Project Four: Million Dollar Spaghetti

Let me start by saying that I do not cook. But you just posted a recipe about S'mores Cookie Bars. That is baking. I will bake, but I do not cook. The hubby goes to the grocery store, plans the meals and cooks dinners.

Unfortunately, the hubby went to the BMW Golf Championship which meant I HAD to cook. My goal was to make spaghetti. Quick, easy and no one complains about spaghetti. I realized though that to truly become a Pinterest pin up, I must cook. Sigh.

While looking through Pinterest early this morning, I saw a recipe called Million Dollar Spaghetti pinned from the blog, "Being Grown Up." I read the recipe and thought it was a no brainer. I was already planning to make spaghetti, so why not try this spaghetti on steroids recipe. The recipe:

1 lb of ground beef
1 can of spaghetti sauce
8 oz of cream cheese
1/4 cup of sour cream
1/2 lb of cottage cheese
Whole stick of butter
8 oz spaghetti noodles
Bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

Boil your spaghetti noodles just like you would for regular spaghetti. I am not going to detail how to make noodles. If I can do this part, so can a monkey. Besides, I checked the box today and the directions are on the box. Who knew?

Mix the cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream. You can see my lovely mixture below.

Brown the ground beef in the pan. Drain the grease and then add the spaghetti sauce. Totally not complicated.

The recipe calls for pats of butter at the bottom of the pan. This is probably necessary to keep the noodles from sticking while baking. 

The recipe then calls for placing half of the noodles on top of the pats of butter. Now, I think I boo-boo'd. I left the noodles in the water. I recommend draining the noodles to lessen any water going into the pan. It made the mixture a tad bit watery.

The next step is to put the whole bowl of the cheesy mix on top of the noodles. Still a pretty easy recipe.

Place the second half of noodles on top of the cheesy mix. Now, as you can see the recipe calls for MORE butter. The next time around, I am skipping this step. I could feel my arteries hardening as I was cooking.

The last step in putting the dish together is to pour the spaghetti meat sauce on top of the noodles. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here's where I deviated from the recipe a bit. The online recipe said to bake for 30 minutes, then sprinkle a bag of sharp cheddar and bake again for 15 minutes. I had a bag of mozzarella and substituted that instead. Below is a picture of the full 45 minute bake process.

I think it's funny the recipe is called "Million Dollar Spaghetti." Honestly, a better name is "Poor Man's Lasagna." No matter what you call it, it was very good. A bit runny, but that could be remedied in the noodle step. The kids loved it, especially my little guy. He was all smiles for this meal!