Creamy Noodle Bake with Spinach Salad

- Sandi Richard, The Dinner Fix, Cooking for the Rushed

water
1 lb or 450 g extra lean ground beef
1 can 10 oz (284 ml) tomato soup
1 tsp Italian seasoning, salt free
1/3 cup water
6 oz (170 g) broad egg noodles
1 can 10 oz cream of mushroom soup
1/2 soup can filled with 1% milk
1/2 cup light cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella, shredded
1 bag 12 oz baby spinach
1/2 cup light feta cheese
3 fresh mandarins or 1 can mandarins, drained
1/8 red onion, slivered
1/2 cup cashews
1/3 cup dressing, fat-free

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Fill a large stove-top pot with water and bring to a boil for pasta. Add noodles to boiling water. Set timer for 3 minutes.
3. Brown ground beef in a large nonstick fry pan at med-high. When meat is no longer pink, stir in tomato sop, spice and water.
4. Whisk mushroom soup and milk together, in a medium size bowl. When timer rings for noodles, drain in a colander, then stir noodles gently under running water to remove starch.
5. Layer, in this order, in a lsagna or cake pan; 1/2 of the meat mixture, 1/2 of the cooked noodles (you may need to run water through the noodles again to separate them before layering), 1/2 of the soup mixture, then cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
6. Repeat the same layers ending with mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered. Set timer for 30 mintes.
8. Meanwhile rinse pinach leaves in basket of salad spinner. Spin dry. Crumble feta cheese, segment mandarins, sliver onion, and set out cashews, all in small serving dishes. Serve with your favourite salad dressing.

(Metro June 20 2007)