Name: Pasta with Sherry-Mushroom Meat Sauce {21 Day Fix}
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 1 cup chopped shallots (or if you want this to be even quicker, use some pre-chopped onions from the produce section!); 1 (8 oz) package of sliced white mushrooms; 3/8th tsp salt, divided; black pepper, to taste; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 1 lb lean ground beef; 2 Tbs + 1/4 cup sherry wine, divided (NOT cooking sherry! I recommend Taylor brand); 2 Tbs fresh thyme, divided (or 2 tsp of dried thyme, divided); 1 tsp oregano; 1 (15 oz) can tomato puree; 1 (15 oz) can petite diced tomatoes, drained; 4 cups of cooked whole wheat penne pasta (or whatever whole wheat pasta you like!)

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This quick and easy 21 Day Fix Pasta with Sherry-Mushroom Meat Sauce really brings the flavor with shallots, fresh thyme and a splash of sherry. A perfect weeknight meal!

Hey guys! How are you?! I’m pretty good aside from coming down with a ridiculously rotten cold. You know the one. The kind where your whole body aches and you get winded just walking to the bathroom. It’s the WORST.

On the bright side, I have a crap ton (that’s metric) of Instant Pot* Lemon Chicken Noodle in the fridge that I tested the other day and it’s basically saving my life. It’s really delicious and I can’t wait to share it with you guys! It’s also my very first Instant Pot recipe on the blog and I’m pretty pumped about that. We’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship, my Instant Pot and me, but I’ll tell you all about that in my next post.

Back to the task at hand! So ya know what I love about pasta? It’s almost hard to make a pasta dish that takes longer than a half an hour or so. I can’t tell you how many times it’s kept us from picking up a pizza on a busy weeknight.

I don’t know about you, but most of the time that we need ground meat for something, like meatloaf, meatballs or lasagna rolls, we almost always use lean and mean ground turkey, but it’s really nice to switch it up sometimes for lean ground beef instead. Also, there’s something about the flavor of ground beef that just goes so well with sherry. It really is the sherry that makes this simple recipe shine, so I hope you don’t skip it! Worried about about the wine with the kiddos? Most of the sherry gets stirred in at the very end, s0 you can always dish their portions out before adding it 🙂

Hope you guys love this easy weeknight meal as much as my family does!

*An Instant Pot is basically an electric pressure cooker, that has some other awesome functions like rice-cooker and yogurt-maker, etc.. It’s another great way to keep from picking up a pizza on a weeknight because it cooks things so much faster than they would take in the oven. Here’s my affiliate link to the Instant Pot that I have if you want to check it out!: Instant Pot 6Qt Duo

If you make this recipe be sure to snap a pic and tag me @thefoodieandthefix or use #thefoodieandthefix on Instagram so I can check it out! It makes me ridiculously happy to see what you guys are making 🙂

Pasta with Sherry-Mushroom Meat Sauce {21 Day Fix}

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup chopped shallots (or if you want this to be even quicker, use some pre-chopped onions from the produce section!)
1 (8 oz) package of sliced white mushrooms
3/8th tsp salt, divided
black pepper, to taste
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb lean ground beef
2 Tbs + 1/4 cup sherry wine, divided (NOT cooking sherry! I recommend Taylor brand)
2 Tbs fresh thyme, divided (or 2 tsp of dried thyme, divided)
1 tsp oregano
1 (15 oz) can tomato puree
1 (15 oz) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups of cooked whole wheat penne pasta (or whatever whole wheat pasta you like!)

Instructions

Spray a large saute pan with olive oil or coconut oil cooking spray and heat to medium heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan, seasoning with 1/8th tsp salt, 1 Tbs of fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried) and as much pepper as you like. Saute until the shallots have softened. Add the minced garlic, cook for 1 more minute or so to cook the garlic.
Deglaze the pan with 2 Tablespoons of the sherry, cook for another minute, then push the veggies to one side of the pan and add the ground beef in the empty area (this is just so that you can break up the meat as it cooks without breaking up the mushrooms - if your pan is too small, just remove the veggies before you cook the meat). Season everything in the pan with another 1/8th tsp salt, the remaining 1 Tbs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried) and the oregano and continue cooking until the beef is cooked through. Add the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes, the last 1/8th tsp of salt and stir everything together. Let simmer for a few minutes, stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of sherry and the pasta, and double check seasonings (you may want to add more pepper and thyme to taste). Serve!