Baked Spaghetti

This dish was created two weeks ago, but I haven't had time to blog because it was the end of the semester. Luckily, I'm finished with the semester since last night! Because of my lack of time to blog, there will be several posts added today.

I dislike the texture of normal spaghetti. I find it to be boring. I'll eat it and be fine, but I prefer other pastas. This recipe is delicious and we used thin spaghetti instead (for my sake). Oh and we were too hungry to wait for the dish to cool completely. If you actually wait for it to cool completely, you can serve the dish in blocks, which is kind of fun :). This recipe makes a lot.

Baked Spaghetti
6-10 servings.

Ingredients

- 1 pound of spaghetti (we used thin spaghetti)
- 1/4 pound of ground pork (you can use ground beef or turkey if desired)
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cups of grated mozzarella 
- 1 cup of grated parmesan
- 1 26 ounce jar + 1/2 cup of pasta sauce (We used Prego's Chunky Garden Tomato, Onion & Garlic. 26 ounces was not enough for how much spaghetti we used, so we added about 1/2 cup more of pasta sauce.)
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- Pepper
- Salt
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- Olive oil

Directions

1. Boil the spaghetti al dente. Remember, the pasta will continue to bake in the oven.
2. While the spaghetti's boiling, in a medium saucepan, add olive oil, the ground meat, some pepper (to your liking), some salt (to your liking), the minced garlic, and half of the chopped onion. When meat is no longer pink, add the green bell pepper. Stir until cooked.
3. When the pasta is finished boiling, drain as usual. Rinse through cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.
4. Boil the pasta sauce with the remainder of the onions, 1 cup of mozzarella, 1/2 cup of parmesan, and add pepper and salt to taste. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
5. When pasta sauce tastes nice to your liking, add the ground meat and bell pepper combination. Stir and make sure the meat is evenly spread.
6. In large casserole dish (ours was 13x9), add the spaghetti and combine with the meaty pasta sauce mixture and 1 cup of breadcrumbs. Spread sauce evenly.
7. Top the dish with 1 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of parmesan. Wrap the dish tightly in foil. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cheese has melted.

I recommend letting it cool for at least 15 minutes, so you can serve it in blocks unlike what my friend and I did :).

Chicken and Biscuits

This meal was cooked by my roommate and myself last week. We were chatting online while she was at work. I was hungry because I haven't eaten much all day. I started brainstorming ideas for dinner. Then, it hit me. We had to hurry up and cook our vegetables before they went bad. I told her how we should use my cream of chicken, our vegetables, chicken, and biscuits to create this dish. She loved the idea and we immediately cooked when she came home. This took a total of 2 hours to prep and cook (longest dish created thus far!).

This came out absolutely delicious. We penned this dish our "Clean Out the Vegetable Drawer Casserole." We will definitely make this again when we need to clean out the vegetable drawer. The wonderful thing about this dish is you could ultimately put any kind of meat (if at all) and any vegetables you would like in it. It is a very versatile dish.

I know it may not look that attractive, but it's a casserole. Looks can be deceiving. With this recipe, I'm listing everything we used and exactly how we made it, but feel free to use different veggies and meat.

Chicken and Biscuits

5-6 servings.

Ingredients

 Chicken

- 3 small/medium chicken breasts (you be the judge)

- Pam spray (oil or butter will work fine also)

- Pepper

- Salt

- Garlic salt

Sauce

- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) of cream of mushroom  (we used Campbell's)

- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) of cream of chicken (we used Campbell's)

- 3 garlic cloves

- 1 small onion, chopped

- 1/4 cup fat free milk

Vegetables

- Broccoli florets (cut into bite size pieces, you be the judge of how small you want them)

- 2 small Idaho potatoes (boil for 5 minutes, then have them cubed and peeled)

- 2 celery stalks, chopped

- 1 cup of asparagus, chopped

- 1 cup of green beans

- 1 cup of mushrooms, sliced (any kind you like will be good)

- Parsley (for garnishing)

Other Ingredients

- 1 can of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (5 count)

- 2 cups of bread crumbs, seasoned

- Parmesan cheese (cheddar or mozzarella would probably work better, but we didn't have any in stock)

Directions

1. Put your three pieces of chicken breasts on a cutting board. Pour a generous amount of garlic salt, pepper, and 2-3 dashes of salt on each side. Rub the quick seasoning on the chicken thoroughly on all sides. Spray a medium frying pan with pam and let it heat up. Add the chicken breast and fry until cooked. A healthier alternative is to grill the chicken. When the chicken is finished, let them cool. Then take them out and cut them into small bite sized cubes. Place in a bowl and set aside for later.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the the garlic cloves, chopped onions, a dash of garlic salt (yes, we love garlic), and milk into a blender. Blend until ingredients are perfectly minced.
3. In a mixing bowl, pour in the can of cream of chicken and the can of cream of mushroom. Then, add the minced ingredients. Mix thoroughly for about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add half of the chicken and mix. Slowly add the rest of the chicken and mix. Try your best to make sure the chicken is spread very evenly.
5. Slowly add the remainder of the vegetables. Continue mixing as you pour the vegetables into the mixture. Finish evenly mixing the ingredients. Again, you be the judge of how even the mixture is.
6. In a medium glass casserole dish (we used an 8x8 dish), dump the bread crumbs and spread it out, so that it makes an even bottom layer.
7. Gently pour the mixture and try to make it as even as possible.
8. Cook the casserole in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. Open the can of biscuits. We did not cut the biscuits into small pieces (I wanted to do this, but my roommate wanted whole biscuit pieces.). I highly recommend cutting the biscuits into small pieces, so the biscuit can thoroughly cook without burning. Place the biscuits on top in any way you desire.
10. Shake some parmesan cheese on top (as much or as little as you desire).
11. Put the casserole dish back into the oven for 15 more minutes. If you chose not to cut the biscuits into smaller pieces, cook the casserole for 20 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are no longer too hot to touch.

Serve and garnish with the parsely. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of our casserole before it was served:

Absolutely delicious.