I made this Beefy Penne Pasta recipe last night and it was SO yummy! It’s an Italian style recipe that is simple to make, it tastes delicious, and it is filling! You’ll love it.
Recipes with ingredients you can find at Aldi.
Sarah and I were talking, a few weeks back, about doing some recipes that would require only ingredients that you can find at Aldi and then creating a meal plan that would allow you to do all your shopping for the week at Aldi. As much as I love Aldi for their great food at low prices, I have found that there are week’s when they do not have all the ingredients I need so I end up having to go to another grocery store too. It’s not a problem. I like Aldi enough that I don’t mind really, but it would be nice to have one week where I know all the groceries I need can be found in one place. This recipe is a “You-can-get-these-ingredients-at-Aldi” recipe.
Here is what you need:
1 cup uncooked penne pasta
1 lb. 95% lean ground beef
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) beef broth
1-1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Here is what you do:
Cook pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven or a large pot, cook beef over medium heat until meat is no longer pink.
Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
Stir in the tomato paste, tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Add spinach; cook for 1-2 minutes or until spinach is wilted.
Drain pasta and stir into the beef mixture.
Scoop one cup of the penne mixture into your serving bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the cheese over each bowl and allow to melt.
… and DIG IN!!
This recipe makes 6 (1 cup penne beef mixture with 2 tbsp. cheese) servings.
One serving is 6 Green, 6 Blue, 6 Purple points.
- 1 cup uncooked penne pasta
- 1 lb. 95% lean ground beef
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
- 1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes
- 1 can (14-1/2 oz.) beef broth
- 1-1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 2 cups chopped fresh spinach
- 3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven or a large pot, cook beef over medium heat until meat is no longer pink.
- Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste, tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
- Add spinach; cook for 1-2 minutes or until spinach is wilted.
- Drain pasta and stir into the beef mixture.
- Scoop one cup of the penne mixture into your serving bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the cheese over each bowl and allow to melt.
This recipe was inspired by a Taste of Home recipe.
Some of the links in the post above may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”*MyWW® points calculated by Meal Planning Mommies; Not endorsed by MyWW (formerly Weight Watchers and WW). All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. MyWW® green, blue, and purple values calculated without WW Zero Points foods using the WW Recipe Builder.
Just made this for lunch and it was sooooo delicious. I have only just begun weight watchers so I’m still learning about the program. I just wanted to tell you all thank you for this website. I can tell already that I’m going to rely heavily on it. I don’t know why you do this (paycheck? just want to help people like me? hobby?) but I’m super grateful for what I’m seeing on this website. If I succeed at this I will most definitely know that it has as much to do with MPM as it does WW. I know I’m gushing but seriously – I have 7 kids five of whom I homeschool and I have serious struggles with planning and making time for things like this. THANK YOU!
Hi Michelle, Welcome to the Weight Watcher family. Sarah also home schools and she has 4 daughters. I know it can be very challenging to juggle it all. Money was the big incentive initially and I suppose it still is, but it also has become a hobby that I enjoy. Thanks for your enthusiasm for what we are doing. It certainly is much more rewarding when we hear from our readers that something we shared was helpful so thanks for the feedback.
I know this is my second comment and if you don’t have time to help, I completely understand. I entered the ingredients in “my fitness pal” (making sure everything was the right nutrition facts) and I used the nutrition information from that and entered it in the WW app calculator. The calculator gave it a point value of 7. I noticed that the title of this recipe in the URL says it has 6 points. ( hearty-penne-beef-6-ww-smart-points).
What am I doing wrong? My first meeting is Wednesday, so hopefully I’ll understand better after I meet with them..
Good question. I am thinking we are using two different calculators. Allow me to explain… There is a calculator on the WW app that allows you to plug in the nutrition facts to get the # of smart points a food is. There is also an option to do a search for a food and get the number of points. Fruits and veges are zero points (which you are probably already aware of). Weight Watchers also has a recipe builder that takes in account that fruits and vegetables are zero points in a recipe. When using the recipe builder you enter in each ingredient and the # of servings of the recipe and it gives you the number of smart points per serving. I am thinking maybe you are using the nutrition facts calculator and I am using the recipe builder calculator. Weight Watchers suggests using the recipe builder when doing a recipe so I try to use that when sharing a recipe. Hope this helps.
Thank you! It does help. 🙂
Thanks, this website is very practical.
I used the recipe builder and it came out to 8 sp.
Hi Leigh, I double checked each ingredient listed in this recipe in my recipe builder and it said 6 WW SP per serving. The amount of tomato paste was off on mine originally, but I am still not getting 8 SP. I’m not sure where the discrepancy would be. I am sorry I can’t be more help.