TIO Tuesday - Braided Spaghetti Bread

In my quest to do this tuesday thing, I am finding it's not as easy as it sounds! I want all the meals to be a success, but unfortunately they're not. Here's a great example:

I had really high hopes for this rump roast. I purchased a large rump roast last week and he cut it for me into two pieces. Usually I buy an arm roast and throw in the crock pot, no problems, turns out great every time. Well, apparently, the rump roast is a little trickier to cook. It's more lean and not very receptive to the crock pot. I was disappointed in it and tried to find another recipe. I found one on allrecipes that claims to be the best ever. (I'm not even going to link to it because it turned out awful and I don't want to hear someone say, "Oh I tried that and it turned out perfect, I have no idea why you couldn't do it?")

You sear it in the oven and then cook slowly in a roaster. I thought it sounded great. I seared the meat and even managed to have the fire alarm go off. But never fear, I thought it looked just like it should, so I carried on. What a colossal waste of time and effort! This one looks great, but it turned out to be just as tough as the one I had done previously. So, this is a FAIL! 

(btw - the potatoes and onions were still really good, so I guess it wasn't a complete loss!)

Now that I have that out of the way, we can talk about the meal that did turn out, Braided Spaghetti Bread.

I found this one via a pin from a friend, thanks Becky! It has all the things my kids love, spaghetti, bread and cheese. I was a little under the gun to find a meal that would work for this and figured I couldn't mess it up too bad. As she says in the post, the hardest part about this one is taking the time to let the bread thaw. Once you have that done though, it's pretty simple.  

Placing it on the parchment paper was a little tricky, the dough was a little difficult to manage

My braid got a little funky at the end 

Look at all that yummy mozzarella oozing out! 

Final product, looks just like hers - minus the bad exposure

(I really need to learn how to take better photos at night)

Here's the full recipe:

1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough or 12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature

6 oz spaghetti, cooked
1 cup thick spaghetti sauce
8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 –inch cubes
1 egg white
Parmesan cheese
Parsley flakes

Spray counter lightly with non-stick cooking spray or use parchment paper. Roll loaf or combined dinner rolls into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and let cool slightly. Remove wrap from dough. Place spaghetti lengthwise in a 4-inch strip down the center of dough. Tip with sauce and cheese cubes. (I mixed my spaghetti and sauce together and added a ½ pound of cooked Italian Sausage) Make cuts 1 ½-inches apart on long sides of dough to within ½-inch of filling. Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. Then braid strips left over right, right over left. Finish by pulling last strip over and tucking under braid. Lift braid with both hands and place on large sprayed baking sheet. (or transfer parchment paper to baking sheet). Brush with egg white and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley (I added garlic powder). Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and slice to serve.

***Check out the original blog post as her pictures are much better than mine and she details more of the steps. I did add all of the extra things that she did like the sausage and the garlic powder. It was super yummy and looks kind of impressive, much more so than my "regular" spaghetti.
Enjoy!

~ Misty