Farmers' Pizza Casserole

This seems like a kind of comfort food-- it could 
be because I'm recalling how often we relied 
on casseroles during our busy 
(and often unpredictable) dairy farming days.

Servings 10-12

INGREDIENTS:

• 8-12 oz. egg noodles, cooked just until tender
• 1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
• Salt according to preference
• 1 tablespoon green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 14 oz. jar or can of pizza sauce (You could make your own with the same amount of tomato sauce and oregano or Italian seasoning.)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:

• Brown beef with chopped onion and chopped pepper. 
• Add pizza sauce.  Set aside.
• While the meat is browning, cook the noodles just until tender.  Set aside.
• In med. sized bowl, combine sour cream, cottage cheese and softened cream cheese. Set aside.
• Place just one-half the cooked noodles in a buttered or sprayed  9x13" baking dish. 
• Cover with the cheese mixture.  As shown below, I first dropped dollops of the cheesy mixture on the noodles and, after the heat of the noodles warmed up the dollops, they were easy to spread out... 

• Next, add the remaining cooked noodles...

• Top with beef mixture.
• Cover top tightly with foil, and bake at 350-degrees for 40 minutes.
• Sprinkle the Mozzarella cheese on top and return to oven, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is evenly melted.  Like this...

Enjoy!