Day 4: Pizza Casserole

Courtesy of: AllRecipes.com
Serves: 6
Prep and cook time: 1 hour

2 cups uncooked egg noodles
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup sliced pepperoni
16 oz pizza sauce
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350. Cook noodles according to package directions. Brown beef, onion, garlic, and pepper in large skillet over medium high heat. Drain excess fat, stir in noodles, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and milk. Mix well, and pour mixture into a casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes, top with cheese, and bake 5-10 minutes longer, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

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This tastes exactly how you think it will, which is good but not great. Super kid-friendly, however, and perfect for a quick meal. Since I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, I will likely make it again with a few modifications.

1. Spicer/zestier sauce. I used Muir Glen organic pizza sauce, and it was a little bland. Target has some fun house brand sauces that have a bit more kick to them, and I think that would have helped.

2. Italian sausage instead of ground beef. I need to start keeping this in the freezer, because I think its a good substitution for beef in a lot of recipes. Again, this would probably help kick it up a notch.

3. I added some mozzarella to the mixture before baking. We like things cheesey. I also threw in a handful of fresh mushrooms during the beef/pepper/onion browning step, tossed in some Italian seasoning, and used another 1/3 cup of sauce because I had some leftover from last week. Next time I'll add more garlic, too.

While certainly not the most amazing thing I've ever eaten, this is an easy recipe the kids will enjoy — and it offers some serious flexibility ingredient-wise.



See that big empty space on my plate? I was going to make a salad to go with this, but Calvin was being a hellbeast and I had a pounding headache. It took all I had in me not to scrap our dinner plans altogether and make us both a PB&J...