WFMW: The Five-Ingredients-Or-Less Edition

EDITED to ADD: ONE MORE RECIPE!!! And ... IT COOKS ITSELF!! WOOT!

This is the special Five-Ingredient-Or-Less Edition of Works for me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer! It was hard to keep the recipes under 5 ingredients, so I didn't count salt and pepper as an "ingredient" -- even though technically, it is. Also, I didn't count the pasta as an "ingredient" either ... just use your imagination. Its a shame it wasn't the 6-ingredient-or-less edition!

Also, make sure you take a few moments to check out all the other 5-ingredients-or-less recipes that are being shared over there!!

As a side note: Can you tell which ingredients I love to use the most??

Easy Creamy Pasta Dish

1) 1 Jar of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce
2) Ground Beef
3) 1/4 onion, chopped
4) 1 clove garlic, crushed
5) Cream Cheese

Cooked Angel Hair Pasta

Season ground beef with salt and pepper and brown with onion and garlic. Strain out fat. Return to pan and add spaghetti sauce. Heat thoroughly. Add cream cheese and stir until smooth and creamy. Serve over cooked pasta (Angel Hair spaghetti cooks up within 4 minutes) and top with Parmesan cheese.

Creamy Primavera ("spring style") Pasta

The following recipe is a great way to use up all your garden vegetables -- any combination will do.

1) 2-3 tablespoons butter with a swirl of olive oil
2) 3 cups of chopped vegetables from your garden -- any combination will do (sweet onion, asparagus, carrots, squash, zucchini, tomatoes)
3) 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
4) 2 cup heavy cream
5) 1 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese, additional for topping

Cooked thick spaghetti (tubed pastas don't seem to work as well)

In a large, family-sized pan, heat up the butter and oil. Add the vegetables and cook until almost caramelized (add tender veggies last). Add the cream and simmer until the sauce is just thick enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Add cooked pasta and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, toss to mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with additional Parmesan cheese.

Strawberry-Infused Lemonade

The lemonade is a really pretty corally-color, and has a wonderful flavor to it. The recipe is best when made early enough that you can chill it.

1) 2-1/2 cups of water
2) 5 washed and hulled strawberries (I slice them up)
3) 1-1/2 cups sugar (or 1-3/4 cups, depending on how sweet you like your lemonade)
4) Juice of juice 6 lemons (1 cup and a little extra)
5) 3 cups cold water

In a small saucepan, make a syrup by bringing to a boil the water, strawberries, and sugar; soft-boil for 3 minutes.

In the mean time, combine the lemon juice, and 3 additional cups of water. Stir well. Add your strawberry syrup (at this point, you can choose to either leave the strawberries in or remove them).

Taste (remember that it will be hot) to make sure it's sufficiently sweet (if not, add more sugar), or if it's overly sweet (if so, add more water or lemon juice). Cool in refrigerator ... unless you're too anxious to wait, pour over a lot of ice. If you can stand the wait, chill for several hours before serving. It is even better the next day.

I forgot to include this recipe, and when I put my name on the Mister Linky, I typed in 4 recipes, but when I went to get my link, I only saw 3 recipes -- it didn't compute in my poor old brain until AFTER I published my link.

Anyway, while this may sound like an odd concoction, it really works, and tastes fabulous together.

Slow-cooked Roast

1) 1 Beef Round Eye Round Roast
2) 1 envelope dry Good Season's Italian Dressing Mix
3) 1 envelope dry Ranch Dressing Mix
4) 1 envelope dry Mushroom Gravy Mix
5) 1-1/2 cups water

In a medium sized bowl, mix all dry mixes together. Rub all over beef roast. Place roast in crock pot and pour reminder dry ingredients all over roast and around roast.

Pour water around roast, being careful to not let it pour over roast.

Cook for 8 hours, turning roast once.

Thicken juices for gravy (taste first ... may need to be diluted a bit so it doesn't taste too strong).