RECIPE: Scooter's Spaghetti

This spaghetti is HANDS DOWN the best I've ever tasted. I originally found the recipe on Pinterest, but the link no longer works. 

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti 

1 pound ground beef

1 large can spaghetti sauce

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup chopped green peppers

1/3 cup chopped onions

8 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons milk

Grated Parmesan cheese

French fried onions (small can)

1. Cook spaghetti; drain and set aside.

2. Brown ground beef; drain. Add spaghetti sauce to the skillet and heat through.

3. Combine onions, peppers, and butter in a small bowl. Cover and microwave for four minutes on high, until soft. (As usual, I don't like adding veggies because I feel the need to keep my foods fatty.) I actually don't mind the vegetables in this recipe, but I didn't have them on hand, so I just melted the butter in the microwave.

4. Add cream cheese and milk to the vegetables (or in my case, to the butter); stir. 

 

5. In a casserole dish, layer the following in order:

Spaghetti

Cream Cheese Mixture

Spaghetti Sauce

Parmesan Cheese (add however much you prefer)

French Fried Onions (add during the last five minutes of the baking process)

*I mixed half the sauce in with the meat and noodles prior to layering, and I used the remainder as directed in the layering process. I was afraid the sauce wouldn't be evenly distributed otherwise.

 

 

*I didn't have eight ounces of spaghetti noodles so I added ziti noodles to the amount I did have.

I left the French Onions on my second attempt. The original poster claimed that the French Onions are what makes the recipe so special, but I beg to differ. Omitting them didn't make the recipe any less delicious, and I don't think adding them makes it any better either. The ingredient that makes this spaghetti so addictive is the cream cheese baked inside. 

It's so creamy, like "melt in your mouth" creamy. The major fail for most baked spaghetti recipes is that they usually turn out really dry. You don't need to worry about that with this one. I can't think of one thing that would make it taste better. This dish is in heavy rotation at my house.