My very good friend, Mandy, has been having adventures in cooking over at her blog: From Delivery to Divine. I decided to try out her Hungarian Noodle Bake with a couple of tweaks.
First, I decided that I’m too lazy sometimes to remember to cook up additional protein to have with my noodle dishes. Due to some of my medical conditions, I really need to be careful to have the right amount of protein:carb ratio in my meals or I suffer a little later on in the day. Besides, I’m trying to slim and tone, and you can’t do that binge-ing on carbs, however much it might be a good time to binge. 
Since I was making this very generous casserole with leftovers in mind (meant to be quick meals for the week), I decided to add protein in the form of ground beef. On a similar thought, I also decided to add peas. That way, this massive casserole would be a one dish heat and eat.
Second, I couldn’t get my hands on fine egg noodles so I had to use medium egg noodles. Obviously it would change texture, but since there was ground beef and peas in there I figured that might be ok anyway.
The original dish looks fantastic, and I do plan to make that someday: Hungarian Noodle Bake
But my version turned out pretty nifty. I was very happy with the taste. Warning though, if you want to try either recipe, know that it is a huge casserole and in fact took up two (2!) 9×13 glass pans.
Hungarian Noodle Bake, tweaked
Here’s the recipe including my tweaks:
Ingredients:
- 2 large packages egg noodles, medium
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3/4 lb. ground beef
- 2 cartons (32 oz) cottage cheese, fine curd
- 1 carton (2 cups) sour cream
- 2 to 3 Tb. Worchestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds
- Paprika
- Parmesan Cheese
Preheat oven to 350.
Cook noodles according package directions, drain and set aside. Brown ground beef and onions.
Mix cottage cheese, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce & poppy seeds. Add ground beef and onion, mix thoroughly. Add noodles (estimate this, don’t add all the noodles unless there’s enough ‘sauce’ to keep them moist. I ended up setting about 2 cups or so aside to have with something else).
Turn into large (buttered) baking dish(es). Sprinkle lightly with paprika.
Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with Parmesan cheese
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