The One Where I Bake Ziti

One of my favorite new blogs is The Paraplegic Chef, written by an amazing and talented woman named Megan (who I look up to because of her courage and ability to take a bad situation and completely turn it around!)

Tonight I wanted to try her mom's baked ziti recipe. Let me tell you it did NOT disappoint. The recipe, as she wrote it is as follows (but I strongly suggest you check it out on her site, along with her other recipes!)

Ingredients:
1 box Ziti noodles
2 jars Basil and herb tomato/spaghetti sauce
12 oz mozzarella cheese (save half to top with)
1 onion
1 lb. hamburger meat (optional)

Prep:
Pre Heat oven to 350*
Cook the Ziti noodles and drain, set aside in large bowl
Shred Mozzarella
Dice Onion
Cook the hamburger meat (optional)
Saute onions until tender and put in large bowl
Add sauce with onion, cheese (half), meat (optional)
Add Ziti noodles mix well and pour into 9 x 13" pan and top with remaining cheese

Bake in oven for 30 minutes

So here goes my shot at replication.

I strayed from the recipe a little bit.

• I used whole grain pasta instead of white (+1 for being healthy!)
• I sauteed the onions in butter...because I think that's what you're supposed to do when you saute, but I don't really know (-1 for using salted butter instead of margarine, or something like olive oil. hmmmm would olive oil have worked for sauteing?)
• I asked SH to bring home fresh mozzarella and he did...but it was the kind in a ball, which was not what The Paraplegic Chef had in her pictures, but it tasted fantastic!! (-1 for not using low fat cheese, but honestly...ick.)
• I normally don't like tomato sauce, however the Classico Sweet Basil was really very good. Instead of using 2 jars, like the recipe called for, I used 1 1/4 and left the rest of the sauce on the side for SH to add to his meal (+1 for cutting calories!)

I took the finished product out of the oven 20-25 minutes later because I didn't want the pasta to dry up (due to the decrease in sauce I used.) The result was amazing. I savored every last bite of my dish (although -100 because I made Texas Toast instead of homemade garlic bread and didn't make salad!)

The best part is we can easily get 8 single serving dishes out of this one meal, which makes it completely economical! We're going to have some left overs for lunch tomorrow and freeze the rest.

Next time I make this (because there WILL be a next time) I think I'll use some ground turkey breast (any other type of ground turkey has just as much fat as ground beef) to make it a little healthier (and even with my recent belly issues, I don't think I can skip on the cheese. BTW, my belly feels ok tonight! I'm feeling a few symptoms but nothing like the other night. I ate WAY less cheese tonight, though.)

I'd also like to take a shot at making my own sauce, and adding fresh basil to it. Like I said, the kind this recipe called for was very good, I would just like to learn how to make it on my own.

Also I'll make sure to have a salad, and maybe a little red wine with it. Mmmm...now I'm getting hungry all over again.