Casseroles make dinner easy! This pasta casserole can be made in one pot with noodles, beef, pasta sauce and cheese. This casserole will become a family favorite.

Now that school is back in session, dinner time can get hectic.  Between the kids schedules, my schedule and my husband's schedule, I'm often tempted to just order take out.  That's why I love having easy, go to recipes in my recipe file – including lots of casseroles.  It's easy to include grains, meat, dairy and even veggies in to casseroles.  My family loves all kinds of casseroles like chicken spaghetti, chili cheese mac,  and even tuna noodle casserole.

For this pasta casserole, I wanted a spaghetti and meatball type of casserole, but I wanted to use as few pots as possible. So I boiled the pasta, browned the ground beef and then baked the casserole in the same pot.  If you don't have an oven proof pot, then just put the casserole in a baking dish and bake that way.

One change I will make to this casserole in the future is to add some vegetables to this dish – green peppers, onions and mushrooms would all be great and up your family's veggie in take easily.  After I cooked and drained the pasta, I'd melt some Country Crock Original spread in the pot, and saute the chopped veggies for a few minutes before adding the ground beef. Then just follow the recipe.

For this casserole, I used Country Crock Original Spread, along with a few seasonings,  to give the noodles a little flavor.  Why use Country Crock? It has zero grams trans fat per serving contains no partially hydrogenated oils, has no cholesterol, has 70% less fat than butter per serving and has  30% fewer calories than butter per serving.

I served the casserole with steamed green beans topped with some Country Crock and Garlic Pull Apart Bread, also substituting Country Crock for the butter. It was a delicious, and easy, meal!

One Pot Pasta Casserole

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Ingredients

• 1 bag wide egg noodles
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup Country Crock Original Spread
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese

Instructions

2. Fill an oven proof dutch oven with enough water to cook pasta. Cook noodles according to package directions. When cooked drain in a colander. Toss noodles with Country Crock spread, onion powder and garlic powder. Set aside.
3. In the same dutch oven, brown ground beef. Strain off fat.
4. Add cooked noodles and pasta sauce to the ground beef in the dutch oven. Stir gently.
5. Top pasta mixture with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

Adapted from Mommy's Kitchen

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.