Non-Adventure #13 & Rambling #9 Sunday Dinner #2 An Old Fave and a New Treat!

So I made dinner again and I wanted to make something that everyone in my family loves, including my dad. My sister discovered it in college ad brought it home to all of us. We like to call it Spaghetti Bake. It's really simple, super easy and tastes even better the next day. These are the ingredients:

Ground beef (or ground turkey), spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce (1-2 depending on the jar size, this is the giant jar and I only needed the one), 2 (smaller) packages of shredded pizza cheese. Preheat the oven to 350.
Brown and drain the beef. Make sure it's in little chunks (my mom uses a potato masher to break it up). Set aside to cool down a little.
Boil water and add about this many noodles. I like to break mine in half .
After your meat is cooked and noodles are done, drained, and rinsed with cold water. Make sure to drain off as much water as possible. In a 13x9 glass baking dish use about half the noodles to make a layer. Completely cover the bottom of the dish.
Using half the browned meat, sprinkle a layer on top of the noodles.
Use one jar (or if using a BIG JAR about half of that one) and pour on top of the meat and spread around with a spatula.
Use one of the first packages of cheese and sprinkle on top of the sauce.
Use the remaining ingredients to repeat the layers. (Rest of the noodles, meat, sauce, and last package of cheese, so it looks like this below)
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. (you can use the broiler to brown it up a little)
I know it will be hard because it will smell AMAZING! but wait about 5 minutes before cutting into it to serve.
This is soooooooo good and like I said earlier I think it's even better the next day! Just cut you a chunk and heat it up in the microwave.

And now for dessert! I made a recent new purchase the other day. It is this cookbook:
This is a great cookbook for anyone really but especially good for a beginner. It has skill levels and step by step pictures. At the bottom of every page is a box called "Ask mom" and it gives you page numbers to find the answers to questions that you would probably call mom to ask her. I am the kind of person who reads cookbooks like actual books and this I LOVE!!!

So I decided to make the fudgy brownies. I have only ever made them from a mix and so I was kind of excited to make them from scratch. Here are the ingredients:
Flour, sugar, butter, baking soda, vanilla, unsweetened chocolate, eggs, and nuts (the nuts are optional)
Preheat the oven to 350.
They say to use a chef's knife to coarsely chop 3 oz. of unsweetened chocolate (I used my little chopper from Pampered Chef to coarsely chop the chocolate).
In a saucepan, on low melt 1/2 cup of butter and the coarsely chopped chocolate until smooth and melted. Remove from heat. While it's cooling prepare an 8x8 baking dish or pan with nonstick spray.
When the chocolate is cooled add 1 cup of sugar, and stir until its dissolved.
Now don't follow me exactly here I kind of messed up but add one egg at a time and stir vigorously after each addition, making sure they are incorporated.
Then stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
In a small bowl stir together 2/3 cups of flour and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir just until combined.

If you want them stir in 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Someone attacked mine before we even sat down to dinner.
It was a really easy recipe and a great book of recipes. I can't wait to make some more. They also have another one called Anyone can cook. I have not purchased that one but I bet it's just as good as the baking one and it comes with a dvd!
Like before here are the recipes written out:

Spaghetti Bake
1 lb of ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 box of spaghetti noodles
2 jars (or one BIG JAR) of spaghetti sauce
2 packages (small ones) of shredded pizza cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Brown and drain ground meat. Cook noodles. In 13x9 baking dish layer half of the noodles, half of the meat, half of the sauce (spread around), and one package of shredded cheese. Repeat the layers using the rest of the ingredients. Bake for 35-40 min in the preheated oven. Cool for 5 minutes and scarf down!

Fudgy Brownies
1/2 cup butter
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts

In medium saucepan on low melt butter and chocolate, remove from heat. Prepare 8x8 pan with non-stick spray. Once cooled stir in sugar. Add eggs one at a time and stir vigorously until incorporated. Stir in vanilla. In a small bowl stir together flour and baking soda. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, mixing until just combined. If desired stir in nuts. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.