Spanish Noodles and Ground Beef

  I was looking for something fast to fix without turning the oven on. This recipe from Taste of Home casseroles cookbook magazine fit the bill on all counts.

  I had chopped onion and chopped green pepper in the freezer, so that took out some of the work and browning the ground beef was easy to do. If you buy 85% or better ground beef you will have little waste to drain away. 

  I was leery of putting the noodles into the casserole to cook but as I wanted to only dirty one pan decided to try it. This worked quite well. The bacon cooked in the microwave on paper towels so that was another pan saved. 

  We had it with steamed green beans and garlic cheese breadsticks. All in all, a easy, quick meal to get. 

   Canned tomatoes are the way to go here as you need the juice for added liquid. I did add some sugar to the tomatoes to cut the acidity. I will add some garlic next time as we like garlic, otherwise this worked out very well.

  Spanish Noodles and Ground Beef

Prep/total time About 30 minutes

1 pound ground beef at least 85% lean

½ cup chopped green and/or red pepper

4 tablespoons chopped onion

3 cups uncooked medium egg noodles

1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes & juice

1 cup water

4 tablespoons chili sauce

1 teaspoon salt, black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon or to taste granulated sugar

4 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled

  In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and ground pepper until meat is no longer pink.

  Stir in tomatoes, water, chili sauce salt, pepper and sugar, Stir in the dry noodles and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer about 20 minutes until the noodles are tender, stirring occasionally. If it seems a little dry, add some water or tomato juice. Crumble the bacon on the top before serving. This would easily divide in half for 2 to 3 servings.

4 to 5 servings