Spaghetti Casserole is a easy and frugal dinner idea that only needs a few ingredients, such as bacon and cheese.
We brainstormed for a minute and came up with:
Spaghetti Bacon Casserole
Bacon Spaghetti Casserole
Baked Cheesy Spaghetti with Bacon
BOT Casserole (ha! you know, BOT = bacon, onion, and tomato)
Eh…those aren’t much butter, but really, we’ve always called it Spaghetti Casserole, so it stays. And it suits it too. It’s not a fancy dish, it’s not a gourmet delight. It’s a noodles with bacon, cheese, and tomato sauce.
This recipe is fairly inexpensive. It’s also a recipe that can be changed easily. If you like lots of cheese, use more. If you like more bacon, use more. If you don’t like onions, leave them out. This recipe makes quite a bit, so if you have a small family, you might want to half everything.
PrintSpaghetti Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 oz boxes whole wheat spaghetti noodles (13.25 each – or so)
- 1 oz pkg bacon (I used pork today, but you can use turkey, but it changes the directions a bit, 12-16)
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 1 oz can tomato sauce + 1 can tomato sauce (29, 8 oz)
- 1/2 cup sugar (or you can use Splenda if you prefer)
- 8 oz Cheddar cheese (7 oz packages work too, shredded)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a deep 13×9″ casserole pan with cooking spray. If you don’t have a deep 13×9″ pan, you can use a standard size and another smaller pan if you can’t get it to completely fit in the one pan.
- Cook pasta according to directions; drain, and return to the pot it was cooking in.
- Cut bacon into 1″ pieces or so and cook in frying pan until fully cooked. When cooked, turn off heat and remove cooked bacon with a slotted spoon to a small bowl, leaving bacon grease in frying pan. Remove all but 1-2 tablespoons of bacon grease from frying pan. Add onions to frying pan with bacon grease and heat pan again on medium. Cook onions and when they are soft and slightly transparent, turn off heat. Add sugar to onion/bacon grease mixture. Combine and stir until sugar is completely dissolved in the onion/bacon grease mixture.
- To cooked pasta, add your bacon, onion mixture, and tomato sauce. Combine. Add about half of the shredded cheese and stir in. Pour into prepared baking pan. Top with the rest of your cheese and bake until cheese is melted and golden brown. Serve and enjoy!
- TURKEY BACON NOTE: Now, if you use turkey bacon, you will obviously not have whole “bacon grease” thing going on. So it will change the final taste, but you can cook your turkey bacon as the package directs and cut into small pieces. Saute your onions in a bit of oil ( or however you prefer to saute your onions), when done, turn heat off and add in the turkey bacon and the sugar. Then add to the pasta and continue on with the recipe.
Notes
–If using 2% cheese, like I did, it helps to cover the casserole with foil for most of the cooking in the oven. Then take off the foil the last 5-10 minutes for a bit of browning.
megan says
casserole looks great! I'm with you on the name thing. I've tried to change the name of a few recipes for the blog, and just ended up confusing myself 🙂
libbywilkiedesigns.com says
what a great recipe! lots of leftovers to freeze too… I will try it!
Alisa says
oh wow!that is just delicious!I just have to make this soon.I came across your site from the foodieblogroll and I'd love to guide our readers to your site if you won't mind.Just add your choice of foodista widget to the end of this post and it's all set, Thanks!