Lite Baked Ziti Recipe and Review

So Monday night I made something new -- a lighter version of baked ziti!  If you remember, it was one of the things I planned to make this week as part of organic dieting and meal planning.  I adapted the recipe from this Skinny Taste recipe.  Check this out:

Fresh out of the oven... Oh YUM.

Here's a close up of once it was cut -- you can see how it holds together so well and the yummy freshness of the basil and spinach.  

Here are the ingredients:

• 12 oz uncooked ziti (I used Whole Foods brand organic ziti)
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes (I used Full Circle Organic crushed tomatoes with herbs -- it already had italian spices in it, sot that is why I skipped some of the dry herbs)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 10 spinich (fresh or frozen -- I used fresh)
• 2 tsp fresh chopped basil
• 8 oz fat-free ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 cupsshredded part skim mozzarella cheese
• Olive Oil spray
• Salt and pepper to taste

And the directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray 9x13 baking pan with spray.
2. Cook pasta until al dente.  Drain and return to pot.
3. In a medium saucepan, add olive oil and saute garlic.  Add chopped spinich, tomoatoes, basil, salt and pepper.
4. Add the sauce to the pasta.  Add ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and half of the mozzarella cheese.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Cut into 8 equal portions.

And what if you're counting calories?  GREAT news for you, one serving of this has:

296 calories

7 g fat

16 g protien

44 g Carbohydrates

5.5 g Fiber

5 g sugar

***

After the ziti was cooked, I immediately cut it into portions and immediately put some of the individual portions into their own containers to be eaten later.  These will come in handy for lunch or a meal-on-the-go now that grad school is starting up next week.

Oh... so you want to know how it tasted? 

It was GREAT.  Even Logan, who is 3 and usually only eats plain noodles ATE THE ENTIRE SERVING!  Success!  I asked him to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down when he was trying it.  What did he do?

He gave me a #1!  Hey, I'll take that!

I've had a lot of fun trying out new, healthy, ORGANIC meals this week.  Last night I made avocado BLTs and I've got some Shredded Buffalo Chicken going in the crockpot right now (which smells DELICIOUS by the way!).  I'll be sure to post some more on those recipes soon.

What have you been eating lately?