Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Going Meatless; Baked Ziti Recipe

One of the things that I've done to help my grocery budget is to challenge myself to make at least one meatless meal every week.

At first I was very nervous because my husband is a meat and potatoes man. If I don't give him what he thinks is enough meat, he's raiding my fridge in no time flat. I learned all about complex proteins and such, so I knew that he was getting enough proteins; I just needed to break the myth that he must have meat or he was hungry.

One of the ways that I did this was to be really sneaky and make him think that the meal had meat. I accomplished this with pasta meals, using canned spaghetti sauce that had meat flavor. Did you know that these usually cost the same as the non-meat sauces? So, we get that meat flavor without having to spend the extra money for meat.

One of his absolute favorite meals has become Baked Ziti. You can choose whatever sauce that you like to give it that "flavor". It's very filling, easy and cheap! I've used less cheese than listed with good results.

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 26 oz can spaghetti sauce
1 ½ cups water
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 oz uncooked ziti pasta (rigatoni or penne will work, too)

STEPS
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a deep casserole dish, combine pasta sauce and water. Stir in 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and the ¼ cup grated Parmesan, then the uncooked ziti. You need to make sure that the pasta is completely covered by the sauce, with a little room to spare, so add additional water or beef broth, or a can of tomato sauce as needed.
3. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or foil, and bake 45 minutes, stirring halfway. Test the noodles. If they aren’t tender, add ½ cup extra water and bake an additional 10 minutes.
4. Remove covering and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Check out more tips at Tammy's Recipes!