A Great Recipe, Quick to Make

When you hear the word "slop" the last thing you are thinking about is food. My mother was a great cook and extraordinary baker. She just had a gift of coming up with different ways of preparing things. "Slop" as she called it is easy to make and was a hit with our family and my friends. I was a teenager when she first made "slop" and it is still a favorite of mine today. Okay, for the ingredients you will need:

1 lb. of elbow or shell pasta (small shells), follow cooking directions on the box

1 large jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce or if you make your own, use that

1 lb. of ground beef, turkey or pork, whichever you prefer, cooked and drained

1 lb. of mozzarella cheese sliced into chunks or use 1 lb. of shredded, part-skim or low-fat can be used, it doesn't change the flavor

1 ib. of low-fat, no-fat or regular cottage cheese

After cooking the meat and pasta, drain and put to the side. Get a 2-21/2 quart casserole or baking dish. Add all ingredients and stir together, add a little basil and rosemary, some powdered garlic and whatever other seasonings you like. You can add bread crumbs to the top, it's totally optional. Set oven to 350 degrees and cook about 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes and enjoy.

We always had ours with a salad and garlic bread. Have it alone or add your own sides. It is really tasty and easy to make. If you live alone, you can freeze it in individual containers, add some sauce and zap it in the microwave. My mother left me with a lot of wonderful memories, I inherited her love of cooking. One of my daughter's inherited her love of baking. Good eating to you.