Tinfoil Chef

One of the goodies that I got for Christmas this year was a book “Best Recipes from the backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars”. It’s positively loaded with recipes collected from product packages over the years. To anyone that’s ever had trouble finding that recipe that they found on the back of a package of this or that, this book can be an invaluable resource.

This recipe was originally on packages of Mueller’s Spaghetti. It’s a long standing fact that in our house, very few recipes make it to the table without being modified in some way. They might be made according to original directions once but after that anything is possible as we come up with ways to tinker with it. This one was no exception.

One of the changes that we often make is to double a recipe so that one making can provide for two (sometimes three or even more) meals. In this case we doubled the basic recipe and then started “adjusting” things.

Start off by preheating the oven to 350 and getting water on to boil for the spaghetti. You’ll want enough room to cook about a pound or so. Since we didn’t have on hand the thin sliced pepperoni that original recipe called for and because we were doubling it we used 2 pounds of ground turkey for the meat. While the spaghetti is going the ground turkey should be browned. While it’s cooking I took a hard plastic spatula and kept chopping the pieces up so that when it’s done it’s crumbled into small pieces.

Next I got out six or seven green onions and chopped them fine and added them to a mixing bowl along with a couple of 4oz cans of mushroom stems and pieces, a can of chopped black olives and the ground turkey.

Once the spaghetti is done, drain it and add to the mixing bowl. Then open two 25oz cans of whatever variety of spaghetti sauce you like and add one and a half of them to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

You need a large-ish backing dish next (I used a 14.75 x 10.5). Give it a spray with a non-stick cooking spray and then pour the mixture into it and spread it out evenly. Take the last half can of sauce and spread it over the top.

Spread a layer of shredded cheddar cheese over the top of this and put it into the oven. When the cheese has melted and *just* almost started to brown it’s done.

I found that it’s a good idea to use a steak knife to pre-cut the portions before serving so that they come out easier and then used a spatula to serve.

It got great reviews from all of us and we’re glad that this one making is enough for two or three meals. We’ll definitely be doing this one again.