Favorite Baked Spaghetti

Goodness, has it really been almost a week since I last posted??  Time sure does have a way of flying!  To make up for my neglect of my little blog, I’m going to share today one of my all-time favorite recipes.  This is a recipe I’ve had for years, it’s another one from my early days when I was just starting out cooking for myself. 

Now, there’s really nothing unusual about this casserole, and I bet many of you have variations of it as well, and it may go by different names.  I think the original name of my specific recipe was called Husband’s Delight, though I just call it Favorite Baked Spaghetti (I like to keep things simple and to the point!).  Anyway, this is my favorite version of this classic recipe, and I hope you’ll like it too 🙂  This is also a great recipe for stretching your meat with since you get a whole 13×9 pan’s worth of casserole using just 1/2 lb of meat.  Can’t beat that!

By the way, I blogged recently about the terrors of a Florida girl trying to drive in the snow (that would be me), and I am happy to report that I am now back to driving myself to and from work.  Of course, it does help that the roads are now clear…We’ll see how I do when the next snowfall comes!

The assembly of this casserole is very easy.  Before you start on anything else, get your spaghetti cooked up and drained.  Set it aside for later.

Now just brown up your ground beef and bell pepper.  I use lean ground beef, but there’s still quite a bit of fat, so I make sure to drain that before adding in the pasta sauce, which is the next step.

Combine the meat sauce and spaghetti, and pour it into a greased baking dish.

Now for the best part!  Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions.  Whatever you do, don’t leave out the green onions.  I don’t know what it is about them, but for some reason they just make this dish.  So green onions, important!  Spread this mixture over top of the pasta.

Sprinkle with cheese, and it’s now ready to go in the oven.

Delicious!  One of my top 5 favorite comfort foods, for sure.

Favorite Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients:

• 8 oz spaghetti
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 14 oz pasta sauce
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook spaghetti until just shy of completely done.  Drain and set aside.

Brown ground beef and bell pepper in skillet.  Drain off any excess grease, then stir in the pasta sauce.  Simmer for a few minutes, until heated through.  Combine the meat sauce and spaghetti.  Pour into a greased 13×9 baking dish.

Stir together the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions.  Spread over top of the spaghetti mixture.  It will be a fairly thin layer, just spread the best you can.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese over top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until cheese is melted and casserole is bubbly.

This recipe is being shared with:

• Recipe Swap Thursday @ A Prairie Story
• Friday Potluck @ EKat’s Kitchen