Ground Beef Spiral Bake

When you try to eat less processed foods and avoid ingredients like refined flour and sugar, and damaged fats, you end up making a lot of your foods from scratch. It is fun, rewarding, and delicious to do this, but it's also helpful to have a few meals that require little more effort than dumping your ingredients into your pan and tossing in the oven. This is one of those recipes. It's adapted from Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious.

Ground Beef Spiral Bake

Ingredients:
16 ounces 100% whole wheat rotini pasta*
2 pounds ground beef
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 jars (28 ounces) spaghetti sauce**
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (buy the block and shred yourself)


*Preferably organic. If you can't find this, feel free to substitute another pasta, such as penne, instead. This dish also works great with gluten free pastas, such as brown rice pasta.

**Watch the ingredients! Many spaghetti sauces contain added sugar and harmful oils. The 365 fat free organic pasta sauce at Whole Foods contains only spices and sauce, and sells for about $2.29! (I know I usually say not to buy fat free, but the only difference between the fat free and regular pasta sauce, in this case, is the oil. The fat free comes without added soybean oil.)

Directions:
Cook the pasta according to package directions. While it is cooking, brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic. Drain. Add the spaghetti sauce, paste, and spices to the ground beef and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Mix the cooked, drained pasta into the meat mixture. Feel free to add a little water if it seems too thick. Pour the mixture into 2 greased 9x13 pans, then sprinkle each mixture with the mozzarella cheese. Freeze one pan, and bake one pan at 350 for 25-30 minutes.