cheese.rox

Someone ordered Chinese for a lunch-time work meeting the other day, and after downing my beef and broccolli, I opened my fortune cookie.

 I expected to find a “fortune” in there, but instead, I found more of a suggestion…

I tried another recipe out of the “Beyond Macaroni and Cheese” cookbook this weekend.  It’s pretty good!

Here’s how to make Spaghetti Pie (I doubled this when I made it):

Ingredients:

4 oz spaghetti

1 T. butter (or margerine)

1 egg, beaten

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 lb. lean ground beef

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/2 c. green pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t. fennel seed

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 c. lowfat cottage cheese

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Cook pasta; drain.  Return to pan; stir butter into pasta until melted.

3.  Stir egg and parmesan cheese into pasta.

4. Press spaghetti onto bottom and sides of 9″ pie plate, forming a “crust” .

5. Cook beef, onion, green pepper, garlic, and fennel seed in pan until onion is tender and meat is no longer pink; drain fat. (I used my Mandolin Slicer to chop the veggies; it saves time .

6.  Stir in tomato sauce and oregano; heat through.

7. Spread cottage cheese on bottom and up side of spaghetti “crust” .  Spread meat mixture over cottage cheese; sprinkle mozzarella cheese over meat mixture.  Bake uncovered 20 - 25 minutes . Let stand 5 minutes  and cut into wedges to serve. Serves 6.

And Voila!