On top of spaghetti......pie

The posting has slowed obviously, partly due to my lack of cooking and partly due to my lack of cooking anything new.  It's become so easy to just remake things.  Monday and Tuesday, I get home too late from work so I don't wanna cook and then I don't cook on the weekends...this really doesn't leave a lot of days for blog-worthy dinners =/

However! Last week I wanted to make something with ground beef but didn't want to make the same things I always go to with ground beef.  Eric had mentioned meatballs which sounded good but then that turned into spaghetti.  After doing some searching, I decided to make spaghetti pie.  To make, you'll need:

noodles

ground beef

parmesan cheese

egg

butter

pasta sauce

mozzarella cheese

bell pepper

I already had pasta sauce that I made and froze so I just defrosted it.  

To start, I cooked the noodles.  Once they were cooked al dente, I added them into a bowl that I had put the parmesan cheese, 2 eggs, and butter into and mixed.  I did it in parts so the noodles didn't cook the egg, slowly tempering them instead. 

While the noodles were cooking, I started cooking the ground beef.  I added the beef and the pepper into a pan and began cooking.  I used 93/7 beef so there wasn't much fat.  Once it was close to cooked through, I added the pasta sauce and gave it a good mix. 

Once all of the noodles were mixed in with the cheese mixture, I sprayed a pie pan and placed the noodles in the dish to form the "crust"

The meat mixture was placed on top of the noodles and then baked in the oven for 25 minutes.  At that time, I took the pie out and added mozzarella cheese.  Then it was put back into the oven and allowed to cook for about 5 more minutes just for the cheese to melt. 

I was worried that it would fall apart when serving but somehow or another, it sticks together and you can actually cut it into pie pieces! 

It was a little loose the first night when it was hot but the next day it was stuck together like pie! It made for great leftovers, even cold.  This was a really interesting take on spaghetti just b/c you really get the perfect amount of sauce to noodles in every bite.  I think we both decided that we really like whole wheat noodles more than regular just for the flavor it gives to pasta.  This was a really easy dish to make and takes really no time at all.  I definitely suggest it!