Southwest Pasta Bake

What it's supposed to look like:

I've once again returned to my pasta bakes. I decided to try something a bit more adventurus then what I usually do. Honestly, I was going to make Lasagna, but it was already like 6pm and I couldn't find a simple one, so I looked up pasta bakes. I fell in love with this recipe and so decided to make it.

What mine's Looks like


Southwest Pasta Bake via Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked penne pasta
• 1 (8 ounce) package fat-free cream cheese, cubed
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (16 ounce) jar picante sauce
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
• 1 (2.25 ounce) can sliced ripe olives, drained
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add milk; beat until smooth. stir in spinach and oregano; set aside. In a nonstick skillet, cook beef and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the picante sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili powder and cumin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Drain pasta; stir into meat mixture.
2. In a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray, layer half of the meat mixture and all of the spinach mixture. Top with remaining meat mixture. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with olives and onions. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Conclusion:

Well this is super super good. Admittedly I could not find picante sauce, so I just added Vodka sauce and used normal onions, couldn't find green onions. Did you know that olives sometimes have cores/seeds? I did not know that. So I bought a jar of olives to find that they have cores, so I had to cut them the best I could and sprinkle them on top. I also wished I would have ignored the cream cheese and used Ricatta, I think that cream cheese has a strange consistency and taste inside this pasta bake and a more straight forward baking cheese would be better. Besides that I really loved it. It's pasta with a kick!