Pizza Casserole w/ Ground Beef

Make-ahead dinners, I am all about them! Sure, my evenings are pretty free to be able to make a nice dinner every night, but sometimes it's nice to see that time where you need to stop what you are doing to prep for dinner, cook dinner, clean up from cooking dinner, then clean up after dinner...blah blah blah...come and go. It's nice to think to yourself, "dinner is already done, the clean up was done yesterday and all I need to do is pop it in the oven (and let my husband do the clean up after haha)"

This casserole was not intended as a make-ahead but it worked out that way as other plans came up instead, (like making that Triple Chocolate Cheesecake from yesterdays post late at night at my friends house!) 

Pizza Casserole w/ Ground Beef 
          adapted from unknown source

8oz ground beef
1 C chopped onion
14oz pizza sauce (I made Simple Pizza Sauce and weighed out the 14oz needed)--worth it over store bought 
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
4 oz dry rotini noodles
2oz pepperoni slices
1-1/4 C shredded Italian cheese blend
Italian seasoning, to taste/sprinkled over top

Preheat oven to 350º. Cook ground beef with onion until onions are tender and beef is cooked through over medium-high heat, 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions, drain.

Add pizza sauce to meat mixture, add salt and pepper. Fold in the pasta, transfer to a greased 9" round pan. Top with cheese and pepperoni (full 2 oz or just what you would on a pizza). Generously sprinkle with Italian seasoning ( I used basil, oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder).

Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge until ready to make, uncover before baking

Bake 30 minutes, if desired put under broiler for a few minutes to get the topping nice and golden brown--yum! Allow to cool about 5 minutes before cutting into.

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Summer Veggie Casserole w/ Ground Beef

One of my favorite things about cooking, is there are no limits! I love trying a recipe in its original form (at least once!) and although it was great the first time, and usually deserves a second round, sometimes you just have different ingredients on hand and you know that what you have will do, if not make it better! Well that is what this casserole recipe brings! I adapted this casserole from a Philadelphia Cooking Cream Contest winner (Summer Casserole Surprise w/ Zucchini & Mushrooms). My son, who isn't too crazy about mushrooms, gobbled this one up!

10oz uncooked elbow noodles
1 C sliced zucchini
6oz pkg sliced mushrooms
3/4 tub Philadelphia Savory Garlic Cooking Creme
1 Jar garlic spaghetti sauce
8oz ground beef
1/2 C shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350º. Set a large pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add your noodles, cook about 7 min (or according to pkg directions.). In last min of cooking, add your zucchini to the water. Drain mixture in colander.

Meanwhile, brown ground beef over me-high heat. Add the mushrooms to the ground beef until they start to brown a little. Once beef is cooked through, stir in cooking creme. Remove from heat; set aside.

Mix about 3/4 pasta sauce with the noodles and zucchini. Pour half the mixture into the dish. Layer on top half of the mushroom mixture. repeat layers. Spread remaining pasta sauce over top, and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Bake in preheated oven about 15-20 min. Let stand 5 min before serving.