Saturday is National Spaghetti Day, and aside from finding good deals at restaurants, it might be the perfect day to whip up a big plate of it at home.  We've got the easiest recipe ever.

While we're catching up on bills after the holidays, cheap is good, and spaghetti is one of those foods that will make most of the family happy without breaking the bank.  On National Spaghetti Day tomorrow, we have a feeling we'll see several freebies and deals at Treasure Valley restaurants too.  Last year several of the big Italian chain restaurants offered buy-one-get-one deals and other discounts.

If your house is anything like mine, you can make one main thing for dinner, but everyone seems to want a slightly different version of it.  So, do we have to put red sauce on it for it to be considered spaghetti?  Nope.  Dictionary.com says spaghetti is defined as, "a white, starchy pasta of Italian origin that is made in the form of long strings, boiled and served with any of a variety of meat, tomato, or other sauces."

A variety of sauces, cool. Apparently, noodles with olive oil and garlic salt can still be considered spaghetti, so the kids who love everything plain can participate in spaghetti day too.

Spaghetti is so easy to make, and as a parent, don't we love that.  Kids who are learning to cook can whip it up pretty easily too, as long as they've got supervision with the boiling water.  I don't trust my kiddos with that just yet.

If you're gonna make some spaghetti to celebrate the day tomorrow, this is the easiest recipe ever.

Boil water

Dump in spaghetti noodles and cook according to the package directions

Open a jar of sauce and heat it up

Drain the noodles

Mix the sauce and noodles together

Serve

Adding parmesan or mozzarella cheese might be a must unless you have a plain Jane in your family that keeps reminding you she wants "just the noodles Mama."  Someday she'll discover the greatness that comes from complexity, but until then, plain it is.  Hamburger and black olives in the sauce may come later.

I do love National Food Days because they generate ideas for mom chefs who are fresh out of them.  So Happy National Spaghetti Day on Saturday, January 4th.  Make the most of it!  And have the kids help.  It'll be fun.

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