Baked Ziti

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry ziti pasta (or really any kind of pasta would work- I actually used Penne pasta)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef (season with pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and minced garlic)
• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (I added a zucchini to my sauce just for more veggies!)
• 8 slices provolone cheese
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 7-8 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray 2 8×8 inch pans with non-stick cooking spray. Layer as follows in each pan: 1/4 of the ziti, 1/4 of the sauce, 4 slices of Provolone cheese, 1/2 of sour cream,  1/4 of ziti, 1/4 mozzarella cheese and 1/4 of sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and remaining mozzarella cheese.
4. Bake covered for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

You can eat one for dinner now and freeze the other for dinner another day!

To freeze this meal: Follow the instructions above, except for the last step of cooking it. Cover the assembled ziti with foil and stick in the freezer (I usually use 2-3 layers of foil just to keep out the freezer burn). It will last in the freezer for about 30 days. When you are ready to eat it, remove from the freezer and place in the fridge to thaw 24 hours in advance. By allowing it to thaw in the fridge, you can cook it at the regular time and temperature (350 degrees for about 30 minutes). If you do not thaw it in advance, it will take much longer to cook. If you cook it completely frozen, it will take anywhere from 90 minutes – 2 hours to cook all the way through.

These fill the 8×8″ pans to the top, so I cooked mine on a large cookie sheet just in case they bubbled over (which they did!).