SS: Three Cheese Penne

This wasn't supposed to be for dinner tonight. I had originally had something else planned, but the meat went bad and about knocked me out cold when I opened the package. I gave Calvin a choice for dinner and he picked this one. So, much to Collin's dismay, pasta it was.

I decided to pair this delightful little dish with a salad because, again, there were no veggies in the recipe. I usually puree veggies and stick them in the sauce, but I always like to try the recipe out as-is first. Lucky for me, I now have a fridge that does not freeze salad and so we did, in fact, have veggies with this. :D

This is another recipe that takes about 30 - 45 minutes. If you are feeding a baby while making this, then it takes closer to 45 minutes. If you are not, then you're looking at a shorter time. If you really don't want to dirty up multiple dishes, like me, then that also ups your cook time. I worked from home the second half of the day today so I started early and took my dear sweet time. (something I don't usually get to do when Collin is working nights)

This was pleasantly delightful. I really thought this was going to be bleh and, don't get me wrong - this tastes about like what you would expect, but the way the cheeses blended together was really good. Especially since she uses cottage cheese and everything is low fat. Whatever. It's pasta and I love pasta.

I used an oval pan instead of an 8x8 because I'm a rebel.

Recipe:
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8
Serving size: 1 1/4 cups (I've gone by this both times now and it really is enough food)
Calories 284, Fat 7g, Carbs 44g, Fiber 7g, Sugar 8g, Protein 16g

Ingredients:
1 (13.25 oz) box whole wheat penne pasta (The box I had was 16 oz and I wasn't about to measure that shit out so I dumped the whole box in)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced
1 tbs minced garlic
1 (23.25 oz) jar Prego Light Smart Traditional pasta sauce (because I added in more pasta, I dumped in 8 oz of regular tomato sauce and added a bit more seasoning)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese (I used what I had in my fridge...low moisture part skim)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley  (yeah, I free sprinkled the dried shit on top until it looked good)

1) Prepare pasta per package directions. Drain and set aside.

2) In a skillet (or the now empty pasta pot) heat the olive oil over medium high heat and cook onions and garlic for like 3 minutes until the onions are soft.

3) Reduce heat to low and add in pasta sauce(s) and seasonings. Cook that shit until hot.

4) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 and coat an 8x8 dish with cooking spray. Then toss the cottage cheese, ricotta and 1 cup mozzarella in a bowl and combine.

5) Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the pasta.

6) Transfer half the pasta to the baking dish. Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the pasta. Top that with the second half of the pasta followed by the remaining cheese mixture. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella on top.

7) Bake uncovered until the cheese melts - like 20 minutes. Then sprinkle the parsley on top.

The cheese mixture is pretty damn good.