Retake Homemade: Hamburger Noodle Casserole

I am a big fan of Taste of Home for recipes.  They’re usually easy, seldom involve “weird” ingredients, and will generally be eaten by my entire family.  This one came to me in a recent email and me, being me I had to adapt it a little by adding in some extra veggies and swapping the noodles to whole wheat.  Still, we really enjoyed this, so much so that we wound up having seconds.  The original recipe claims to serve 10, but obviously the authors are not southern and do not adhere to the “a casserole is an entire meal” rule.  I’d say this reasonably serves 6 with some other veggie as a side.

Ingredients:

• 5 1/2 cups uncooked wheat egg noodles
• 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 10 oz. fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cans (8 ounces each)  Tomato Sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced, divided
• 2/3 cup shredded reduced-fat fiesta blend cheese

Directions:

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.  Drain and reserve.
2. Meanwhile, brown your ground beef, going for a good caramelization on the crumbles.
3. Drain and rinse, reserving just a bit of the grease in your pan.
4. Add the mushrooms and onions and saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the beef back.
6. Add the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Mix well.
7. Add the noodles and mix well.
8. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta, sour cream, and cream cheese.  Beat until blended.
9. Add half the onions to the cheese mixture.
10. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
11. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray, then add half the noodle mixture.
12. Top with half the cheese mixture, then the rest of the noodles, followed by the remainder of the cheese.
13. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
14. Uncover, add the fiesta blend cheese and the last of the onions and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Printable version.

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list of other great Retake Homemade Recipes…