Spinach, Cheese & Noodle Casserole

Mmmmm......pasta...one of my favorites.

This can be modified for your personal taste.  Recipes are more like guidelines to me so I'm always tweaking the amounts and ingredients.  It calls for beef but I have made it with ground chicken.  You could probably use Tofu Crumbles for a vegetarian option.   This reminds me of 1950’s comfort food.

Oooey, gooey with spinach and cheeses...........



DE-lish-ous! I recommend this one. It’s fast, cheap and we all ended up going after seconds…….definitely is making the short list on meal rotations again!

Ingredients……..

8 to 12 ounces wide noodles

1 pound ground beef ( or 1 and a half lbs. ground chicken)

1 container (16 ounces) marinara sauce

1 (16 oz.) tub of cottage cheese

1 package (10 oz,) frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)

2 cups shredded cheddar

1 large egg

3 chopped scallions

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Step 1. Heat oven to 350 F (175 C) and prepare a casserole dish.

The recipe states to use a 2 quart deep casserole. I used extra meat but I can tell you now, even if I used the quantity stated NO WAY was this fitting into a 2 quart dish. I used a cast iron 5 quart. 

Step 2 Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook your noodles for 5 minutes. Drain. No matter what the cooking time is on your box of noodles, just boil them for 5 minutes!

Step 3 Cook your beef or chicken and drain off fat. Remove from heat and add marinara sauce.

Step 4 In large bowl combine cooked noodles, spinach, cottage cheese, 1 cup cheddar cheese, egg scallion, salt and pepper.

Last Step! Transfer noodle mixture to prepared cooking dish. Top with beef and sprinkle on remaining cheese. Bake at 350 F (175 C) for 30 to 45 minutes uncovered.

Here it is in the Before photo.....notice our little cream shiba looking up, hoping I will drop some cheese!  This was a previous version with beef.


Think of all the variations you could make here. If you like a meaty mixture use a mixture of pork and hamburger.  Vegetarian version could use Tofu Crumbles, the minced sort.  You could swap out the cheddar cheese and use mozzarella or Swiss or whatever you fancy. Want to be healthy? Use ground turkey instead of beef. Endless possibilities!


Enjoy!