Spanish Noodles 'n Ground Beef with Corn Bread

First off I just want to say, what a dumb recipe name...plus after making them, these weren't even Spanish. And, not even that good. It's from TOH pg 105. And we had this with cornbread, and I got that recipe off the corn meal box. I thought if it was going to be Spanish, then corn bread would be good with it. And the cornbread was good. Usually I make cornbread from a mix, but I had this cornmeal under the counter and I don't really remember buying it. And it's just a smidge outdated. On the cornmeal box, it says "try these recipes" like you have to, so I was like "okay, okay, I'll try a recipe...but I'm not making cornmeal mush (one of the other recipes on the box)."

Spanish Noodles 'n Ground Beef
1 pound ground beef
1 small green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup chopped onion
3 1/4 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup water
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

In a lg skillet, cook the beef, green pepper, and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the noodles, tomatoes, water, chili sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes or until the noodles are tender, stirring frequently. Top with bacon. 5 servings

Easy Corn Bread
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (of course it says "Quaker Enriched Cornmeal" but I bet you can use any kind)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten (of course I used a whole egg...if not what would I have done with 2 egg yolks?)

Heat oven to 400. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil, and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm. 9 servings.

Okay, so the noodles in the main dish never got fully cooked. I let it sit for like 5 minutes longer than the recommended cooking time...the water was all gone and it was turning to mush, and still the noodles were chewy. The flavor wasn't bad really, but I couldn't get past the noodles. Did Steve eat it? Why, yes he did. And he said it was good. Sometimes I wonder about him, really. The kids picked at it, as did I, getting the good stuff, which was mostly the crumbled bacon on top. And, Emma doesn't like bacon, so I ate her bacon too. So we won't be saving this one. But the cornbread I'll keep. I didn't have a simple cornbread recipe before this...usually when I use a mix the cornbread comes out yellower, and this one was just pale yellow, but it was good. But I am throwing away the rest of this expired cornmeal.