Baked Pasta with Meat Sauce

Earlier today, I was browsing the Cooking Light recipes on myrecipes.com in search of something that wouldn't be too bad for me and would utilize something that was on sale at Publix this week.  I came across this recipe, and I decided to give it a go...with some alterations of course!  The tomato sauce that they have got mixed reviews, and it called for wine.  Usually, I'd be all about the wine, but I'm doing a 15 Day Challenge with a friend of mine from work which means no booze for me for 15 days!  Instead, I made my Old School Spaghetti Sauce.  This time around, I added a 1 teaspoon of dried basil (out of fresh) and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper to the sauce.  For my pasta, instead of using rigatoni, I went with whole wheat penne since they didn't have whole wheat rigatoni.  I was good and didn't go all crazy with the cheese either!  I liked that the recipe mixed the cheese in the pasta as well as had some on top of it.  I normally don't do that and overkill it with the cheese on top.  I also made sure to have a 1 cup serving size as to keep the calories under control, too.  It turned out to be the perfect size, too. 

Here's what I did...

Baked Pasta with Old School Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

Old School Spaghetti Sauce

2 1/2 cups uncooked pasta

1 1/2 cup part skim milk mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

While cooking the Old School Spaghetti Sauce, heat water for the pasta (I season my water with garlic powder and salt).  Add the pasta when the water is boiling and cook it for 7 minutes even thought the box says 9 minutes.  You want to undercook it because it will continue to cook while it is baking.  Combine the sauce, the pasta, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Top with the remaining cheeses. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until it is cooked thoroughly.

Serving size = 1 cup!

Enjoy!