Two Meals with One Prep: Baked Spaghetti

Whenever I can, I try to prep two meals and freeze one for a later night. It makes it so much more rewarding to know that I’ve accomplished a little more. So, I’ve been hanging on to this one since 2011-yup six years! Why I haven’t tried it yet, I’m not sure.

A friend of mine and I have actually made a make ahead meal similar to this one called Spaghetti Pie. While I was flipping through my saved recipes, I landed on this one and FINALLY gave it a try. I guess it was a good thing I kept it because it was very good. Certainly, one I could see prepped for a family gathering. I’d say it’s similar to a lasagna, but with a spaghetti noodle substitute. The only downside was that this recipe took a long time to bake, so plan ahead for an hour in the oven. I think I will be prepping this one the night before that way it will be no big deal to heat it up.

Instead of making this in an 9×13, I put it in two 8×8 pans. I baked one that night and put one in the freezer. We still had leftovers that I was able to take for lunch two days in a row.

Baked Spaghetti Recipe

Ingredients

1 package of spaghetti
1 lb of ground beef
2 medium onion, chopped
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (26 oz)
2 eggs
1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
5 T butter, melted
2 cups cottage cheese (16 oz)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (32 oz)

Directions

1. Cook spaghetti according to the directions on the box.
2. While spaghetti is cooking, brown the beef with the onions until it is fully cooked then drain any excess grease.
3. In the pan with the beef, stir together beef, spaghetti sauce, and salt.
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, parmesan cheese, and melted butter.
5. Drain spaghetti and add it to the egg mixture, coating the noodles.
6. Grease a 9×13 pan (or two 8×8 pans) and place half of the spaghetti mixture in the bottom. Cover with half of the cottage cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers.
7. Bake covered at 360 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes until the cheese on tops melts.

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Note: 8-10 servings with 25 minutes of prep and 1 hour baking @ 350 degrees

This is a former Taste of Home’s recipe. I was unable to locate the original since my copy was printed from their website years ago. I did find an alternative version currently on their site with the same name but different ingredients (see it here).