Greek Pastitsio Casserole

Hello, Bubblelos!  I made a Greek Pastitsio casserole over the weekend!

Now that I've gotten you excited, does anyone else wish there were more healthy casseroles out there on the great wide web?  Between all the canned soups, Velveeta, and just random ingredients The Hubs won't eat, there are a lot of recipes immediately cut from consideration.

And why are casseroles so important?  Well, I will tell you...  Because it's basketball season. 

We have season tickets to both the UofM Tigers & the Memphis Grizzlies.  If we got food and drink at the Forum (where they play) every time we went to a game, we would spend an arm and a leg.  The solution?  Pick up something on the way home (which would probably be unhealthy), eat leftovers (which means you have to have the self-restraint not eat your leftovers at lunch - which I don't), or just do a little planning ahead for delicious, homemade slow cooker or casseroles.

So for the next couple months, we're going the (hopefully) delicious, homemade slow cooker or casseroles route when we can.

With that in mind, I've pinned quite a few recipes from melskitchencafe.com.  Aaaaaand this pastitsio casserole recipe was adjusted from a Cooking Light recipe.  And I love me some Cooking Light!  (The magazine, the site, it's all good.)

Saturday was a big cookin' day.  I did two casseroles (well, this one and another of the same that I froze), a triple batch of My Mom's Famous Red Beans & Rice.  And also some chicken for a Saturday lunch of chicken and sauteed peppers & onion sammiches with melty provolone.

Monday, I popped the casserole in the oven before the game.  And was pleased with what I saw.

Melty is always good

Mama always said to eat your vegetables.  Some frozen carrots with the casserole and we were eating in no time.

Casserole = Success

We'll definitely be having this on again.  (I mean, I do have one in the freezer.)  And many more exciting slow cooker & casserole experiments to come!

Also, Grizz won the home opener

~ Note:  There will be a slight change in the Bubble Bylaws... Obviously, the titles of each blog are usually circling around the drain of total hilarity.  But I've found myself going back to look for specific recipes and not being able to find them.  So I'm going to skip the hilarity and go more straight forward.  In a similar vein, I'm going to include both the link & the recipe so that if we, Bubblelanders, want to make something, it's consolidated in one place.  Hilarity will just have to be after the jump.

Greek Pastitsio – Casserole-Style from melskitchencafe.com 

INGREDIENTS

• 12 ounces penne pasta
• 1 pound ground turkey or ground sirloin
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (from about 1 large onion)
• 1 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 8 ounces light cream cheese
• 2 cups milk, 1% of skim work great
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Coat a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat the broiler.
2. In a large pot of lightly salted, boiling water, cook the penne pasta according to package directions.
3. While the pasta is cooking, heat a large 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add beef or turkey to the pan with the diced onions, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring to break up the meat into small pieces, until the meat is cooked through. Drain excess grease from the meat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, another minute or so. Sprinkle the flour over the meat mixture, stirring to combine, and cook for 1-2 minutes over medium heat. Add the cream cheese in pieces, scattering it over the meat. Let it melt into the meat and stir to combine. Whisk or stir in the milk, nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon salt and tomatoes. Stir to combine well and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook 5-6 minutes until the mixture is slightly thickened and is thoroughly heated through.
4. Stir in the pasta and spoon the pasta mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pasta and broil for about 3-5 minutes (watching carefully so it doesn't burn!). Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parsley. Let it stand fora bout 5 minutes before serving.