Leftovers Makeover: Spaghetti

Spaghetti is one of my favorite go to meals. I always seem to have everything I need on hand, and it's one of those meals that's good any time. It's also a meal that we always end up having leftovers. I've been trying to come up with a rotation of "piggyback" meals that let me re-use leftovers for another almost entirely different meal, so one of us doesn't end up eating leftovers all week long. Not that there's anything wrong with leftovers, it's just that sometimes there isn't quite enough to feed all three of us for a second night. So my plan is to find meals that let me use leftovers as the starting base of a new meal. With just a few additional ingredients I'll hopefully be able to make some new, tasty, and most importantly easy.

Last night I Googled it up and found a recipe from The Domestic Lioness called "Ridiculously Tasty and Surprisingly Creamy Leftover Spaghetti Casserole" that uses leftover spaghetti, plus a few new ingredients, to make a new dish. I have to be honest, this recipe has some ingredients that made me say "Wait, did I read that right? You want me to mix what? And pour my spaghetti sauce over that?" But I have faith. It may be misguided, but I have discovered some awesome recipes by just taking a chance. I've also had some total failures that way too, but you just have to cross your fingers that it'll turn out ok, and hope you've got a Domino's nearby, or at least some peanut butter, jelly, and bread, if it doesn't.

I had to make some modifications to the recipe, mostly because I was lazy and didn't check the fridge last night to make sure I had everything specified. Also, the recipe called for the spaghetti sauce and meat to be separate layers, but I had a bunch of leftover spaghetti sauce with ground beef in it already from Sunday night. So I just figured it was all gonna end up in the same place anyway, so we'll go with it.

VERDICT:

It turned out pretty tasty. Like a super creamy lasagna. When we cut into it, everything stayed layered, so after we tasted it, I decided I liked it better all smooshed up together in my plate so that's what I did.

So here's my adaptation of The Domestic Lioness's "Ridiculously Tasty and Surprisingly Creamy Leftover Casserole":
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Leftover Spaghetti Casserole:

CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

8 oz. spaghetti noodles (about a half of a box)

8 oz. cream cheese (1 block)

8 oz. sour cream (I used light)

4 cups homemade meat sauce

fresh spinach (this is totally optional)

mozzarella cheese slices (enough for two layers)

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Heat up your leftover spaghetti noodles (cook up some new ones if you don't have enough leftovers). Mix the cream cheese in with the noodles until blended. This is easier if your cream cheese is at room temperature. If not, microwave it (wrapper removed!) for about 30 seconds to make it easier to mix with the noodles. Next, stir in the sour cream.

Yeah, that cream cheese/sour cream combo made me pause when I first read the recipe. I could get on board with cream cheese in my spaghetti, but sour cream? That one made wonder if I was about to end up making emergency PB&J sandwiches for dinner.

Pour the whole hot mess into a greased up casserole dish. You are gonna start wondering if you might have made a mistake at this point. You are going to wonder if I just ruined your dinner and wasted your precious after work TV time. Keep pressing on though. It'll be ok.

So now you've got a layer of creamy noodle mess in your casserole dish. Layer your sliced (or shredded, if you didn't forget that you used that all up last week, like I did) mozzarella cheese over the top of your noodles. Next, layer some spinach over that. However much you like is fine. If you hate spinach, skip it. If you love it, pile it on, Popeye.

Spread your meat sauce over the spinach. Now throw on another layer of mozzarella, enough to cover the meat sauce, but not so much as to give you a heart attack. You make the decision as to where you want to draw that line.

I omitted the tomatoes on the top of the casserole as stated in the original recipe, because tomatoes are evil, according to Stephen, unless they are unrecognizable as ever having lived a former life as a fresh tomato (ie, only tomato sauce, ketchup, etc. are acceptable).

I also just discovered that I am a prime candidate for the Derek Zoolander School of Kids Who Can't Read Good, because I did not realize that I mixed up the layering from the original recipe until I was typing this all up. I put the spinach on first, then meat sauce. The spinach was supposed to be ON TOP of the meat sauce. Eh, it turned out just fine anyway.

Pop that casserole into the oven for 30 - 35 minutes. We ate it with a side of garlic bread. I figured that for tonight, the spinach I sprinkled in counted as enough of a vegetable.