Very cheesy baked spaghetti
My family really likes spaghetti. Who doesn't? It's easy to make. It's delicious. It fills you up so that you just want to laze around after you're done eating. (At least, that's the effect it has on me LOL) Although I love the convenience of ready-made spaghetti sauces, I'm used to making spaghetti sauce from scratch. I've tried ready-made sauces, but still found myself adding stuff here and there so it would suit my taste so... Well, I have different versions of my spaghetti sauce just because I like to add something different each time. The new "thing" in this recipe is colby-jack shredded cheese. (There were two 2-cup packs in the fridge since my husband forgot to add then to his homemade hamburger patties and I hate seeing food going to waste.) Since my husband ate two servings and my father-in-law not only ate a plateful for his midnight snack, but also brought some to work the next day, I think the dish is worth a hub :) Hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did!
TIPS:
> Add the onion AFTER you smell the garlic. Add the meat AFTER you smell the onion.
> My kids like Filipino-style spaghetti which is a little sweet. You can omit the sugar in this dish if you prefer the more traditional spaghetti taste.
> The noodles and sauce are already cooked. I just put them in the oven so that the sauce would stick better to the noodles AND to melt the cheese.
- 75 mg. thin spaghetti noodles
- 1 medium-sized onion
- 2-3 tbs. minced garlic
- 1 lb. lean ground beef
- 8 oz. chopped mushrooms
- 1 can - 6 oz. tomato sauce
- 2 cans - 29 oz. tomato sauce
- 3-4 tbs. white sugar
- 2 cups shredded cheese
- 2 tbs canola oil
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- salt
- pepper
- Cook the spaghetti noodles as instructed in the packaging. After draining it, put a few ice cubes in the drainer so that the noodles will stop cooking.
- Turn the oven to 300 F. Meanwhile, heat the oil in the sauce pan and saute the garlic. When you can smell the garlic, add the onion.
- Add the mushrooms, then the ground beef. When the beef is not pink anymore, add the tomato paste and sauce.
- Add the beef cube, let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. Add a handful of the shredded cheese, the sugar, salt, and pepper. Simmer again for 5 minutes, then turn off stove.
- Spread a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan. Next, put a layer of cooked noodles on top of the sauce. Then, cover the noodles with half of the shredded cheese.
- Add another layer of noodles over the cheese, and cover this with another layer of sauce. Finally, sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top.
- Bake for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve with garlic bread.
