WWEW: Ziti Lasagna Bake

Hey everyone! I have another "winner" recipe to share with you all today. I made this for a family dinner last Sunday, and it was a big hit! This is another adaptation of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  I've made several changes, so I will share exactly what I did, as I think it added quite a bit to the overall flavor.

Here are the ingredients I used:

-1 lb ziti noodles (my bag was actually 17.9oz-- and it was perfect!)

-1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey, zucchini, chicken, whatever!)

- 24 oz tomato sauce

- 24 oz tomato puree

- 2.25 oz can of chopped olives

- 4-5 chopped fresh mushrooms

- 1 pkg Lawry's Spaghetti Sauce Mix

- 1 1/2 cup sour cream

- about 7 slices of provolone cheese

- 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

And here's what I did:

1. To make the sauce, I browned and drained my ground beef, added the tomato sauce, puree, olives, mushrooms and seasoning packet. I then let that simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

2. While the sauce was simmering, I boiled my ziti noodles al dente. Then drained them.

3. I greased a 9x13 baking dish, and put half of my noodles in the bottom. I then mixed in half of my sauce. After that, I evenly layered the sour cream on top. Next came the provolone cheese. Then another layer of noodles mixed with the other half of the sauce. On top of it all is the shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

4. I put it in the oven for 30 minutes, and it turned out perfectly bubbly and brown on top!

This made a huge amount of food. Probably 16-18 servings. I served it with a spinach salad, and garlic bread. It would be great for a get together or pot luck!

I hope you all give this a try- it's sure to be keeper.

We hope you all are having a great week! We will be back again tomorrow with a Thrifty Thursday post!

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