Easy Homemade Beefaroni Recipe

Why You’ll Love Homemade Beefaroni

• FUN – Everyone remembers Beefaroni from their childhood, right! It’s so much fun to take nostalgic recipes and remake them in your own way in your own kitchen!
• KID FRIENDLY – There is a reason that Beefaroni was on just about every families dinner table when we were growing up! This is a perfect dish for fussy and picky eaters!
• EASY – This dish takes just a couple minutes to prepare. Brown your ground beef and dump all your ingredients into a casserole dish. Then you are ready to go!
• WHOLESOME – Chef Boyardee Beefaroni was a frequent visitor to our dinner table when I was young.  My mom just couldn’t resist opening up the can, heating it up on the stove and serving it up to us.  The Beefaroni was one of my favorites, especially when it was cold outside. These days, I think society has become a little more attuned to the health needs of our children since the 1980’s.  I don’t always feel great about feeding my children straight from a can if I can prevent it.  So, I’m always looking for easy homemade recipes of some of my favorite childhood favorites from decades ago.  This Easy Homemade Beefaroni Recipe fits that bill exactly.

How To Make Homemade Beefaroni Recipe

What I love most about this recipe is how easy it was to make.  When I started thinking about how to make beefaroni on my own, it quickly dawned on me that I would really only need a couple of ingredients.  There are some classic recipes that I have tried to duplicate and they turned out to be a little more complicated that I anticipated!  Not this one.

For this Beefaroni Recipe, I would really only need 5 ingredients. Most, if not all of these ingredients are pantry staples that you probably have in your kitchen right now!

Beefaroni Recipe Ingredients

• GROUND BEEF – We used 80% lean ground beef. But you can use whatever you’d like. If you want to lighten this dish up a bit, you can use ground chicken or ground turkey, but it will alter the flavor.
• TOMATO SAUCE – 2 15 ounce cans of  tomato sauce will do the trick here.
• CHEDDAR CHEESE – Shredded cheddar cheese. You can substitute for another type of cheese if that sounds good to you. We always recommend buying a block of cheese and shredding it yourself. It melts a lot better in casserole dishes than the pre-shredded stuff you buy at the store.
• PASTA – We used Rotini Pasta. We love how the sauce gets trapped in all the nooks and crannies of the spirals. But a lot of people use elbow macaroni noodles as well. You can use regular, whole wheat or even gluten free pasta.
• BUTTER – Unsalted Butter.

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS – Saute some onions and/or garlic along with the beef. Or add some spice by putting in a small amount of chili powder or even some red pepper flakes. Top with some mozzarella or parmesan cheese!

Beefaroni Pasta Recipe

1. Just cook the pasta and brown the ground beef at the same time.
2. Drain pasta and add some butter.
3. Then mix together ALL the ingredients and pour into a prepared baking dish and top with some more cheese.
4. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the center is nice and hot!

Storage and Freezing

One of the best parts of this recipe is how much it makes and how many family members and friends it can feed. But, you MAY have leftovers. Beefaroni leftovers are best kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator. And it heats up just fine in the microwave.

You can freeze leftovers too. Just let the beefaroni fully cool, then wrap in freezer wrap or freezer bags. It should be good in your freezer for up to 3-4 months. When you are ready to eat, just thaw it out in the fridge overnight and reheat in the microwave.

Notes, Tips and FAQs

• CAN YOU MAKE BEEFARONI GLUTEN FREE? – Yes! This recipe is easy to make gluten free by just substituting Gluten Free Pasta. 
• MAKE IT A ONE POT MEAL – Make your weeknight dinner even easier with less dishes! You can brown your ground beef in the same pot that you cooked your pasta!
• CAN YOU USE SPAGHETTI SAUCE IN BEEFARONI? – You can, although Spaghetti Sauce has it’s own spices in it and they may conflict with the spices you are adding in this recipe. So we advise to just use Tomato Sauce. 
• WHAT OTHER INGREDIENTS CAN I ADD TO BEEFARONI? – Mushrooms, Bell Peppers or you could top with some Fried Onions!

Items To Help With This Recipe

• CASSEROLE DISH WITH A LID– We like to use this Casserole Dish because it comes with it’s own lid. You you can keep leftovers right in there!
• LARGE SKILLET– We love to use an EXTRA large skillet for recipes like this to fit all the ingredients in!

LOOKING FOR MORE EASY CASSEROLE DISHES? CHECK OUT:

• JOHN WAYNE CASSEROLE
• MACARONI CORN CASSEROLE
• PHILLY CHEESESTEAK PASTA

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Easy Homemade Beefaroni Recipe

Course Main Course

Servings 8 people

This Easy Homemade Beefaroni recipe is great comfort food for the winter months.  But it is also a great recipe for family dinners throughout the year.  

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cans 15 oz, tomato sauce
• 2-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 package 16 oz, rotini pasta
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease a casserole or 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large skillet, cook beef until browned. Drain grease.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta until el dente. Drain and mix pasta with butter.
  
• Stir in beef, tomato sauce and 2 cups of cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
  
• Pour into prepared dish.
  
• Sprinkle top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until hot in the center.
  

Nutrition

Calories: 429kcal

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