Here’s another easy pasta dish for a weekday dinner. Use some of your already cooked pasta (see yesterday’s Tuesday’s Tip) and layer it with ricotta cheese and sauce to make a quick lasagna.
And surprise--there is a fun kid-friendly ingredient in this dish--chicken tenders. You can easily omit to make this dish vegetarian, but I think the chicken can add a fun factor to this dish!
Baked Spaghetti Lasagna
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti, cooked
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 - 28 ounce jar of marinara
1 - 16 ounce container, part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup (packed) spinach leaves, chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided use
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
6 chicken tenders, cut into fourths or small bite size pieces
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions. Once cooked, drain fully and set aside.
Place the broccoli florets on a cookie sheet and spray with cooking spray or olive oil and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender and slightly browned. Keep the oven on for baking the lasagna.
In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, spinach, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
In a 9x13 baking dish, spread 1/3 of the marinara sauce in the bottom of the pan. Top with half the noodles, then half the ricotta mixture, half the broccoli, half the nugget pieces and half the mozzarella cheese. Repeat, making sure the noodles are fully covered on top (if there are "exposed" noodles, they will get crunchy and tough to eat).
Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until it is bubbly and the cheese is fully melted on top.
Serves 8.
This is a fun family-friendly recipe that can be altered to suit your family’s tastes!
Life is sweet,
SPC