Creamy Baked Bow Ties

Most of my recipes this week will come from (or adapted from) Kraft Food and Family magazine, and are also available on http://www.kraftrecipes.com/. 

Tonights dinner was adapted from the recipe for creamy baked ziti.  I didn't use ziti because I like to use Barilla Piccolini Veggie pasta.  Every serving of pasta has an entire serving of vegetables in it.  This is great if you have a kid who is picky about eating their vegetables.

CREAMY BAKED BOW TIES

prep time: 20 minutes

baking time: 20 minutes

servings: 8

Ingredients:

4 cups bow tie pasta, uncooked

1 jar  (26 oz.) marinara sauce

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

8 oz.  Neufchatel Cream Cheese, cubed

1 cup Light Sour Cream

1 pkg.  (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese with a TOUCH OF PHILADELPHIA

1/3 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

HEAT oven to 375ºF.

COOK pasta in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt. Remove from pan; drain. Meanwhile, add marinara sauce, tomatoes and cream cheese to same pan; cook on medium heat 5 min. or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently. Return pasta to pan; mix well.
LAYER half the pasta mixture in 13x9-inch baking dish; cover with layers of sour cream, 1 cup mozzarella and remaining pasta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
BAKE 20 min. or until heated through.

Outcome: delicious! We really enjoyed this recipe.  This was the first time I made it.  I've been trying to go through my cooking magazines and pick out new recipes for us to try (mix things up a little). The cream cheese and sour cream added an extra creaminess to it. 

I should have planned my week better and not had 2 pasta nights right in a row.  Last nights meal of spaghetti and meatballs was a spur of the moment "lazy" dinner.  I had actually made the meatballs a month ago and just pulled out a package from the freezer. 

In store for tomorrow, Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Potatoes!