Baked Spaghetti

I love spaghetti and love to play around with the sauce. Ryan loves baked pasta so I decided to do a baked spaghetti loaded with veggies and cheese. I did add ground beef to this dish to make it a little heartier for Ryan after a long day at work, but it would have been just as delicious with no meat added. It turned out delicious. Noodles and cheese, really who could complain about that!

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 small sweet onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 carrot, grated (I used the small grate on my box grater)
• 1 small zucchini, grated (I did the large grate for the zucchini)
• 1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1lb. extra lean ground beef
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 large can tomato sauce with garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes with olive oil and roasted garlic
• 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• spaghetti noodles, cooked
• cheese, grated (I used marble cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan would have been great on top as well)

Heat oil in skillet, add onions and celery. Cook 5 minutes. Add peppers, carrot, zucchini and garlic. Cook 3-5 minutes. Add ground beef, salt, pepper and oregano. Cook beef through. Add tomato sauce and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to an hour. Add chopped basil and stir.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine noodles and sauce. Spray an oven safe dish with a non-stick spray. Add pasta, top with cheese and bake 30-45 minutes. Until cheese is bubbly and the pasta is warm through out. I served with some warm buns, a salad would have gone nicely with this as well.