Baked Tortellini

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Ingredients:          

20 oz of cheese tortellini (I’ve recently started buying frozen, it’s cheaper and just as good as the bag you get out of the deli side of your local grocery store. Also, you don’t have to use cheese, whatever tortellini that tickles your tail feathers will work)

1 lb of ground beef (again, use what you like. Ground chicken or turkey would be healthier options. Use sausage if you’re a monster.)

24 oz of pasta sauce (literally get a jar of what you like. Homemade if you’re fancy, but let’s face it. You wouldn’t be looking at “easy weeknight meal” if you were fancy. Anyways, use store brand – I did – or whatever brand sauce you want. Can’t mess it up!)

8 oz of cream cheese (you can omit this is you don’t like cream cheese like a weirdo, but it won’t affect the recipe if you do. Unless you like cream cheese, then – recipe affected.)

1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (listen, I honestly didn’t measure this. half the bag is A-OK!)

Step-By-Step: (day by day… if you don’t get this, you’re too young)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. (Get your cast iron out, you’re welcome. I always forget)

Brown whatever meat you chose in a skillet (I added some onion, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and some steak seasoning my husband has stashed away – but season it however you’d like ).

Start boiling a pot of water with some salt and a smidge of oil (to keep pasta from sticking to each other.) Add tortellini when the water comes to a boil. (base this off of what the package says to do – but usually 4-7 minutes)

Once your meat is browned and DRAINED (not a soul can afford lean meat now days, drain the meat!) add in your jar of pasta sauce and cream cheese (I cube mine to help the melting process.)

Once your sauce is incorporated and the cheese has fully melted, your tortellini should be done, drain your tortellini and add it to the meat sauce. Toss together so that they become friends (with benefits.)

Transfer your tortellini and meat sauce into a 9 x 12 baking dish. Top the dish with the mozzarella cheese (I also garnish the top with parsley to feel better about myself)

Place it into your preheated oven. (hopefully you didn’t skip step one!)

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes (or until cheese is bubbly)

If I had my time back, I would have broiled for a minute or so to get the cheese a little crispier, but it didn’t’ affect the way my family felt about it.

KID APPROVED.