Pasta with Meat Sauce & Ricotta

I really enjoy making my own pasta sauce. It is great to control the ingredients and its seriously easy. Plus I like a really chunky sauce, and you just don't get that in a jar. This dinner is possibly the healthiest pasta with meat sauce ever - grass fed organic ground beef, whole wheat pasta, etc.

Meat Sauce

1 lb ground beef - the leanest you can find.

1 can diced tomatoes

Spices: oregano, basil, salt, pepper and red pepper flake

2 cups whole wheat pasta - I used penne

1/2 cup fat free ricotta cheese

While the water is boiling for the pasta, add the ground beef to a separate sauce pan. Cook and stir the meat so it cooks thoroughly and breaks apart into chunks. Once the meat is cooked, remove from pan and drain on paper towel. Add the whole wheat pasta to the boiling water and cook until done (8 minutes or so). With the pasta cooking, add the tomatoes to the sauce pan (after you wipe the pan with paper towel too), and add the drained meat too. Add all the spices to the sauce pan and just let it cook over medium low heat for about 15 minutes. Drain the pasta, top with sauce and a tablespoon full of ricotta cheese. Add some parmesan too if you'd like.

I served the pasta with a side of cooked baby carrots. You can't really ever get enough Vitamin A!

Calories in my portion: 330