Cheesy Beefy Noodle Bake

If you follow my Facebook page, you're probably aware that I had a misadventure this week involving my stove burner exploding, so now my stove serves as a countertop until we can get the guy out to tell us what we need to replace. What I was in the process of making when it happened is the following recipe, although since I no longer have a working stove I had to radically alter the cooking methods I had planned.

However, this came out amazingly tasty! Not only that, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find out how low carb it ended up being, although the fat and cholesterol are a little higher than I'd prefer. Being that it was such an adventure to make, I'm calling low-carb comfort food a total win.

For starters, this is what happened to my stove. We got way lucky in that all it did was spit out a bunch of sparks that burned my backsplash and melt a hole in my 4-quart saucepan. I am entirely too aware of how much worse it could have been, and still get goosebumps every time I look at it, knowing it could very well have ended up burning my entire house down.

As a result, I learned how to microwave ground beef, and also pasta. It's definitely not something I would do as a first choice, but it actually turns out surprisingly well!

This looks like nothing more than total comfort food, doesn't it? Ground beef, noodles, cheese, and tomato sauce with a few other things. I chose to use Rustic Tuscan seasoning from Spice Merchants, but you could probably use whatever Italian-type seasoning blend you prefer.

First step was the break up the ground beef with my fingers until it was in small pieces, into which I mixed the garlic and onion. I covered the casserole and microwaved it for 2 minutes, stirred to break up the pieces again, then microwaved an additional 1 minute. That's all it took in my microwave, but your mileage will vary.

After I drained the meat, I combined it with some Worcestershire sauce and the Rustic Tuscan seasoning in a small bowl and set it aside while I moved on to other things.

I used about half a bag of egg noodles, cooked in my 3-quart casserole dish with enough water to almost fill it. It took about 8 minutes for them to be done, but I learned the hard way if you try to microwave for more than 2 minutes at a time, the water will boil over and you'll have a huge mess on your hands. So cook the noodles for 2 minutes at a time, stop and stir, then continue for another 2 minutes until they're done. You want them to come out a little chewier than you would normally eat them, as they'll continue to absorb liquid when you assemble the casserole.

Meanwhile, combine the cottage cheese, sour cream, and about 2/3 of the cheddar cheese in a bowl. If you want you can add some salt and pepper, but I left them out to keep the sodium content at least a little under control.

The ground beef mixture seemed dry to me, so I combined about 1/3 of the can of tomato sauce with it.

The remaining 2/3 can of tomato sauce I mixed with the drained noodles, then divided them in half. After spraying the casserole with nonstick cooking spray, I put about half the noodles in the bottom.

Next layer was the ground beef and tomato sauce mixture, spread evenly to mostly cover all the noodles.

After that I spread the cottage cheese mixture evenly, making sure it went all the way to the edges of the casserole.

Finally, I spread the rest of the noodles and scattered the remaining grated cheese. I didn't have a problem with the cheese burning, but if your oven tends to over-brown things you can wait and add the cheese later in the baking time.

See? Mine came out with deliciously melted cheese, but not at all browned and certainly not burned. I then let it stand for a few minutes (probably about 5) while I got out my side dishes and poured drinks, etc.

Cheesy Beefy Noodle Bake

Serves 8

1 pound ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tuscan seasoning
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided
8 ounces egg noodles (uncooked)
1 quart water
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
6 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated and divided

Step 1
Break ground beef up into small pieces with your fingers and place in a 3-quart microwavable casserole dish. Add garlic and onion and stir to combine, then spread out in a thin layer without pressing down.

Step 2
Cover casserole and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes, no more than 2 minutes at a time, stirring when it stops to break up the pieces, until all the pink is gone. Drain and place in a medium bowl. Add Worcestershire sauce, Tuscan seasoning, and about 1/3 of tomato sauce to meat and mix well.

Step 3
Wipe out casserole dish with paper towel and place noodles in casserole. Fill with approximately 1 quart of water (until casserole is full to within an inch of the top). Cover and microwave in 2-minute increments for 8 minutes, stirring every time it stops. The noodles should be just a bit chewier than al dente. Be careful! The water can and will boil over if you cook it for too long at a time!

Step 4
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine the cottage cheese, sour cream, and 4 ounces of cheese.

Step 5
Drain noodles and place in a large bowl; add remaining tomato sauce and stir to completely coat noodles.

Step 6
Preheat oven to 350F and spray casserole with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 7
In bottom of casserole, spread about half the noodles, then the ground beef mixture, then the cottage cheese mixture, then the remaining noodles. Top with remaining grated cheese.

Step 8
Bake at 350F for 35 minutes; let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serving Size: 345 g

Calories: 338

Calories from Fat: 162

Total Fat: 18.0 g

Saturated Fat: 10.1 g

Trans Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 97 mg

Sodium: 604 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 13.9 

Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g

Sugars: 3.4 g

Protein: 29.4 g

I will completely understand if you have a working stove and would rather not microwave. My original plan was to boil the noodles for about 7 minutes and drain them, but this is what my poor 4-quart saucepan looks like now. I also planned to cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic with a bit of bacon grease and eliminate the Worcestershire sauce, but I'm afraid to use the stove until it gets checked out by a professional. Necessity is the mother of invention, and it worked out far better than I was expecting! And while I originally added the Worcestershire to give the beef more brown colour since it came out of the microwave really gray, the extra flavour melded nicely with the overall dish so I'd keep it even if I was frying.