Meal #3: Baked Ziti with Sausage

I made this on Sunday but I've kind of fallen behind with my real job and my fake job being even busier than usual. No less, I wanted to keep track of all of my mega meals I make on a weekly basis, and this week's foray was superb once again.

While perusing Barnes & Noble earlier in the day, I stopped by the cookbooks section to help brew up some ideas of foods I may want to cook. Being a fan of cheesy, meaty (that is a word now) pastas, when I saw the recipe for Baked Ziti with Sausage I knew I had to take it. Of course, I didn't buy the book. In fact, I just took a picture of the recipe with my phone and then emailed it to myself. I'm a cookbook pirate!

The Ziti itself was balanced out a bit by using low-fat cheeses and whole wheat pasta, and I think that helped the calorie count (or at the very least my conscious) in this sumptuous meal. Also, I threw in a little bit extra on the red pepper flakes to boost the spice and it really kicked it up a notch. Emeril would approve.

Negatives I came across in this meal were some stupid decisions by me. And by that I mean my thrifty nature came out and instead of buying fresh parmesan to grate myself I used the subpar parm I had at home. While the flavor wasn't significantly different, I can say the visual appeal of the meal dropped a bit.

All in all though, another great venture. Three weeks, three elaborate meals, dinners for three or four nights (plus a lunch or two in there). That's some great value right there!