Company Casserole ~ by Kelsey

This is from my "A Taste of Oregon" cookbook.  I am going to post the recipe as it is written in the book, but I will note the changes I made when I prepared it.  This was SO good.  Even Grace ate it, and she NEVER eats what I cook for dinner.  I completely left out the butter this recipe calls for, and it was still very rich!

Ingredients:
4 cups uncooked egg noodles
2 pounds ground beef ( I used 1.5 lbs since that's how ours is packaged)
1 tablespoon butter (again, I left out the butter)
4 8-oz cans tomato sauce
1 cup cottage cheese
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup chopped scallion or onion
1 tablespoon chopped green pepper (Now this confused me.  One tablespoon?  Seemed like a typo.  I used one whole green pepper)
2 tablespoons butter, melted (again, omitted by me)

Cook and drain noodles.  Saute beef in large skillet, using one tablespoon butter, until brown.  Stir in tomato sauce and remove from heat.  Set aside.  Combine in a bowl the cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, scallion, and green pepper.  Using a 3-quart casserole, spread half the noodles, then cover with the cheese mixture.  Add the rest of the noodles. (I found it hard to spread the cheese on the noodles, so I ended up just mixing the cheese with the noodles.)  Pour two tablespoons of melted butter over top of noodles.  Cover with meat mixture.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 375.