It's...Recipe Time!

If you read my first post, you know that my specialty in the chicken before getting married was chicken nuggets and tator tots. And yes I mean the kind that is frozen in a bag, you stick in the oven, and wallah! yummy dinner. A close second was hot dogs and macaroni, made so special by the extra slice of cheese I always put in.

Well, one of my goals after becoming a wife was learning to cook for my husband (and myself of course). I knew we needed to eat better and I knew we needed to eat at home more. Also, when we have kids, I want them to know what a home cooked meal is. Because when I was a kid...hot dogs and macaroni was a home cooked meal.

So I have decided to share with you all when I try to make something new. I will let you know what it was, how it turned out, any freak outs I had in the kitchen, and of course share the recipe. I will even include a picture of the final product (if you promise not to laugh-ha who am I kidding?)

Today, I am going to start off with the one thing I learned to cook before getting married. It is my go to recipe when we have people over for dinner, because it's easy and it's tasty every time. I figured I'd start you off with something that actually turned out good, so maybe you'll stick around to see the ones that didn't.

Baked Ziti

This recipe came from the "Best of the Best 500 Fast and Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes" book by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley. They call it S'ghetti Bake, but I call it Baked Ziti cuz that's pretty much what it is.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 (8oz) pkg mostaccioli pasta, cooked

1 (26 oz) jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 (8oz) pkg shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Brown ground beef. Then drain. Stir in cooked pasta, spaghetti sauce, and parmesan cheese. Pour into a 9x13 in casserole dish. Top with mozzarella. Bake at 375 for 20 min. Serves 8.

FYI's:

-Putting more mozzarella cheese on never hurt anybody. I say the more cheese the better.

-I always use the store brand original spaghetti sauce. Obviously, you can use whatever you want.

-They say it serves 8. I say it serves 6.

-I always serve it with garlic bread.

This is so so good. It's great to make when you have people over, cuz you can do all the pre-cooking before they get there, stick it in the oven, and then you can hang out with them while you wait for it to cook. Plus for a newbie cook like me, the only things you have to do at the same time are cook the pasta and the ground beef, which is wonderful for lessening the kitchen break downs.

Enjoy!

*Edit- I am so not blog savvy yet. I tried to put spaces between each section underneath Baked Ziti, but for some reason it is making it one big block. I apologize for that- I like everything broken up.