Growing up, there were plenty of days that my mom was to tired to make dinner. Her solution to this problem was always ordering a pizza (and occasionally Chinese food). However, often times we’d order more than just a pizza…there would be garlic knots, antipasto, and my favorite (besides the pizza of course) baked ziti! In fact, baked ziti was how I first discovered a love for ricotta cheese. So, you could say making a healthier version of this dish brings me waaaaay back to my childhood – and some really great memories of having dinner with my family.
It’s actually unbelievably easy to make healthy baked ziti. All you need to do is make a few smart substitutions. The biggest substitution is using Banza’s Chickpea Pasta (If you can’t find it in your grocery store I’ve included a link so you can get it on Amazon). I’m obsessed with this stuff. It’s awesome – and no, unfortunately their not giving me any free pasta, or paying me to say that. Anyways, if you’ve never tried it before, it a cooks a lot like, and has the consistency of regular pasta. I will say though, it does have a bit of a chickpea flavor (which I actually really like). The best thing about this product though are the macros. As far as pasta goes, it doesn’t get much better than – 190 calories, 3.5g fat, 32g carbs (8g fiber), and 14g protein (per 56g serving).
The other substitutions for this healthy baked ziti are more straight forward. I used low calorie tomato sauce (you should look for one that’s around 20 calories per 55g serving) and fat-free ricotta +fat-free mozzarella cheese.
This ziti also comes together quite quickly. It takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish, and you could probably even make it into a casserole for meal-prep purposes.
Macros Per 135g Serving (makes 2)
244 Calories, 3.5g Fat, 37.5g Carbs (9g fiber), 22g Protein
- 4 oz (114g) Banza's Chickpea Pasta
- ⅓ Cup (75g) low calorie tomato sauce
- ⅙ (45g) fat-free ricotta cheese
- ¼ Cup (28g) fat-free mozzarella cheese
- Add Salt and Crushed Red Pepper to taste
- Add four cups of water to a medium sized pot and bring to a boil
- Add the pasta and cook for around 6-8 minutes
- Strain the pasta and add it to a medium-large sized ramekin
- Add the tomato sauce, salt and crushed red pepper (if using) into the ramekin and stir
- Top with ricotta cheese and then the mozzarella
- Bake at 375 Degrees | 190 Celsius for 6-8 minutes
is this recipe do-able with miracle noodles ziti?
I wouldn’t sub all the noodles here with miracle noodles. But I think you could maybe use 1/4 of the noodles as miracle noodles for sure :)