Baked Ziti without Ricotta Cheese
Growing up, I never liked any cheese. There was even a time when I took cheese off of my pizza, so when I talk about my recipes being enjoyed by picky eaters, I really do think they will be. I used to live off of bread, and boxed brownie mix. but as soon as I started introducing other foods my pallet has slowly been expanding. Needles to say, this recipe is not one of those ‘expanded pallet’ recipes - who doesn’t love noodles?!
Back to my rant about not liking cheese… to me Ricotta Cheese is a weird cheese. I have no idea how to eat it, or what it tastes like. I know you can bake with it, but I haven’t really done it that much. I know it’s soft, but other than baking, do people eat it normally? I never would have it in my fridge for a night where I feel like making a Baked Ziti on a whim. But that is okay, because I do typically have Cream Cheese!
For this recipe I cooked an entire box of Brown Rice pasta. I find that among the ‘healthy’ pastas, brown rice stays together than chickpea or other ones. While the pasta was cooking, I cooked 1 lb of ground beef.
Once the pasta was done, but still hot, I mixed it with my cream cheese, and mozzarella, then stirred until it was completely melted. Added in pasta sauce and the meat, then threw all that in a pan, and topped it with some shredded parmesan then baked until the cheese was melted and some of the ends of the pasta were browning. Delicious, carbo load! This is one of those recipes that most would not expect to find in a sugar free blog. A high carb meal like this will have a similar effect on your blood sugar as a sweet treat. But this is something I have grown to become a bit more down the middle on. While we have removed sugars and added sweeteners, I still don’t mind a carbo loaded meal every now and then. They are affordable, and a fun little treat!
Baked Ziti (without Ricotta Cheese)
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
1 box of Brown Rice pasta (or whatever you have on hand)
1 lb Ground Beef
6 oz of cream cheese
1 can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
Optional toppings: fresh basil and parmesan
Instructions:
Cook Pasta according to package instructions.
While pasta is cooking, cook ground beef until cooked through.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and grease a 8 x 10 pan with butter.
Once Pasta is ready, drain pasta and immediately mix in cream cheese and 1/4 cup of mozzarella until it is melted and thoroughly mixed.
Add in tomato sauce and ground beef. then dump it into your buttered pan. Top with the rest of the mozzarella cheese and bake for about 10 minutes, or the cheese in melted.
