Here are my ingredients for the tomato basil sauce. 

I threw in my leftover food and sliced some mushrooms and crabmeat. (Two of my favourite food lol)

A personal tip that my mother-in-law taught me was to pre-soak (I did it before I headed to yoga) the pasta in water first before I cook them in boiling water. This retains the flavor of the penne and makes it much 'chewier' as apposed to throwing raw penne in and cooking them. This cuts the cooking time and it does not over cook easily. Great if you are like me .. a klutz in the kitchen! 

I would love to make my own pasta sauce one day but since the Naturel goody bag has pasta sauce, I used the ready-made version instead. This one is with Basil and I like that its not as salty as the non-organic versions in the supermarket. It has a rather light taste and its not high in sodium.  

First you boil some water in a pot and once that is ready, throw in your pre-soaked Penne.

Takes about all of 3 mins to cook fully (Taste some first!) and its ready to be drained.

Pour into bowl and set aside

Another tip that I've picked up is to add a very small amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the pasta so that it does not 'stick' together. The olive oil keeps the Penne from drying up too and it imparts a light fragrance to the pasta. I like it this way :)

Mix it well 

Now you prepare your sauce by heating a small amount of olive oil in your pot

I add my the pork first, followed by the rest of my ingredients 

(Note : My corn is pre-cooked.)

What you want is to make sure that the minced pork is half cooked (or 3/4 cooked, lol ~ doesnt matter) before you add the sauce in.

Open the jar of tomato sauce and add it into the pot

You need to stir the mixture and leave it to shimmer a bit before its ready.

And there you have it! 

I love this for the breezy cooking method and I get to use up all the leftover food in the fridge! Lol. 

And I really think that this beats eating out - anytime. 

Hope you are inspired to do some cooking at home too! 

xoxo

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 

- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own