(Lightened Up) Baked Ziti

Hey friends!

Anybody else craving comfort food in this winter weather??? By winter weather in ATL of course I mean the random days (in between the days where the high is in the 60s) that it drops to below freezing and snows 3 inches. Here is a lightened up baked ziti recipe for those days when you just need a big pile of pasta in your life.

Servings: 4
Prep time: 30 min (or more if you want your sauce to simmer for awhile)
Cook time: 40 min

Ingredients:
28oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 lb lean ground beef (I used 96% lean)
6 oz Barilla protein plus penne noodles (or a heaping 1.5C dry pasta)
5oz part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp parsley
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes (if you want it to have a little kick!)

** 3/4 C part skim ricotta, 1/2 C extra mozzarella, and 1 egg for a little more decadent version!

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350
- Set a pot of water to boil, cook pasta according to package directions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high, add your minced garlic
- When skillet is hot, brown your ground beef until it's no longer pink
- Add tomatoes and ingredients parsley - red pepper flakes
- Let your sauce simmer for at least 20 min or up to an hour, stirring occasionally
- In a greased pan (I used 9x7), add a few spoonfuls of meat sauce (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)
- layer half your cooked noodles, half remaining sauce and half shredded cheese, repeat these layers
- Sprinkle with parsley on top to make it extra pretty and bake for 30 minutes, broil 5-10 more so your cheese can get nice and brown

**If you want your ziti a little more cheesy and decadent, mix up your noodles with the 3/4C ricotta, 1/2C mozzarella, 1 egg, and some salt and pepper before layering with sauce and cheese!



**1/4 recipe is 9 ww freestyle points for original recipe and 13 with the additions