When Betsy was a young softball player, we had a favorite dish referred to as Softball Casserole because it could be made ahead of time and simply popped in the microwave to be heated for a quick dinner after a practice or game.

It was a layered combination of sautéed ground beef, onions and corn, spiral noodles or ziti, tomato sauce and slices of American cheese. If memory serves, it was really good!

Yesterday, I recreated that dish using spiralized roasted root vegetables (sweet potato, parsnips, butternut squash) instead of the macaroni, and shredded Jack cheese instead of the slices of American cheese. Adding a number of roasted vegetables and eliminating the pasta made the dish somewhat more nutritionally sound and surprisingly wonderful.

We didn’t miss the pasta (or the carbs!) at all.