A New Recipe Using Old/New Ingredients

A new recipe and I have to admit that it is pretty good, according to the Captain anyway.

And I guess I should not have said using old ingredients because the ingredients were not old as in out of date, they were ingredients that we all have on hand.

I have named this recipe Baked Mexican Spaghetti, which by the way, is not a new name.

There are many baked spaghetti recipes out there in the world of baking.

I actually stumbled on this as I was trying to think of something different to make for dinner, while staring at a pound of ground beef.

I started by browning the ground beef, adding onions and red bell pepper as I didn’t have any green bell pepper.

That is always a good start to something good with ground beef, or hamburger as my mother and grandmothers always called it.

I have to admit that I still call it hamburger to this day, although I have tried to be a bit more politically correct and call it ground beef.

What is in a name as they say??

Sorry, I digress.

TIP:

• Many times I chop a bunch of onions at one time and put them in small freezer bags for a quicker meal. 
• You really don’t have to unthaw them, as I flatten the bags as they are freezing so it takes just a minute to unthaw or I toss them frozen into a soup or stew or into hamburger, as I did on this day.

Anyway, as I moved around the frozen onion bags in my freezer, I uncovered a small bag of chopped black olives.

TIP:

• Save and freeze any extra chopped black olives for a later date.

I also saw a bag of frozen red bell peppers in my freezer stack of frozen veggies.

TIP:

• I like to buy the package of red, green and yellow bell peppers in a bag and If I am not going to use them all at one time, I like to chop and freeze small bags of peppers for casseroles, soups and stews. 

Because of my frozen ingredients, this meal went together very fast.

So as the meat mixture is browning, I thought of spaghetti noodles and popped the spaghetti into the microwave in my fasta pasta container….you can read about that little marvel here.

Another time saver.

I opened my pantry to see what else I could see and I grabbed a can of Ro-Tell green chiles and tomatoes.

So far so good.

Now how about a can of mushroom soup as I had several cans of that….although I am sure fresh mushrooms would work as well.

Then I cooked it all together

Spices are always good, so I set aside a bit of chopped fresh cilantro to sprinkle on just before serving.

By this time, my pasta had cooked to al dente and drained. (right in the fasta pasta container.

I took the spaghetti pieces, because I had broke them before cooking knowing that I wanted to eat this casserole in bites and not long strings, and mixed the spaghetti with the meat mixture.

I layered half of the spaghetti in my casserole dish and added about 1/2 cup of grated Mexican cheese.

Then I added the remainder of the spaghetti/meat mixture and more cheese.

I covered the casserole with aluminum foil and put in a 375 degree oven.

After about 25 minutes, I removed the foil and baked for another 15 minutes.

With the casserole baking, I whipped up a garden salad and garlic bread….

                       ….And a quick peach cobbler using Bisquick and a can of peach pie filling.

My friends this couldn’t have been easier and the flavors were all delish.

I did have some left over and the Captain thought the casserole was even better the next day.

This casserole recipe could also be put in the freezer and thawed a bit before popping into a 325 degree oven for about an hour and a half. Remove the foil and bake for additional 15 minutes or until heated through.

If you try it, please let me know your thoughts?

Do you ever make a new recipe by just opening your pantry and freezer?

Tell me, I would love to hear from you.