With the economy in crunch, many of us are looking for ways to save on food expenses.  One of the best ways to save a buck on meals without sacrificing quality is to dig out all your favorite casserole recipes, or find some new ones.

If you think casseroles are limited to boring tuna/vegetable concoctions like your mom used to make, you should do a quick search for casserole recipes.  It’s easy to find low-fat versions of old favorites, and ideas for satisfying even the most sophisticated tastes. Here’s a vegetarian casserole from Cooking.Com that I’m going to try this week:

Baked Rigatoni with Spinach

• 1 pound of rigatoni
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 (10 oz.) package frozen spinach thawed
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 5 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• 1 1/2 cups grated fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 450 F.  Cook pasta until almost done, and drain.  Pour pasta into a large (9X13) casserole dish, and toss with 1 tbsp. of oil.

Next, squeeze all excess water from spinach, and place in a food processor with ricotta cheese, 3 tbsp of the Parmesan, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  Puree.  Then, stir in half of the fontina cheese.

Stir the pureed mixture into the pasta. Top with remaining fontina cheese, Parmesan cheese, and oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until top is brown and bubbly.

The casserole dish shown above is the Emeril adobe clay covered casserole dish available at Holiday Decorations Direct. Com.

Homemade macaroni and cheese always disappears quickly at my house.  When the weather turns a little chilly, my husband and I both take our turns in the kitchen whipping up our respective macaroni and cheese recipes. Whether you make it in a casserole dish, a sauce pan, or even the crock pot, macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food.

Here’s one of our favorite recipes for macaroni and cheese:

• 1 package elbow macaroni (8 ounces)
• 1 container cottage cheese (12 ounces, small curd)
• Shredded cheddar cheese (8 ounce bag)
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Cook macaroni according to package directions, and drain well using a collander.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Then, in a  9X13 baking pan, mix together cooked macaroni, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and sour cream.  In a small mixing bowl, combine melted butter and bread crumbs and sprinkle over macaroni mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until top is golden and bubbly around the edges.