Recipe: Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti

Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti

12 oz spaghetti
1 (28 ounce) jars prepared spaghetti sauce
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

-Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
-In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce.  Set aside.
-Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet.  Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl.  Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic.  Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated.
-Lightly grease a 9x13" pan.  Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish.  Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
-Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

*I cut this recipe in half since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, it seemed like a lot of food to commit to.  Cutting it in half served me, Brian, Jake, and Liam (Liam's was obviously a small portion!) with enough for lunch leftovers for one.  I put it together the evening before, then put it in the fridge overnight to heat up the next evening (I love make-ahead foods!)

*I didn't have fresh grated parmesan cheese, so I just used the shaky kind. I also used a little over a half jar of sauce because it seemed a bit dry when I mixed it all up, so I would imagine if you're making the full portion you might need a little over a jar to coat the whole thing.

*Recipe found on Pinterest.com, originally posted here.

We all enjoyed this and will be adding it into our regular rotation!