Comfort Noodle Casserole

Comfort Noodle Casserole is probably my ultimate comfort food. It's creamy, my daughter will eat the stripped down version (see below for the link), and it's very filling and warm. I hope it gives you some comfort too.

-12 ounces angel hair pasta or spaghetti
-1 pound ground beef or hamburger
-1/3 pound of bacon
-1/2 of a green, red, yellow or orange pepper, chopped (your choice will change the flavor here-my mom uses green, I use red)
-1/3 of a medium size onion, chopped
-1 can of corn
-2 cans cream of chicken soup or you can easily substitute cream of mushroom (again, mom uses mushroom and I use chicken)
-32 ounces (2 16 ounce cans)of whole, peeled tomatoes-or better yet, use 1 quart of home canned tomatoes
-1 cup shredded cheese, I use colby but mozzarella and cheddar also work very well

Boil your spaghetti (pot of boiling water, pinch of salt--add spaghetti when water is boiling and cook for approximately 8-9 minutes) and drain. In a frying pan, brown the ground beef. When thoroughly cooked, drain off the grease and rinse the meat. Add meat to the spaghetti. Fry up bacon and crumble into the meat and spaghetti. Leave a little of the bacon grease in the pan and saute the peppers and onions together to soften them. Add them to the spaghetti pot. Add the tomatoes, but remove the stems that keep them whole--you want them to break up. Mix in the corn and cream soup. Add the cheese and cook it all together until the cheese melts and it is heated thoroughly. Also, if you have picky kids, like me, they will usually eat this casserole without the bacon, tomatoes, onions and peppers so you can make this as a family version and only add the extras to the adult version. See my easy noodle casserole for this kid friendly version.