Good Eats: Skinny Cheeseburger Casserole

Have y'all visited the blog Skinnytaste?  If not... you definitely should.  They have some of the best recipes that are all healthy-- and provide the nutritional information of each recipe for you so that you can tweak it as you need!!

Anyways, I kept seeing this cheeseburger casserole recipe pop up on pinterest...which to me, honestly sounds, well disgusting.  I love cheeseburgers....and I love casseroles....but the thought of something tasting like a cheeseburger and involving a casserole dish just didn't seem appealing to my tastebuds.  I decided, though, that the realm of pinterest and the pinning-gurus couldn't be wrong about mixing the dish together.  So with some hesitancy, I decided to muster up my courage and find a cheeseburger casserole recipe to try.

I made it on a night that I had a late lunch...mostly because I was fearful it would be a total flop (this was also the first recipe I had tried since my complete failure of crockpot French toast that I was ridiculously excited about and waited months to try...... and it was probably one of the biggest fails of all time.) 

So we tried one from skinnytaste (you can find the original, un-tweaked version here.  I wanted more protein, less noodles, and less cheese.  So we added more ground beef, and also some more tomato paste!



Ingredients:

1.5 cups uncooked rotini pasta

2 tsp EVOO

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1.5 lbs lean ground beef

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 small can of tomato paste

28 oz diced tomatoes, drained

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/5 cups low fat shredded cheddar cheese

chopped dill pickles (we used the sandwich style dills and chopped them into sixths)

 

Preparation:

 

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 9 x 13 inch casserole dish with cooking spray.

 

2. Cook pasta according to directions on package

 

3. In a large skillet (with a lid), heat oil over medium.  Cook onions until softened.  Stir in garlic, and cook for 2 minutes.  Add beef.  Increase heat to medium high, and cook beef until browned.  Drain grease.  Add salt and pepper.

 

4. Stir in tomato paste and add tomatoes and mustard.  Allow the mixture to thicken and bubble (once thickened, allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes, covered.

 

5. Toss the pasta in with the meat mixture and stir until mixed thoroughly.  Pour into prepared casserole dish.  Top with cheddar cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melted.

 

6. Top with chopped dill pickles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

y'all.... this was good.  So good, actually, that I may have enjoyed it more than a burger (don't get me wrong, I will always be a cheeseburger kind of girl), but this was a nice change.  It wasn't overbearing in flavor, but still tasted like the best parts of a cheeseburger.  Definitely a good one for us... oh yeah, and you can freeze leftover portions and it tastes just as delicious when you reheat them :)

 

 

Enjoy!

Virginia