Million $$$$ Casserole

Here’s the ingredients you will need.  (I tripled this to make four half size pans to freeze.)

1 lb ground beef
26 oz spaghetti sauce  (I use my homemade sauce/gravy)
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
8 oz ricotta (you can also use cottage cheese)
1/2 cup butter
16 oz penne pasta
8 oz sharp cheddar shredded cheese

UPDATE:  Some of you noticed that I used cottage cheese but listed Ricotta.  I tried both, the pictures just came from the cottage cheese trial.  I definitely think the ricotta did better in the freezer and had a creamier taste which is why I chose to list the ricotta on the recipe.  I definitely use the recipes I share here and try them out first.  That means freezing them for at least a few weeks and then serving them to my family. 

1.  Cook the ground beef.  When I know I’m going to do do some freezer cooking in a big batch, I cook the ground beef in the crockpot easily the night before. Once it’s completely cooked, drained and cooled, I place it in the a container in the  refrigerator.  The next day, it’s really easy to pull together a recipe like this one.

But anyways, once the ground beef is cooked.  Set it aside.

2.  Boil the penne pasta and drain once fully cooked.

3.  In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese.  It’s much easier to mix them together if you let the cream cheese soften first.

4.  Add half of the pasta to the containers you’re using.  In this case, since I had tripled the recipe, I used four half containers.  If you’re making only one batch, I would use a 9×13 pan.

5.  Top the pasta with the cream cheese mixture.  Spread it evenly around the pan.

6.  Top the cream mixture with the rest of the noodles.

7.  Cut the butter into slices and top the noodles.

8.  Top the butter with the ground beef.

9.  Top the ground beef with the spaghetti sauce.  Straight out of the can, man.

10.  Add cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees Faranheit for 45 minutes.

If you’re freezer cooking, you can top it with foil and add it to the freezer.  Once thawed in the future, you can bake it for the same time.  Personally, I think when you freezer cook with pasta, it sometimes soaks up the sauce.  I like to add some sauce to the casserole before cooking it.