sunday mornings. I usually wake up late on Sundays so it's a really good energy booster to start my chill day. I sometimes have this one in my bag during my badminton games on Sunday afternoons for a quick fill and energy boost during break-times.

Honey-banana is what I always make for midnight cravings after at least a game-day of six hours. It's an easy fix. I just top my oats-milk-yogurt base with sliced ripe bananas and drizzle them with honey. When I started this every Sunday night, my cramps incidents started to lessen and eventually went away.

Every morning of weekdays is a fruit delight morning for me. I just love that refreshing feeling that comes with different fruits in my breakfast. Watermelon, mango, and avocado are my go-to fruits for this recipe.

#BetterTasteTip: Shake your oats in a blender for four seconds for that level up overnight oats experience. Blending it just elevates the taste and the overall experience.