We eat that and it's a family favorite too.  My mom always made it with packets of the sloppy joe mix from McCormick for seasoning, not adding extra onions and peppers etc.  Now, I just toss in spices, and usually do my own peppers and onions because the packets of mix have too much salt, but I have some for emergency use too!  (we never put in celery and I still don't) 

We called it beef-a-roni, which is a copyright violation I'm sure so don't tell anyone!  We also use the little spiral pastas because they hold more sauce as mamawolf says, but elbows are fine… actually, lately I've been using the bow-ties a lot because I like the Barilla "Plus" pasta because it's a little lower in carbs, and that's good for my father. 

Someone said that things like that are all gimmicks, but I take every bit of moderate fat, low carb, high fiber, low sodium, lower sugar things I can find to use so that when he wants to indulge a bit on things that are important to him and he wants to indulge in something, I can have a little better feeling about it.  It really bugs me that so many healthy things are so expensive!  Food industry just wants to have us all willing to pay top $$ to eat additives and chemicals and fat, sugar and salt.  I'm so glad he appreciates good veggies and my healthier cooking with extra herbs instead of salt and msg.

Oh my!     I really got on my soap box didn't I?     Sorry!  

Today is John's birthday and he could have anything he wanted!  He wanted a roast, potatoes and carrots. He's not into sweets at all  so he didn't even want a cake or dessert. Too easy!