Creamy Ground Beef Casserole (Southern Living 1981)

When I picked this recipe, I wasn't too sure if the boys would like it. It seemed bland enough...tomato sauce, cheesy stuff, ground beef, noodles...but they didn't like this one! Although I do think the great offender in that recipe was the green chile. This one didn't have green chile...but as I was reviewing the recipe I thought...it doesn't really have FLAVOR! I didn't want the chili incident of 2014 to come back to haunt me, so I made some changes to this recipe. In interest of flavor. You know how it is.

Here's the original:

 

First of all, I used a lot of what we had on hand. One of the reasons I picked this recipe for this week was that I had that leftover cottage cheese. Which, it turns out, The Hubs likes! You can see my noodles are definitely not elbows and the cheese is definitely not sliced.

I added a bit of flavor! I used garlic, oregano-y tomato sauce (in the can. at the store. you know what I'm talking about.) 

Then, in the layering, I did a layer of flavor...after the (shredded, it was what I had!) cheese I sprinkled dried oregano, basil, and marjoram. 

It was smelling good!

Out of the oven...

 

On my plate...  

The. Boys. Liked. It. Y'all! J-Boy said it was BETTER THAN PIZZA! If you know this kid, you know that is SAYING something. He LOVES pizza. More than life itself. Junior said it was best on french bread (piled a la a sandwich). He also said he would like to try it without the noodles. I think the smaller noodles would be better. The Hubs even uttered the phrase "when you make this again". It was a great dinner night in this household!  

~Audry