Baked Ziti

 This is a meal that is a great way for me to use up the extra filling from a batch of lasagna.  In this case, it was a fresh batch of sauce.  The veggie base for this sauce, was onion, celery, green peppers and carrots.   The sauce was also great on a from-scratch pizza.

I like to mix my pasta -- Barilla makes a blend that is higher in fiber, made with beans and lentils.  A 50/50 mix of this with my favorite brand (Colavita), means we're not eating as much "white" pasta.  We are definitely not gluten-phobic, but I try to make as many fiber-rich meals as possible.  Adding this to the fiber-rich veggie based sauce and filling pack a triple healthy punch.  A bag of Colavita is a dollar at Price Rite, while the Barilla is two bucks.

The sauce I made this time around did not have a meat base, but it was pretty thick with veggies.  I had posted about the lasagna filling a few days ago.  The sauce from that meal was also veggie-heavy.  As you can see, this batch was chock-full of healthy stuff.

When it comes to baked ziti, I really like to stir together and heat the filling and sauce in a pan on the stove.  I think it blends it for better baking.

Topped with some grated cheese and fresh ground pepper, it was a fine meal all on its own.  Sometimes I am too lazy to make a salad.  Since this dish was so full of vegetables anyway, I didn't feel guilty by skipping the greens!