From the Mouths of Babes...

Today I have a guest blogger. My daughter Olivia. 

While my husband was away on a work trip, I came home from work one evening to find Olivia and the babysitter making dinner. Of course, after recovering from my shock and joy, I promptly took advantage of the opportunity and went to my room for a few minutes of peace and quiet...and to hurry up and finish my bible study for that night's meeting. As I was in my room, Olivia came in and showed me the pictures she had been taking of the food they were cooking. 

Ever since I started this blog and have been taking pictures of our food, the kids think that all food needs to be photographed. I got out the peanut butter the other day and Jillian says, "Picture Mommy? Picture? Cheeeeeese!". 

As I was looking at Olivia's pictures she asked if I was going to put them on my blog and I replied with a "maybe". Then I had the idea. 

"Do you want to write a blog, Olivia?"

"ME???? YEAH!!!"

And here we are. 

So without further ado, here is the story/recipe of Spaghetti Pie from the mind of a 7-year-old. All words and pictures are entirely hers. Enjoy.

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Hi, my name is Olivia and I love to cook.

Me and my babysitter, Joyelle, thought of making dinner for my mom so we could sit down and eat when my mom came home. So we looked through a new cooking book that we got and we found Spaghetti Pie. It was a new thing that we never had before. We thought we did not have all of the ingredients, then we found all of them. 

This is the Spaghetti Pie that we are making. 

Step One, Preheat the oven to 35 degrees. We cooked the spaghetti noodles. You put the noodles in a pot and then you cook them like spaghetti. Then when we were done, I drained them. You put them in a strainer and shake them. 

Then I put the ground turkey in the pot. You smash it up and make small chunks. Joyelle cooked it until it was like bubbling but it had no water in it. You know that noise that like sizzles? It made that noise. Then we add green peppers and onions. While Joyelle cooked the ground turkey I grated the cheese. 

Then we go back to the noodles. We spread them in a dessert pan and spread them around. Then we get the cottage cheese and spread it over the noodles.

Then go back to the ground turkey. Then you add the tomatoes and the tomato sauce. 

After that you mix it all up. Then you spread the meat and vegetables over the cottage cheese and spaghetti. 

This is the spaghetti with the meat and veggies. Then you spread the meat out with the wooden spoon. Make sure you have every thing hot except the cottage cheese.

Next you sprinkle the grated cheese on and put it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. 

Then you are done!!

All of us loooooved it!! And Joyelle stayed for dinner! Mom never gets seconds, but she got seconds this time. It was really good when you eat it for leftovers, too.  And Mom was so surprised!

Thanks for reading this! Goodbye world!!

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I think she did pretty good!  

This really was a delicious meal. I had seen it in the cookbook and passed it by thinking it was the same as any other pasta casserole, but I am so glad that they made it. It will definitely be a staple dish in our household, especially because it makes great leftovers. With my husband gone, we had enough to eat it for three nights!

So for those of you that would like the official version of this recipe. Here you go, straight from the Mayo cookbook. 

Spaghetti Pie

• 4 ounces thin whole-wheat spaghetti
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp reduced-fat Parmesan Cheese
• 1 egg (or egg substitute)
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese (we used cottage cheese)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced green or red bell pepper
• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1 cup canned tomatoes, no salt added, undrained
• 1/4 tomato paste, no salt added
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cook spaghetti according to the box directions. Drain and return to saucepan.

Stir olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and beaten egg into cooked spaghetti. Spoon spaghetti mixture into pie dish (or casserole dish). Using your fingers, spread noodles along the bottom and up the sides of the dish to form a crust.

Spread the ricotta cheese over the bottom of the crust. Set aside.

Cook turkey, onion, and peppers until turkey is no longer pink. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, and oregano to meat. Cook until heated through. 

Spoon meat mixture over the ricotta cheese. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Cut and serve. 

We hope you all enjoy this as much as we did!