Beef N Spinach Casserole

Wednesday night is usually pasta night in my house. Yesterday was no different. The only difference was " what kind of pasta dish I will make?" ! I wasn't sure at all what to make for dinner. The only thing I had on hand was sautéed onion and garlic and browned ground beef, so that part of dinner production was taken care of. Well, as I thought about it, one thing was sure that I would be using cream cheese and egg! So I asked Mark to take the cream cheese container and an egg out of the refrigerator and put them on the counter to come to the room temperature. He instantly knew that I'd be making pasta!

OK, I reached home, started the pot of water to boil anyways. Need that to cook pasta right?! Then I saw baby spinach and cheeses, looking at me, crying out to me, pick me, please! So the dinner was planned in my mind. Beef and spinach casserole, oozing with cheese! And you guess it right! The complements! Got 2 thumbs up! Now that's the part I love to get after a comforting home cooked food.

Beef N Spinach Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 big onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups packed fresh baby spinach
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
350 gms whole wheat pasta(I used fusili)
3 cups marble cheese, shredded

How to:
Cook pasta according to the pacakge directions. Drain and reserve a cup of pasta water.
Sauté onion and garlic till onion is translucent. Add ground beef, spinach, beaten egg and cream cheese. Mix well. Now add cooked pasta to the beef mixture and slowly add the pasta water till you get creamy consistency. Put in a greased 13X9 baking dish and sprinkle lots of cheese on the top. Bake in 425° F oven till cheese is melted and is nice and bubbly. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

The beauty of this recipe is that you don't need to preheat the oven. And a healthy and delicious, almost one pot meal is ready for you to devour!