You won’t find a much quicker or easier casserole to get through the prep stage, cooked and on your table. Once you have your garlic bread baked, you can have this assembled, baked and on your table in less than 45 minutes. This makes it a great casserole for those busy weeknights.

The ingredients are easily kept on hand so that you could pull this together without much prior planning, for those times when you have been busy living your life and the question of “What’s for dinner?” has not been foremost in your mind. Couple all of these advantages with its crowd-pleasing taste and you have a dinner winner!

 

INGREDIENTS

1 loaf garlic bread, frozen

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ cup Miracle Whip

1 tsp Italian seasoning

2½ cups mozzarella cheese, divided

23 oz. red pasta sauce, any flavor

22 oz. meatballs, frozen

1 Tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Bake frozen garlic bread per package directions, then set aside.

Change oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mix together cream cheese, miracle whip, and Italian seasoning. Mixture doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth but make sure it is thoroughly mixed.

To assemble dish: Line bottom of baking dish with a single layer of cooked garlic bread. Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of the bread, then follow with the cream cheese mixture, spreading it out as much as you can. Cover the cream cheese with pasta sauce and then another layer of mozzarella cheese (also 1 cup). Arrange meatballs (still frozen) on the sauce and then top it all with the remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake dish, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until cheese has melted and meatballs are hot.

Serve immediately with oregano as garnish.

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Quick Tip:  To determine how much garlic bread you need, compare the size of the garlic bread’s thickness to the size of your 9×13 pan. If the garlic bread is roughly three inches around, you will need 3 rows of bread across the dish (9”) and roughly 4 rows to cover the length (13”). Depending on how thick you want your bottom layer to be, and the length of the loaf of bread, you may be able to get 12 slices from it. It is always best to err on the side of caution and buy 2 loaves of bread. Remember, you must bake the bread before putting it in the casserole.

Recipe courtesy of Chrisy at Homemade Hooplah, image courtesy of tasteofhome.com