Baked Spaghetti

The months are just flying by.  It seems like yesterday that I wrote my last Secret Recipe Club post.  Now, here we are again...Actually, I've got to tell you that I'm writing this at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.  We're on our way to visit our grandkids tomorrow and I couldn't sleep and decided this was as good a time as any to sit down at the computer and write.  George thinks it's a great idea to have his mom up and about and he's sitting on a chair next to me purring like crazy.

So, let's talk about the Secret Recipe Club.  There are oodles and oodles of linky groups in the blogsphere.  Everyone posts their favorite this or that and all of the links show up beneath your post.  SRC is different.  We're actually assigned a blog to choose a recipe from.  Genius idea by Amanda.  I love participating because I meet some wonderful bloggers and read some blogs I'd never run across otherwise. 

This month I was assigned The Avid Appetite.  Rachel and Shaun live in New York and are newly weds.  A few years ago she couldn't even boil water.  Now, she loves to cook.  In a lot of ways, she reminds me of my niece.  Samantha said to me a couple of weeks ago that she's decided she's going to work on her cooking and get out of the rut of the ten things she knows how to cook.  Rachel's done that and done that well. 

We enjoyed our baked spaghetti.  When I made it, the whole house was full of this incredible aroma.  You know how realtors say to bake bread or cookies if you're showing your house?  Well, let me tell you, this'd work ten times better than those!  Except for using chopped broccoli instead of chopped spinach, I made the recipe as Rachel had written it and would make one change - less pasta.  We tend to like more stuff to pasta so I'd cut it back by half.  This was a wonderful make ahead and bake later dish.  It reminded me a lot of my mom's spaghetti and meatballs from when I was a kid.  It's one of those recipes where you can change it up to suit your own taste.  Exchange the turkey for sausage or ground beef.  Use different vegetables. It's super flexible.  Thank you Rachel!  Here's a link to Rachel's blog if you'd like to get to know her yourself :-)

Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients:
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried basil
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 26 oz jar of pasta sauce
1/2 c grated parmesan
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Cook and drain your pasta.  Cook it for a couple of minutes less than the package directs.  Brown and drain the turkey.  Mix together the pasta, turkey, seasonings, spinach and pasta sauce.  Put the mixture into a glass 9x13 baking dish.  Top with the shredded cheese and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  To serve, cut into squares. 

adapted from The Avid Appetite.  Originally from Y'all Come Eat.