Italian Bake Aka Lazy Lazagna

Total Time: 35 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef or 1 1/2 lbs turkey
• 2 (8 ounce) jars pasta sauce
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup grape jelly (makes the sauce darker, richer & that combined with the pepper flakes give it a sweet & spicy flavor)
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) box pasta, of your choice (we like medium shells or rotini & half & half whole wheat pasta)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese

Recipe

• 1 brown ground beef/turkey with onion & 1 tsp of the garlic powder.
• 2 while meat is cooking boil water for pasta & cook it til still chewy, as it will cook more in the oven.
• 3 when meat is done drain & rinse with hot water to remove as much grease as possible, put back in pan & add jelly & half the pasta sauce, cook til jelly disolves into meat & sauce.
• 4 take all ingredients(except cheese) & place in 9x11 in casserole.
• 5 mix thoroughly.
• 6 toss 1/4 of the cheese in with other ingredients & mix.
• 7 then sprinkle rest of cheese on top, bake @ 375 til golden & bubbly & enjoy!
• 8 as for once a month cooking -- this is how i do it --
• 9 i double, triple or quadruple the recipe except when it comes to the step to place it in the casserole dish i instead place it in large round ice cream buckets i've sprayed with cooking spray, place some plastic wrap on top then place lid & freeze. then on the day you want to cook it, get it out of freezer in the morning, run bucket under water to loosen a bit. then take contents out (in one huge lump) & put in large round crockpot, it fits perfectly! set on low, come back 5-6 hours later & voila dinner! you can also use the ice cream bucket method for other casseroles & soups & stews.