Spinach and Cheese Pasta Bake

 

Pasta, pasta, read all about it!
(And take a look at the little Live Video on the FB page!)

Last night I decided to make a little spinach, peas, and cheese pasta bake due to having to use the ingredients before they went bad!

This is one of the easiest things you can do: put ingredients together, and make ’em into a casserole. This ended up being vegetarian style, but you can always add meat to something like this to make it more hearty and filling.

The ingredients used for this were:

– 3/4 of the box of pasta(I used shells, you can use elbows, penne, rigatoni, etc)
– 1 cup pre-washed spinach
– 1/2 cup petit peas, cooked
– Almost an entire ball of mozzarella cheese, sliced
– A few slices of pre-sliced Gouda cheese, mixed within the pasta
– 1/4 cup grated parmesan, mixed within the pasta
– 2 tablespoons olive oil, some in the water for the pasta and some over entire dish
– A few shakes of onion and garlic powder, mixed within the pasta

Steps:

First, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box. As your water is heating up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Next, take out your ingredients you will be using(spinach, peas, cheese, etc) and butter your oven-safe dish(I don’t know the size of the one I used but judge it according to the amount of ingredients and pasta you’re making!).

What I do to make it easy to butter a dish is grab the stick of butter and just swoosh it all over bottom and sides of the dish.

Your water should be boiling by now, so put the pasta in and let that cook for the designated amount of time the box says – my mini shells took 6 minutes. TIP! Undercook the pasta slightly so it doesn’t become mushy when you bake it 😉

After the pasta has cooked, drain it and coat it with a little bit of butter and/or olive oil so it doesn’t stick and add the onion salt/garlic powder.

For the next part, there are two ways to do this: Either layer the pasta, then spinach and peas and cheese, and put more pasta on top, OR mix the spinach and peas and pasta together where you cooked the pasta/another bowl, put that in the dish, and then top it with the fresh mozzarella, gouda, and parm. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil at the end too for extra flavor.

Once you have the pasta and veggies and cheese in the dish, bake it in the oven at 350 for 30-35 minutes, and thats it!

Plenty for a couple of meals throughout the week or weekend.

Enjoy!