Baked Pasta

Still doing the cooking thing. Woohoo! This recipe is good if you need to feed other people or you want to have pasta for a few days. You can add meat, swap the vegetables and/or sauce, use more or different cheeses, and customize any way you see fit. I will share the way I made this dish, as well as the nutrition information for the dish when portioned into 8 servings (you could further divide it into more servings or eat more per portion for less servings, if you desire though). Here we go!

Ingredients

-1lb box whole grain pasta, 1440kcal (180kcal/serving)

-2 bags Green Giant, Simply Steam, Tuscan Seasoned Broccoli, 300kcal (38kcal/serving)

-1 jar Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo Pasta Sauce, 315kcal (40kcal)

-1 8oz bag shredded part skim mozzarella cheese, 640kcal (80kcal/serving)

-Salt

-Seasoning of choice (I used McCormick Himilayan Sea Salt with Black Pepper and Garlic All Purpose Seasoning ☺️)

-Cooking spray

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Boil a pot of water (use about 4 quarts) with a few pinches of salt for the pasta.

3. While you wait for the water to boil, microwave the broccoli according to the package instructions (or prepare whichever vegetables you chose).

4. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and turn down the heat, watching the pot so that it doesn't boil over. Cook the pasta for about 8-10 minutes, or until it's aldente/soft but a little chewy.

5. Once the noodles are cooked to a consistency you desire, scoop out 1/4-1/2 cup of the pasta water, drain the noodles in a collander, turn off the heat on the stove, and put the noodles back in the pot.

6. Add the broccoli, sauce, and half of the package of cheese and stir everything together. You can pour the pasta water into the sauce jar and shake it to help loosen the sauce that won't come out. Add as much of that as you need to the pasta and veg mixture if it is looking dry you don't want soupy though, so use your best judgement). You can stir in some extra spices at this point as well.

7. Spray a cooking dish with cooking spray and add the pasta to it in an even layer. Cover the pasta with the remaining cheese.

8. Bake the pasta for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. At the end you can broil the top for a few seconds, but I'll be honest I typically burn the dish when I do that, so only use the broiler if you're brave or a pro.

9. Pull the pasta out, let it cool, and stir or store. Go you!!

Nutrition Summary

Full recipe: 2695kcal, 137g protein, 340g carbs, 96g fat

Per serving: 340kcal, 17g protein, 43g carbs, 12g fat