100 Billion Dollar Spaghetti

adapted from being grown up

INGREDIENTS:

1-16 oz pkg spaghetti

1 lb of ground beef
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
8 oz of cream cheese
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 lb low fat cottage cheese

1 large egg

2 cups grated mozzarella, divided
1/2 stick butter, sliced into pats


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Boil your spaghetti noodles until al dente (firm). Drain and set aside until ready to assemble.
Combine the cream cheese, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, egg and 3/4 cup mozarella until well blended.
Brown your hamburger, drain well. Combine the hamburger with your spaghetti sauce.

Assemble:

On the bottom of your 13x9" pan, place half of the pats of butter. Add half of the cooked spaghetti.

Top spaghetti with cheese mixture. Add remaining spaghetti, and pats of butter.

Top spaghetti with sauce. Place pan in your preheated oven for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, remove from oven and top with remaining cheese, and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool, and then serve!

I was going to make some crunchy taco hamburger helper, but my niece and nephew ate all of the chips while I was at church. Soooo, I had to find something else to make for dinner. Lasagna sounded good, but I am a lazy soul, and looking for lasagna noodles did not sound fun. SO, I hopped on Pinterest, and my favorite (this is what I literally call her because I can never remember her name) had pinned a recipe for million dollar spaghetti, and I decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, I didn't have sour cream, but I did have greek yogurt, so in it went. I added an egg, because I like things to really set up,  and I am so glad that I did. It cuts into beautiful squares once cooled. So it ends up pretty AND delicious. Since I made a lot of adjustments, I decided to dub this 100 Billion Dollar Spaghetti.

Margarita Cake

In honor of Cinco de Cuatro, and my love for all things lime, I give unto you, Margarita Cake!

adapted from Betty Crocker

INGREDIENTS
CRUST:

1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed pretzels
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter -- melted

Zest of 1 lime

CAKE:
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
3/4 cups bottled nonalcoholic margarita mix

1 Tablespoon tequila

3 Tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Zest of 2 limes
3 egg whites

TOPPING:
1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping -- thawed

Zest of 1 lime

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only and lightly flour 13x9-inch pan, or spray bottom with baking spray with flour. In medium bowl, mix crust ingredients. Sprinkle evenly on bottom of pan; press gently.

In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over crust.

Bake 34 to 39 minutes or until light golden brown and top springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Frost with whipped topping; sprinkle with additional lime peel. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

The original recipe did not call for quite so much lime zest, lime juice or tequila… but I am a Mormon that likes to live on the wild side, and I still had half a bottle of Jose Cuervo from the time I made these, and I would feel like such a fraud if I called this a Margarita Cake and didn't use tequila. Fun fact: the batter for this cake, was amazing. I literally stuck my head in the bowl to lick it! The pretzel crust was REALLY hard to eat with plastic spoons, so do some dishes and use real utensils. Also, I would probably add more tequila and less water.