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97'Scort
09-07-2009, 11:10 PM
Alright, one of my (few) talents seems to be grabbing random stuff from the kitchen and making it turn out tasty (or at least college-grade edible). Tonight's attempt turned out pretty good. Everything used was just stuff I had in the kitchen. The only thing that was "prepared" ahead of time was the beef, which I had defrosted with the anticipation of some hamburger helper.

In the pictures, you'll see an orange thing. It's a silicone splatter lid that I scored at House of Knives for $10. Do yourself a favour and buy one, it saves you a hell of a lot of clean up time after a saute.

Here goes:

Ingredients (in no particular order):
- package of lean ground beef
- noodles
- 1/2 bag of frozen peas
- celery
- onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- olive oil
- 2 tomatoes
- can of pasta sauce
- mushrooms (I bought one of those pre-sliced pack things)
- salt and pepper
- some kind of seasonings, I used the McCormick "Italian" stuff, which is at the very least the only seasoning you really need for lots of things
- a white, medium milk-fat cheese. I used Asiago (yay costco!), but monterey jack, mozzerella, etc will work nice. Avoid cheddar, since it's got a bit too much bite for this.

Steps:

1. Dice garlic. Put some olive oil in a large pot (stock pot would work) and put on high heat and toss in the garlic. As soon as you get a sizzle, get the beef into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to seperate the beef and keep on heat until browned.

2. Next, throw in your mushrooms. You'll want them to absorb the beef flavour but lose some of their water before you get any more moist stuff in.

3. Dice onion, celery (as much as you want, really. I used about 3 stalks of celery and half a medium yellow onion). Salt and pepper at this point, as well as your herbs/seasoning. Let this all simmer on medium heat for a bit.

4. After everything is simmering nice and the meat is well cooked and starting to seperate nicely, put the water on for the pasta with a little olive oil on the top. I'd suggest not salting the water, especially if you are using the canned pasta sauce.

http://www.kg-dj.com/images/cooking/IMGP0899.JPG

5. Take your bag of frozen peas, and dump about half in. It is a lot of peas, but frankly they do not add much in the way of flavour to the whole thing. They are simply a good green-vegetable filler. You could presumably substitute any frozen veggie mix, or lots of fresh zucchini if you like it.

http://www.kg-dj.com/images/cooking/IMGP0901.JPG

6. When the peas are fully defrosted and the pot has heated back up, add your pasta sauce. I suggest one low in "other things" like herbs and salt if you used other seasonings earlier. Let this heat up a bit.

7. Your pasta should be cooked now. You will want it a little on the al-dente side (IE, not fully cooked). Drain, and dump into the pot with the rest of it. Take off the heat and stir it all up.

8. Bust out your Pyrex casserole dish (8x12?) and dump the whole thing in. Level the mix in the dish. I suggest using a wire cooling rack or something to keep it off your countertop, since it'll get pretty hot. Slice the tomatoes and arrange on the top. Then, slice the cheese and put on top of the tomatoes.

http://www.kg-dj.com/images/cooking/IMGP0902.JPG
http://www.kg-dj.com/images/cooking/IMGP0903.JPG

9. Cover the whole thing in foil, and bake in the oven at 375F for 20 minutes. Uncover and broil on high for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown a bit.

10. Bust it out and serve!

http://www.kg-dj.com/images/cooking/IMGP0904.JPG

This turned out pretty damn tasty. My one suggestion is watch the salt. It could be really easy to over-salt this, depending on what cheese and what sauce you decide to use. It should also freeze really well, and will feed my poor-student self for a few days at least. Took me about an 75 minutes total including the baking time. If you want to have it sooner, then fully cook the noodles, don't bake and use a parmesan cheese on top.

rockanrepublic
09-07-2009, 11:20 PM
i have a suspicion this was put up right after watching banana ketchup spaghetti :D

any idea how much food that is looks soo filling:drool:

97'Scort
09-07-2009, 11:21 PM
I should think it would give me 4 dinners/lunches. Maybe 3 if I'm really hungry haha.

nonlinear
09-07-2009, 11:54 PM
i dunno, but those bananas sure look ripe, man. next thread: bachelor banana bread :rofl:

97'Scort
09-08-2009, 12:06 AM
Hell, I make banana bread just about weekly. That's my breakfast :) I'd be happy to put up a recipe if you guys want it!

samo147
09-08-2009, 12:17 AM
that casserole looks good...

i love banana bread
ya u mind sharing that recipe?

rockanrepublic
09-08-2009, 12:21 AM
i vote +1 for that banana bread recipe!

97'Scort
09-08-2009, 02:08 AM
Alright, if I get time I'll make a loaf this week. Those bananas need a few more days I think.

GQBalla
09-08-2009, 06:31 AM
looks great!