Recipe: Spaghetti Casserole

On January 7th, my side of the family has our annual potluck meal.  We had a pretty good time eating, laughing and singing together.  The lad brought a friend with him.   Folks brought some good food. 

My sweet man, knowing how I hate coming up with something to make for potlucks, suggested I make Spaghetti Casserole.

It was REALLY good.  The only one in our family who wasn't keen on it was the lad.. because we told him it was much like spaghetti and meatballs but...it wasn't really spaghetti and meatballs and so offended his sense of rightness.  :)  Precision sometimes causes troubles!  

Anyways, you are probably waiting for the recipe.  It is based off this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 (26.5 ounce) cans meatless spaghetti sauce
• 1 (16 ounce) container fat-free sour cream
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• salt and black pepper to taste 

  
Changes I made:

• used a whole medium sized onion
• Added basil, parsley, oregano and a touch of garlic to the meat mixture.  Other than the garlic, about 1 tbsp each of the dried herbs.
• Instead of sour cream used greek yogurt. 
• also guesstimated the spaghetti used as I used leftovers from during the week (had hubby cook extra when he asked)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a deep 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the spaghetti. Boil the pasta until cooked through but still firm to the bite, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well.
3. Brown ground beef and onion in a large skillet over high heat; drain fat. Stir in the spaghetti sauce, sour cream, and 1 cup of the mozzarella. Mix in the cooked pasta. Transfer pasta mixture to prepared baking dish. Top with remaining 1 cup of mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in preheated oven until hot and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

End result:

• Came home with about a 1/3 of a large casserole dish full.   
• Requests for the recipe.
• An international student who eagerly devoured the leftovers. 
• Knowledge that hubby picked a good recipe and now I have a new recipe to add to our repertoire.
• it works well making the night before and then cooking in oven the next morning and travels very well.