Macaroni May #2

Last week I set the bar at 20:55 for preparing a quick meal. This week I made a better meal and I beat that time, barely.

Sausage Spaghetti and Broccoli
One jar spaghetti sauce
Some sort of pasta
One pound of sausage
Broccoli
I won't insult anyone's cooking ability by explaining how to cook this meal. If you've managed to keep your kids alive then you can handle it without my help. 
Simple spaghetti is nothing more than noodles and a jar of sauce. It's not bad, but adding meat to it makes it taste better and it makes it a more complete meal by adding a protein source. Ground beef is traditional, but sausage is better. I use a turkey breakfast sausage because my kids don't like things that are too spicy, but I think Italian sausage is best. You can brown it in a pan in less time than it takes to cook noodles. For veggies, I steamed broccoli. You can cut the heads up while the water heats and it too is done before the noodles. In fact, the noodles are the slowest part of this whole operation and nearly caused me to miss my mark. I finished the meal in a terrifyingly close 20:44. I think I need to switch pasta types next week if I really want to bring my times down. Some sort of thin spaghetti perhaps. 
Anyway, the point is that in a shade over twenty minutes I was able to cook up a meal that had a protein, a starch, and two vegetables (sort of) one of them fresh. It was a meal that was eaten fast and everyone made it to soccer on time. We were actually a few minutes early. I'm really enjoying the process of optimizing meals for cook time. Wait until you see what I have on tap for next week.