One Pot Chili Pasta

Ingredients
* 1 lb. extra lean ground beef
* 1 yellow onion, chopped
* 1 cup each chopped red and yellow peppers
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 2 tbsp chili powder
* 3 cups water
* 1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
* 3 cups wagon wheel pasta, uncooked
* 1/2 cup frozen corn
* 1 cup shredded cheese, your choice on flavor
* green onions, diagonally cut into thin slices (we used 4)

Directions
1. Brown the meat with onions in Dutch oven or deep large nonstick skillet. Add peppers; cook 5 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic and chili powder; cook 1 min.
2. Add water and sauce; stir. Bring to boil. Stir in pasta; cover. Simmer 15 min. or just until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in corn; cook 3 to 4 min. or until heated through.
3. Serve, letting each person top with cheese and green onions.

Notes
My kids love pasta, and I love one pot meals. The fact that the pasta cooks right in with the sauce thereby using one less pot made it a recipe I wanted to test. This was a hit. By no means is this a company worthy meal (unless all your guests are under the age of 10), and it is reminiscent of a Hamburger Helper type meal. I have a hard time with the original recipe name (One pot taco pasta) since it didn't taste like tacos to us. We are calling it One pot chili pasta as that is what it tasted like to us. Maybe for kicks next time we'll replace the chili powder with taco seasoning and see how that goes over!

It calls for extra lean ground beef because you don't drain the meat after you brown it. If you use a higher fat content ground beef, I would suggest you drain it before adding the peppers. You could also try this with ground turkey or ground chicken, and whole grain pasta.