One thing we do almost every other week is pizza night. I feel sort of bad about pizza night. Pizza night has always always been about what I want and also what the kids like and pretty much never about what my husband likes. If he had his way he would eat his pizza with sausage and green pepper. For some reason that combination sounds hideous to me. So I had an idea to make a pizza-esque casserole and make it more tailored to my husbands flavor preferences. And you know what? The girls and I loved it!
Pizza Night - Casserole Style
Disclaimer: All of today's pics are very yellow. This is a problem I have taking pic of my food in my kitchen that is void of natural light. The food is more appetizing than it looks is my point!
Ingredients:
1 bag of Egg Noodles
1 extra large jar of spaghetti sauce {or homemade if you just made some - although I had a jar of Prego I had to use up in my fridge. Haha get it, prego.....preggo. Nevermind.}
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese {or more
depending on how much you ♥ cheese!}
1 1/2 lbs Italian seasoned ground turkey (or any ground meat of your choice)
1 package pepperonis
Handful of peppers - color, size, type up to you
Minced garlic
Italian seasoning blend herbs
Chop peppers coarsely. Throw in a pan and saute with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp minced garlic until starting to soften.
Add ground turkey and brown. When almost done add 1 Tbsp Italian herb blend.
Meanwhile boil your noodles. It should be mentioned, they don't have to be egg noodles. Any pasta of your choice.
Then it's layering time...
This was where I decided to make two square pans instead of a 9 x 13. Nothing is worse with tiny eaters then having a big old casserole that you end up eating 6 days in a row to use up the leftovers. Made one for now and froze one for later. I know, I am a genius.
Layers go like this:
1. Sauce (1/3)
2. Noodles (1/2)
3. Meat/pepper mixture (1/2)
4. Sauce (1/3)
5. Noodles (1/2)
6. Cheese (1/2)
7. Meat/pepper mixture (1/2)
8. Sauce (1/3)
9. Cheese (1/2)
10. Pepperoni (1 layer)
That's right! 10 layers folks. Mmmmmmmm.... Yummy. Bet your pizza doesn't have 10 layers.
Here they are, 10 stories high. One went right down to the freezer and the other went right into the oven. And came out looking like...
Now cover with foil (or realize you are out of foil, send your sweet husband to the store for foil, remember three other things you need him to get, then get irritated that he is taking so long and you are trying to get dinner in the oven!) and bake at 350 for 30
minutes
After 30 minutes, remove the foil & bake for
another 15 minutes
Let cool/set 10 min after baking before eating. Meanwhile crank up the oven for this:
Garlic Cheese Bread
Take a tube of pizza dough (or if you are one of those amazing baking people make your own pizza dough) and roll it out thin in a jelly roll pan. Brush with olive oil and season with garlic salt.
Top with mozzarella and bake at 425 for 12-18 min
Yeah this isn't exactly diet food. But it was yummy. My husband kissed me and said, how did you learn how to make this!!!? Magic. The cheesy bread. Well it was bread smothered in cheese and garlic. What is not to love? The casserole. As I said I was trying to throw my hubs a bone because he never gets pizza the way he likes it and he was thrilled and you know what? I thought it was so yummy. We got two dinners of four servings each and there was a big portion left that I scarfed down as leftovers for lunch one day. Yummy yummy. Have a great Tuesday everyone!
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