Bowtie Skillet Lasagna

Today is my Nana's birthday!  That's her on the right with her twin sister on the left.  She is an amazing and wonderful woman!  I love her so, so much, I just wanted to share her with everyone!



I've been working on my menu for May today and I'm very excited about it because there are 5 Thursdays in May.  That means I get to try 4 new recipes!  We used to eat out a lot.  Our kitchen where we used to live wasn't really very cooking friendly.  We had lots of meals at Cracker Barrel and IHOP and more McDonald's than I care to reveal.  We also had many delicious meals that I wished I knew how to make at home.  Thanks to Pinterest I'm able to nearly replicate almost anything I ate at a chain restaurant.  (Olive Garden's salad dressing, their alfredo sauce, etc.)  One of the new recipes I'm trying this month is a Cracker Barrel copycat recipe.  I think I may also try to do the Chick-fil-A nuggets recipe instead of using my own recipe. I can't wait to get in the kitchen with those recipes next month!

On to tonight's dinner.  I don't usually care for sour cream (though I could have eaten it with a spoon when I was pregnant).  I'm generally not the type of person who puts sour cream on my tacos or nachos and most of the time I'll skip it in chili, but for turning skillet dishes into creamy deliciousness there's almost nothing better.  Well, except for maybe cream cheese or greek yogurt.  (It's also good in chocolate cake, but that's for another day.)

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and thought that maybe it would be a nice alternative to lasagna.  While it doesn't exactly taste like lasagna, it's certainly a nice, easy skillet meal.  I might not have called it skillet lasagna if the original recipe hadn't, but it's warm and cheesy and flavorful and for lack of a better title I decided to stick with lasagna.

Also, this meal took about 20 minutes to get on the table.  I'm a big fan of anything I can make so quickly.

Bowtie Skillet Lasagna

10 oz bowtie (farfalle) pasta, cooked according to package directions and drained
1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 24 oz jar spaghetti sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt

Brown the meat in a large skillet over medium heat.  Once the meat is no longer pink drain the meat (if necessary) and add the garlic.  Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds, then add the olive oil and pasta.  Add the spaghetti sauce, basil, oregano, mozzarella, and sour cream or greek yogurt.  Stir to combine and turn heat to low.  Cook about 10 minutes on low until everything is thoroughly heated.  Serve with extra shredded cheese on top if desired.