Baked Ziti

The idea of a freezer meal sounds really good to me.  You make food when you have the time/ingredients and then freeze it so that you can eat it when you have no time or ingredients.  I was perusing freezer meals on Pinterest when I came upon this meal.  It looked pretty tasty, so I decided to give it a try.  This was a trial run, but next time I make it, I think I'll double it so that I can freeze one.

This dish is good, but honestly, I just prefer lasagna when I'm having pasta/red sauce/cheese--and Beth's lasagna recipe is much faster and easier.  However, the fact that it's a freezer meal takes it up a notch in my book.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ziti pasta (I used penne)
1/2 onion (I will probably use dried onions next time, because finely-chopped onion takes too much time)
26.5 oz can of pasta sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
4 slices of provolone cheese
3/4 cup sour cream
3 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.  Put a large pot of water on the stove and allow it to begin to heat.  Finely chop your onion (or grab your dried onions) and sautee in a large frying pan.  Add in the ground beef and garlic powder--cook until brown.

2.  Once the water is boiling, cook the pasta noodles for 10 minutes (they'll finish cooking in the oven).  Add the can of pasta sauce to the ground beef/onion mixture and simmer for 10 minutes.

3.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8x8 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and pour 1/2 of your noodles into the bottom of the dish.

4.  Pour half of the pasta sauce on top of the noodles.

5.  Layer the slices of provolone cheese on top of the sauce.

6.  Spread the cream cheese on the provolone cheese.

7.  Pour in the rest of the noodles and then the remaining pasta sauce.

8.  Cover with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.  Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is completely melted.  You may want to place a cookie sheet under the baking dish in order to catch any dripping cheeses, because the baking dish will be very full.