Marinara Melt

While I advocate as much home cooking as possible, there are times when your schedule forces you to take short cuts. During those instances, the time it takes to cook your food takes priority over the ingredients. You can still stay on the low carb path, you just may have to make a few allowances for convenience items.

This recipe takes less than 10 minutes to make and works great on days when a job, appointments and household chores leave you very little cooking time.

Marinara Melt

• 1 jar of Ragu No Sugar Added Tomato and Basil sauce
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 12 oz grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 tsp jarred minced garlic
• 1/4 cup dry parmesan cheese
• Optional: Fresh basil & oregano
• Optional: red pepper flakes

Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. If you are adding fresh herbs, add it to the meat when it is just about finished. Fresh herbs turn bitter when over-cooked. Drain and return to medium heat. Add Ragu and parmesan cheese and stir until it starts to bubble. Top with shredded cheese and cook another minute or two until the cheese melts. Makes approximately 4 servings.

Quick and filling, this recipe goes down great on a cold, rainy day. Serve with butter fried Italian summer squash and sliced onions. If you can manage to slice and cook your side dish while the meat is browning, you can still finish the whole meal in 10 minutes or less.