My Little ROCK – Reliable Organised Cooking Kitchen

– Million Dollar Casserole –

If you search Pinterest for freezer meals this million dollar casserole will come up from multiple websites as one of those easy freezer staple meals, the one I’ve based this recipe on is from Cleverly Simple. It’s an easy throw together stash away meal for when you need it on a hectic weekday that’s packed with yummy comforting flavors. One of the most important things to remember is to use a tasty pre made spaghetti sauce, so get down to your local Italian shop and pick up one that bursting with delicious Italian flavours! Although it’s not the most calorie conscious type of meal there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a small serve of it with a garden side salad to ease your worries of eating all that cheesy buttery goodness.

Serves:

6 hungry people

Preparation Time:

30 minutes

Cooking Time:

45 minutes

Time to Table:

1 hour 15 minutes

Number of Ingredients:

11

Equipment:

• Large baking pan or disposable baking container – I used a 320 x 220 x 40mm disposable aluminium tray however it was tough getting it all to fit. Try and use the deepest dish or disposable container you can get your hands on
• Frying pan
• Medium sized saucepan for boiling the pasta and a colander for draining
• Medium sized bowl for mixing the cheese sauce
• If you’re using a disposable aluminum tray make sure you have another oven tray to place underneath so that its easier to transport in and out of the oven
• Enough alfoil to double wrap the baking container if your planning on freezing it

Ingredients:

500g minced beef

750g spaghetti sauce

225g cream cheese

60g sour cream

225g ricotta cheese

115g butter cut into cubes

450g penne pasta

225g semi mature cheese

Spray oil for greasing the oven tray

Oil for frying the beef

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

• Make sure you pull out cream cheese to soften before mixing, it will make the world of difference.
• Pre heat the oven to 180C / 350F if you plan to cook it straight away, make sure your oven racks are in the right slots to accommodate the dish.
• Grate the semi mature cheese.
• Measure out all the rest of the ingredients as you throw them into the mixing bowl.

Method:

1. Get a pot of water boiling on the stove and cook the penne pasta as per the instructions on the packet. Once cooked drain and set aside.

2. While your pasta is cooking fry up the minced beef in the frying pan with a little oil.

3. Throw the pre softened cream cheese, sour cream and ricotta into the mixing bowl.

4. Give it a good mix to combine.

5. Grab out the baking container, if you’re using an aluminium tray I would suggest grabbing another oven tray to balance it underneath for transporting and cooking in the oven, this suckers going to get pretty heavy.

6.Give the container a quick spray with the spray oil to prevent the pasta sticking to the tray.

7. Throw half the cooked paster over the base of the container.

8. Next dollop over the cheese mixture and spread it out as best you can and sprinkle over salt and pepper to taste.

9. Throw over the rest of the pasta.

10. Sprinkle over the cubed butter.

11. Next add the cooked mince.

12. Spoon over the yummy spaghetti sauce.

13. Finally sprinkle over the semi mature cheese.

14. Bake in your pre heated oven for 45 minutes. If you’re freezing the casserole double wrap it with the alfoil or use your container cover.

Hints and Tips:

• If you freeze the casserole make sure you transfer it to the fridge to defrost the night before you want to bake it.

Categories: Baking, Beef, Main, Oven - Beef, Time to Table: 1 Hour 15 min, Winter Menu

Tags: beef, butter, cream cheese, Million Dollar Casserole, penne pasta, ricotta, semi mature cheese, sour cream, spagetti sauce