Friday, January 30, 2009

A little Italian, a little Mexican, and a whole lot of Yummy!

We tried yet another recipe from the Taste of Home's 2004 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes cookbook again tonight. Rich wanted spaghetti tonight for good luck (which I'll tell you more about if it ends up working) and I wanted to try out this recipe. It was just too intriguing not to! :-)

Southwestern Spaghetti

  • 12 ounces uncooked spaghetti
  • 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 envelope taco seasoning
  • 1 jar (26 ounces) spaghetti sauce
  • 1 jar (4-1/2 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
  • 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) slices olives, drained
  • 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
  • Shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream and salsa

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the taco seasoning, spaghetti sauce, mushrooms and olives. Drain spaghetti; stir into the beef mixture.
Transfer to a greased shallow 3-qt. baking dish; sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa. Yield: 8 servings.

I made a few changes, again, according to the ingredients I had. I only used 1 pound of ground beef and then a 3.8 ounce can of olives and a 8 ounce can of mushrooms. I also didn't have a 3-qt baking dish, only a 2.5-qt, so I cut back on the cheese on top, because it was starting to spill over. I probably only ended up using 1 cup of cheese instead of 2. With all the changes, it ended up being 480 calories per serving and that's without the toppings. We only had salsa and sour cream in the house at the time, so those are the only toppings we used.

I wasn't sure how Mexican and Italian would mix, but Rich and I loved it! Blake ate it quite well, while I think Morgan had a hard time with the spaghetti noodles. (She doesn't like to get messy while she eats, so she won't eat it-even after cutting it up so it was more manageable.) It is definitely worth making again!

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