Meatful Monday - Taco Spaghetti

Occasionally, Meatless Monday doesn't go as planned. This usually occurs when the in-laws invite the family over for dinner. Since the girls are already there, and if the ingredients are available, and I'm asked VERY nicely (lol, or just asked), I enjoy cooking dinner. This was supposed to be last Thursday's dinner, but my FiL's HOA meeting preempted dinner, and said dinner turned out to be tonight's feast.

This recipe is one of my own making. While it isn't as healthy as some of the meatless meals I post here weekly, this dinner has proven to be a favorite of the Pratt family. I call it taco spaghetti, and soon you will see why.

Ingredients:

1.5 packs spaghetti noodles
1.5lbs ground beef (feel free to substitute ground turkey* or even vegetarian ground beef crumbles or tofu, for those of you who prefer no meat)
2c cheddar cheese
1 packet taco seasoning

(this is for 6 adults)

Directions:

The dish is pretty easy to make. Boil your water, then cook the pasta as directed (rolling boil for about 7 minutes), drain and set aside pasta. Preheat the over to 350 degrees F (176.7 degrees C for you metric folks). Brown the ground beef while crumbling, add water and taco seasoning (again, follow directions). Next, pam your casserole dish (noodles will stick otherwise), cover the bottom of pan with the noodles. Spread the beef evenly across the noodles then cover with even layer of cheddar cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes.

I served this with garlic bread and a simple joey-mexicano ensalada (chopped lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced avocado, sour cream). Erin really enjoyed the salad right on top of her taco spaghetti, as did my MiL (see picture below). Either was is acceptable and quite tasty. If you are thinking that this doesn't sound good, I dare you to try it anyhow. Its a delicious dish. Nearly every last bite was consumed, between us and the girls. If you do make it, check back here and let me know what you thought!

Coming tomorrow -- Veggie Quiche with a Potato Crust! yum!

*a note on ground turkey -- If you're looking to save calories, then you want to look for Lean Ground Turkey Breast. If you just get ground turkey, it is a mix of white and dark meats, and some of the lesser cuts, giving you a fattier and less healthy ground turkey. I find that a lot of people don't realize that there is a distinction and are getting a 80% or 85% lean turkey rather than the very lean breast they think that they are getting. Also, in my opinion, you can use ground turkey any time you use a powerful flavor, like taco seasoning or marinara sauce, without noticing a great deal of difference. A lot of people dislike ground turkey when making burgers because they fail to adequately season the burgers -- which gives me an idea -- in the coming weeks, since Spring is upon us, I will do a burger blog.