Recipe: Pasta Bake

I love pasta. I've always known that knowing how to make a good, low-cal pasta dish would be integral to keeping up this new healthy lifestyle.

Yes, let's just get this out in the open. I refer to this as a lifestyle change, rather than a diet. It's a little (a lot) pretentious, but I think it's an important enough distinction to deal with that. Diets are temporary changes you make, lifestyles are permanent. Diets also smack of the kind of self-hatred a lot of women feel about their bodies, which I find profoundly disturbing, but I think that's a topic for a blog by itself!

I've been watching a lot of Top Chef today, so I feel like I should apologize for not being some great gourmet foodie, but after this I'm done with that. It is what it is, take it or leave it.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat pasta (2 oz/person) - Try Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Penne Rigate, it's 180 cal/serv
Tomato sauce (1/2 c. /person) - I used Contadina sauce with Italian Herbs.
It's 105 calories for a can which is about 1 3/4 c.
Diced tomatoes (1/2 c. /person) - I used Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Balsamic Vinegar, Basic and Olive Oil
It's 175 cals for a can which is about 1 3/4 c.
Sun-dried tomatoes (6) - I used Mezzetta sun-ripened tomatoes in olive oil.
It's 30 cals/serving with is 3 tomatoes.
Reduced-fat Mozzarella cheese - I used Sargentos
It's 40 cals/2 tblsp

Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare pasta according to directions on the box.

Dice sun-dried tomatoes.
Mix sun-dried tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce. I added some "pasta sprinkle" which looks like it was basil, garlic, turkish oregano and thyme.
Heat it together in a saucepan.

I used an 8 x 8 pan for baking, but I was only making 2 serving.

Add pasta to a pan for baking.
Add 1/2 c. of pasta sauce for each serving.
Mix together.
Top with 2 tbsp of Mozzarella per serving.
Bake for 20 minutes on the lower rack.
Serve. Enjoy.

Here's the break down of the calories:
It's about 56 cals/serving for the pasta sauce which made 6 servings for Jeff and I.
180 for the pasta and 40 for the mozzarella.

Total: 276 calories

I was actually surprised at how much food this dish actually provided. I worried that the 2 oz of pasta wouldn't be enough for my non-healthy lifestyle husband, but it ended up being more than enough. I have no idea how much 2 oz of pasta is, so I used a cheap food scale I bought at the grocery store for $3. That thing is so handy. I use it all the time.