Dinner Diaries: Mama's Amazing Ziti

Here we are at Dinner Diary numero dos. This dish is titled Mama's Amazing Ziti. Not really sure who the mother responsible for this recipe is, but to clear any confusion, this is not our mom's recipe. Also, we didn't use ziti, we used linguine...so maybe a better title for our version is "Somebody's mama's amazing linguine." Haha.

The finished product

If you're looking for a RIDICULOUSLY FAST and RIDICULOUSLY EASY dinner, this is it. If you prefer difficult, tedious, and time-consuming, this probably isn't for you.

Just because it's quick and easy doesn't mean it's not healthy! Don't get the two mixed up. This is NOT out-of-the package. After we made this recipe, I wondered why I ever made Knorr pasta sides. Never again.

Chloe cooking away!

Cooking the sauce

Our side of choice: steamed broccoli

Eat up!

See? It's so easy that there weren't a whole lot of pictures to take :)

Recipe tweaks:

We didn't cook the pasta with the sauce, we cooked the sauce and pasta separately. We dished out the pasta into the bowls, and put the sauce on each individual portion.

We also used crushed tomatoes instead of tomato soup and water. But Chloe did add about 1/2 cup of water as she continued to cook the sauce.

As we previously stated, we didn't use ziti as our pasta because we didn't have it. We used whole wheat linguine. We always have that on hand.

Review

-Chloe: "It wasn't as amazing as it claims. It was good, but it wasn't great. It could use more flavor...more salt. I can't decide whether I like it with or without the mozzarella cheese. It doesn't need the cheese. Without cheese it's much healthier. You're better off just making some spaghetti with bolognese."

-Kat: "It was fine. I liked the Cajun Chicken Pasta that they made earlier this week better."

-Taylor: "I couldn't believe what a fast dish it was to make! From that respect, it was awesome. I'm not a huge fan of slow recipes because you have to smell the delicious food cooking for so long...it just kills you. It did have a lot of meat, which I always appreciate. I agree that our mom's pasta bolognese is better. I would definitely make this again if we need to cook quick."

So there you have it!

If you try this dish, be sure to let us know how it turns out. Just leave a comment below :) Thanks!

Here's a direct link to the original recipe: http://www.recipe.com/mamas-amazing-ziti/?sssdmh=dm17.587236&esrc=nwdr032312&email=4138946567

Stay lovely!

xo,

T