I wouldn't say my family are picky eaters, rather that I am a picky eater. So when I saw onions and diced tomatoes I was really iffy. But, being that the recipes calls for 3 of my favorite ingredients (ground bf, spaghetti sauce and noodles), I thought I would try it. (The only thing I did different was the pasta. I couldn't find any Penne pasta so I got Whole Wheat *Rotini instead.)
It was really simple to make. With prep and cooking I would say it took less than 30 minutes. The spaghetti sauce drowned out the taste of the tomatoes which was really good, and I couldn't even taste the onion since it was cooked with the meat. The recipe says it makes 10 servings and I was skeptical about that. Usually (pre-diet) I would probably eat atleast 1/4 of a casserole (I know, I'm a pig), and if I divided my pan into 10, that is a *really* small portion compared to before. But now, after eating, I could honestly say I'm stuffed. I still have 8 more servings to go which will probably take the rest of the week to finish. Especially since Mac is at work.
Well thought I would just share my first experience with the recipes. I'm planning on trying 2 new recipes a week so I'll be posting our next recipe soon!
Hope everyone has a wonderful night!
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BAKED PASTA CASSEROLE
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Ingredients
1 box - Whole Wheat Penne Rigate
1 jar *Spaghetti Sauce, (approx. 3 cups)
14 oz. can Diced Tomatoes
1 lb extra lean Ground Beef browned and well drained
1 diced onion
1/2 cup low fat Shredded Cheese
Optional (not included in nutritional calculations):
Additional veggies - zuchinni, eggplant, carrot, fresh tomato
Low fat or fat free cottage cheese
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Nutritional Info
Fat: 6.6g
Carbohydrates: 37.6g
Calories:267.0
Protein: 17.4g
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1. Begin to heat water to a boil for pasta. Add pasta and cook according to package directions while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Brown and crumble ground beef with diced onion. Drain well and rinse if desired.
3. Add jar of spaghetti sauce (lite/lowfat/healthy versions will lower calories, but this recipe calculates based on regular Bertolli Tomatoe & Basil sauce) and a can of diced tomatoes to the ground beef and simmer while the pasta cooks or however long you wish to simmer.
4. When pasta is cooked, drain well. Combine pasta and sauce in casserole dish or dishes. Toss to mix well.
5. If desired, add spoonfuls of low-fat or fat free cottage cheese and fold in to mix slightly.
6. Top with low fat shredded cheese. Bake in hot oven (400f or whatever temperature you are using to bake other menu items is fine) till cheese melts and begins to brown slightly.
* You may wish to sautee small diced veggies such as zuchinni or eggplant with the meat. You can add a shredded carrot if desired. Using ground turkey, chicken or a veggie meat substitute may lower the fat/calories. If preparing casseroles to freeze, you may wish to add extra tomatoes or sauce because while this freezes and reheats WONDERFULLY it does seem a bit dry if you don't add extra.
Number of Servings: 10
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