Grandma Kit's Spaghetti Casserole

This week I'm doing an easy recipe, simply because I want to carve a pumpkin!!! So cheap and easy it is! My lovely cat Rocco helped me carve my pumpkin... what a helpful little man.

 Of course I carved a cupcake, what else would you expect from a cupcake gal like myself?

This recipe is from my Grandma Kit. She used to make this for my family when I was a little kid living in Los Angeles. Here is my favorite picture of her, I keep this one on my fridge!

When we moved to Redmond, Washington, my brother and I were begging for Grandma's Spaghetti Casserole! So my mom braved the recipe, and she made it for us. We also asked for Grandma's beef stew, but mom stopped making it for us, because it was never as good as Grandma's... (I'm sure it was delicious mom! Sorry!) But spaghetti casserole became the easy-peasy-go-to-dish, that everyone loved. So three generations of women, making some delicious easy spaghetti caserole, each of us changing it a little along the way... So here I am putting my cupcake twist on it. I couldn't resist!

Ingredients:

1 box of Spaghetti noodles

1 can of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce

1 can of chili (I used turkey chili this time because it was on sale)

1 can of whole black olives

1/2-1 block of cheddar cheese

Parmesan cheese

Salt

Non Stick Spray

1 big ole pot

So to start, bring about 6-8 cups of water (I don't measure, I just fill up the pot so my noodles have enough room to do their thing while cooking) to a boil. I add salt while boiling to season my noodles, probably about a teaspoon or so. Boil your noodles as it says on the package, mine went for 11 minutes. This is how full I filled the pot.

 While your noodles are boiling you can get your other ingredients ready. I shred the cheese into a bowl. Now you can go and get the pre-shredded kind, that saves a little elbow work, but I feel slightly accomplished after shredding my cheese (Plus I just buy whatever is cheapest or on sale). Here I used about 3/4 a brick of cheese, but you can use more if you want! Never too much cheese in my book!

After you are done slice your olives. I go about 4-5 slices per olive, I'm not really picky with it, I just slice away without really paying attention. 

 Now here comes the hard part. Open your can of chili and jar of sauce, then turn your oven to 350 degrees on bake. Phew that was rough! hehe.

 Once your pasta is done cooking, strain it, then put it back into your big ole pot.

 Put the entire can of chili, the entire bottle of pasta sauce, and all of your chopped up olives right into the pot. 

 Give it a good stir, and you are ready to prep your cupcake trays! I spray the trays with non stick spray, then we are ready to start filling the trays!

 Now with the sauce in the pot, all the good stuff will sink to the bottom, but don't worry, we'll get it all in there! I used a fork to put the spaghetti into the cupcake trays. 

 I'd fork in a little spaghetti, then use a spoon to put in some of the sauce in the bottom of the pot. Fill up the cup, and don't worry about it being a flat 'spaghetti cupcake'. They can over fill a little with spaghetti, as it will all bake down into a more flat cup. When they are all full, spoon the rest of the good saucy stuff down in the bottom of the pan on top of each spaghetti cup.

This is how many of the cups I was able to fill with the entire pot of spaghetti.

Top each one with the shredded cheddar cheese, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. They are done and ready to go into the oven! I put mine in at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. The spaghetti is already cooked, so you are just waiting on the cheese to bubble and get all golden and yummy.

Once they are done, let them cool just enough that they are still warm (this helps them hold their shape) then pop them out and eat them! I freeze mine, so that I can have lots of meals later on!

The recipe that has been passed down has always just been baked in a large caserole dish, but I thought this would be a good way to make multiple meals and be able to freeze them without having to freeze the entire casserole! 

YUM!!! Hope you enjoy the family recipe!

Until next time!

xoxo

cupcake bettie