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This is a recipe I love to make to either share with family and friends or freeze for ourselves. The reason its called Friendship Casserole is because it makes two 9 x13 pans full. One for yourself and one to share. I love to make to bring to friends that have just had a baby. Or to my neighbors for the holidays. All they have to worry with is popping it in the oven to warm. But sometimes I do keep both for us and put one in the freezer for a quick meal. The taste is a mixture between cheesy lasagna and saucy spaghetti. Which in other words means it tastes awesome.
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Start off by browning the hamburger meat over medium high heat, add in a little salt and pepper
Then salt a large pot of water and bring to a boil, I usually add about a tablespoon of salt to this much water, and bring to a boil
While the meat is browning go ahead and grate the mozzarella cheese
and add the chopped garlic to the browning meat
Once the meat is completely browned, add the spaghetti sauce
then add the onion powder (don’t have onion powder? just use half an onion instead)
and simmer for about 20 minutes
Once the water is boiling add the noodles and cook for about 7-8 minutes or until al dente
When the noodles are cooked, drain them and add back to pot with butter and Parmesan cheese, stir until butter is melted and cheese combined
In 2 9×13 greased pans, add half of the meat sauce to the bottom of each
Then all of the noodles
Then the rest of the meat sauce and topped with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Let one cool if you are sending to a friend and/or if you are freezing double wrap with foil with baking instructions: Thaw completely then bake for 30 minutes at 350, until heated through.
Enjoy the saucy cheesy goodness!
Print This RecipeFriendship Casserole
2 lbs ground beef
1 (48 oz) jar spaghetti sauce
3-4 garlic cloves, minced, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 (16 oz) pkg medium egg noodles
1/2 cup margarine or butter
3/4 tsp onion powder or 1/2 onion
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
12 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350º
Brown meat, drain fat. Add onions and garlic and spaghetti sauce; simmer 20 minutes.
Cook noodles as directed (al dente); drain and toss with butter and Parmesan cheese.
Spray two 9×13 pans with non-stick spray. In both pans layer half the sauce, all the noodles, rest of sauce; top with mozzarella cheese.
Cover with foil; bake 45 minutes. Serves 16.
Note: Since this recipe makes enough for two casseroles, plan one for your family and one for a friend. Think of someone who might need a reminder that they have friends who care about them – a new mom in your neighborhood, a family who’s moving, someone with an illness. OR, keep one for yourself and freeze one for another day. Wrap well with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Note the name of the recipe, the date and cooking instructions on the foil. Thaw completely before baking – make sure to remove the plastic wrap!
Sounds tasty. How funny, though… I just made this a couple of days ago, and I made so much I had to give some away! =)
Ohhh looks good! Do you know how many of your recipes I have bookmarked to eventually try? haha
This sounds delicious and easy! I can’t wait to try it!
Well, that looks easy. And yummy to boot. Thanks for sharing.
I finally posted about our Saturday afternoon. Now I need to get some Christmas posts going.
That looks so amazingly yummy! I will have to try it!
If you have a chance, stop by my Tackle-It Tuesday and say hi!
That looks amazing!! And so easy! Yum!
Mmmmm… Cheesy goodness!
We call this “Noodle Thing” at our house. It’s really yummy. I love it because it’s so versatile. Any kind of noodle or ground meat. I’ve even been known to use grated cheddar when I was out of mozzerella!
Thanks so much for this! I’ve been wanting to find a good sharing recipe for moms in my multiples club after they have a baby. Now I have one! Plus we get a meal ourselves. Perfect!!!
YUM! I”m always looking for new ways to make pastas!
My 2 yo was looking over my shoulder while I was just looking at your recipe with all the great pictures. She said, “Oh, yummy!” I guess I will be making this soon!! It does sound tasty! Thanks for sharing the recipe and linking to TMTT.
Oh, that looks so, so, so good!!
sounds delicious and like th perfect thing to send to a friend when they need a bit of a pick me up
What a great idea:-)
I’m bookmarking this one! Not only does it look yummy, I like that I can make 2 dishes at one time!
This looks wonderful and I love the fact that you include freezer directions. Thank you for sharing.
I love the name and the whole concept of this dish. This will be perfect to make and donate both to our local homeless shelter. Excellent post!
What a nice title for a yummy meal!
How very thoughtful you are. Your recipe sounds wonderful and I’m sure whoever receives that extra pan is most grateful. Have a wonderful Foodie Friday.
This is the perfect recipe–make one, freeze one. While I was working so hard, I would have loved to pull one of these casseroles from my freezer. I am going to make two batches to freeze. Thanks so much!
Recipes that make a bunch are the best! Yum 🙂
This looks yummy. I wonder how it would hold up with ground turkey as I don ‘t eat red meat….?
Looks easy and I have all the ingredients!
Ok I just made this, if you saw my menu this week one is for my family’s dinner tonight and the other I ma taken to our neighbor’s house. They are cooling right now but I had to taste mine just to see and it is wonderful!!!!! I did add meatballs because my hubby is huge on meat and it is so good! Thank you for always posting your wonderful recipes!
That looks yummy!!! 😀
I have been making this for years, but we call it ‘pasta bake’. It is always what I bring when someone had a baby or needs a meal. What is not to like about this casserole? My kids never complain when I serve this.
Hello!! This recipe sounds really good. I plan on making this to freeze and give to someone. Could you tell me what type of parmesan cheese was used, that plastic container with the green lid or fresh?? Also after thawing do you bake it with or without foil?? Thanks in advance.
I live alone so a 9X13 pan is a lot. How long would you bake it in a 7X11 pan?
Are you cutting the recipe in half? Or just using a smaller pan? If you are cutting the recipe in half, I would start with half the time and go from there, checking every 3-5 minutes.
Silly question perhaps, but when you are making one or both of these to freeze, are you baking them first, and then baking again post-thaw to heat through? Trying to get some freezer handy foods beyond crockpot-dump-bags, and this looks like a good one to do that with–one that we all will enjoy–and I’d hate to ruin this by not doing it correctly. 🙂
I don’t bake them prior to freezing.
@Sweet Pea, Thank you so much
Not sure why the ingr list 1/2 cup
Of butter? It also does Not mention about putting in the garlic powder and the parmesan cheese.
There is no Ention of buttEr, paRmesan cheese , or garlic powder in the directioNs. I can not imagine putting a /2 c of butter in this.
The butter and Parmesan cheese are mixed in the noodles after cooking them. It’s in the directions. You can certainly use less butter if you choose. The garlic powder is added when cooking the sauce and it’s optional as well.
This was great! I added MEDIUM sausa and mild GreeN chilis to the SAUCE. I also added Chopped green pepper and half a medium onion to the meat.