Some Cooking Tips and a Recipe

I have been using my crockpot more since I went back to work. It's much easier to come home to dinner when I know that something has been cooking all day. Mmm, the house smells good with very little effort on my part. 

So, spaghetti sauce, one of my favorite easy recipes: put 1 lb of lean (very lean) ground meat (chuck, turkey, whatever you like) in the crockpot. Add 1 jar of your favorite sauce, 1 can of whole tomatoes, and 1 can of tomato paste. Maybe add a dash of red wine too if you have some. Put crock on low heat and allow to cook, 6-8 hours. Oh! The meat is so tender. Break apart with wooden spoon and stir. The tomatoes will be cooked down and add a homemade taste. Add cooked pasta and salad and you're set.

Use more or less tomato paste depending on how thick your like your sauce. If you don't like store sauce, add another can of whole tomatoes, or canned plain tomato sauce and your favorite seasoning. I've done it both ways. 

You can freeze extra sauce for another day. Next is a recipe I adapted to use my (accumulating) leftover frozen sauce. 

Baked Ziti (adapted from Saving Dinner, by Leanne Ely)

Leftover meat sauce (equivalent to 1 1/2 jars or so. I guesstimated :-)

1 lb Ziti Pasta (cooked al dente)

3/4 C of low fat sour cream

3/4 C of cottage cheese

6-8 oz of Provolone Cheese

1-2 C of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

9 x 13 pan or lasagna pan

• Put sauce in fridge in the morning or night before to thaw. Sauce needs to be thawed. 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
• Mix the sour cream and cottage cheese together in a small bowl. Set aside.
  
• In the 9 x 13 pan start layering (like you're assembling lasagna): spread sauce on bottom of pan, then a layer of ziti, then the sour cream mixture, then a layer of provolone, then sauce, ziti, sour cream mixture, etc. Repeat until it's all gone.
• Top with mozzarella cheese
• Bake in the preheated oven until it's heated through, about 20 minutes.
• Eat and enjoy. Add a salad and garlic bread if you wish.

 Oh! This is so yummy! My whole family enjoyed this, especially hubby. 

I forgot to mention that I added spinach to the sour cream mixture. If you would like to do that, add 1 10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and well drained) to your sour cream and cottage cheese mixture. Mix well. 

Sorry I don't have pics. Probably the only pics I would have taken would have been me sipping wine while I cooked, lol!