Triple Cheese Baked Beefaroni

My plan for this coming year is to feed my family healthier meals.  So this is the first in hopefully a series of many.  This took a little bit of time to make, but was a HUGE hit with the family. No one noticed the missing calories.  In fact there was nothing leftover!! It had great flavor.

Triple Cheese Baked Beefaroni

adapted from The Complete Light Cookbook

1 pound penne pasta or pasta of your choice

Meat Sauce

1 cup minced onions

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 pound hamburger

2 cups spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup chicken or beef broth

Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 3/4 cups beef or chicken broth

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Topping

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cook pasta until tender but firm. Drain and set aside.

Meat Sauce:

Brown hamburger with the garlic and onion.  Stir in the pasta sauce and 1/2 cup broth. Simmer for 10  minutes of until thickened. Set aside.

Cheese Sauce:

Whisk flour, milk and  1 3/4 cup broth in a nonstick pan until smooth.  Place over medium heat and cook until the mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce heat and continue to cook, for five minutes or until thickened. Stir in the cheddar cheese until it is all melted. Remove from heat.

 Stir the cheese sauce into the meat sauce.

Toss the pasta with the sauce. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 minutes or until bubbly.

*You can substitute the hamburger with ground turkey or ground soy.

This also freezes well!

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