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Noodle, Ground Beef Casserole



Two casseroles in one week!  My kiddos are on cloud 9, and I'm thankful for the ease of dinner prep this week.  The weather has warmed up and I'm spending most of my free time working in the yard.  Hostas, day lilies, and numerous other perennials need to be split, weeds pulled, the lawn mowed (again!), and we've taken on an ambitious fix-the-backyard project complete with a fence, paver borders around the flower and berry beds, and are trying to grow grass in the places designated as lawn.  All this while working (for money), baking and cooking Lala's recipes (for fun, although money would be nice, too), and parenting.  It's the end of the school year and the kids schedules have gone haywire with concerts, recitals, and programs so the parenting bit is off the charts right now.  Juggling everyone's schedules is exhausting, and I'm looking forward to the reprieve summer brings.

Since it's warmer out, and we don't have air conditioning, my days of using the oven are going to be limited in the coming weeks.  I'm saving the gelatin salads and desserts for summertime.  I'm saving many of the other salads and side dishes as well.  I might accidentally overwhelm you by offering two casseroles in the same week, but it means longer stretches between oven use.  Monday's Noodle Dish was dinner for three on Monday night, was taken for lunch by my Hubby two days in a row, and we easily have two hearty servings left that are labeled and in the freezer for a quick reheat in the future.

Tonight's meal came together in about as long as it takes to brown ground beef (in this case I used turkey).  With two pans on the stove, one for the meat and I filled the other filled 1/2 way with water and set the heat to high to bring it to a boil.  In my larger pan, I placed two pounds of ground turkey.  I know the recipe calls for one and a half, but this was easier for me as it comes packaged in 1 pound increments.  I used extra lean turkey which meant little fat, but the onion cooked nicely with the meat.  I prefer to do this anytime a recipe calls for ground meat with onion.  It is possible to cook and brown an onion ahead of time, but no one will know the difference when it's covered in cream, cheese, and whatever else fits into the casserole dish.

The meat finished cooking at about the same time as the noodles.  It is so nice when things work out that way.  The recipe calls for mixing the soups together with the meat and onion, then layering the meat with the noodles.  I chose to place 1/2 of the meat mixture on the bottom of the casserole, then all of the noodles, and topped it with the other 1/2 of the meat.  I think it's possible to mix it all together but maybe there's a nicer effect when serving it.  Time with tell as it's still in the oven.

When it comes out of the oven, I'll have some explaining to do.  We don't have any cracker crumbs on hand.  I decided to use chow mein noodles which I crushed, in place of the cracker crumbs.  I promise this isn't something I thought of on my own.  There's another casserole recipe in the Lala's box that calls for topping with chow mein noodles, I kid you not.  I figured that if they're good enough for that recipe, they'll work in this one as well.  The problem is in how it will look.  I'm not super patient when it comes to my meat tenderizer mallet, and didn't complete crumb all of the pieces.  Just don't just a book by it's cover is all I'm saying.







I know this dish doesn't have a very creative name.  I'd love if you'd help me come up with a new one.  Please share your name suggestions in the comment section, or feel free to share your thoughts on Facebook and Instagram.  If you like this recipe, you're going to love the other foods produced by Caught Red Threaded.  To find out more, visit Caught Red Threaded.  Be sure to leave a comment in the thread below to let me know how this turned out when you made it (and photos are always welcome!), and follow Caught Red Threaded on Facebook and Instagram for exclusive offers and ideas.  If you want to receive this and other blog entries, be sure to click Subscribe in the top right corner of this page.

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