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Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta

Cottage Cheese Baked Pasta

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  • Author: Julie
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
  • Category: dinner
  • Method: oven, stovetop

Description

A high protein cottage cheese baked pasta recipe! This protein packed recipe (42g!) is warm, comforting and deliciously cheesy.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 8 ounces pasta (for an added boost of protein, I love this pasta I order on Amazon — the rigatoni is my fav — or you may also use a chickpea pasta! Any kind of pasta works in this recipe though.)
  • 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 zucchini, shredded (I use my rotary grater to shred them and it works well)
  • 4 cloves garlic, diced
  • 24 ounces lean ground beef
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce (use your favorite! I love Rao’s vodka sauce in this recipe)
  • 2 cups cottage cheese
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 cup egg whites
  • 2 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

  1. Cook pasta according to package directions, but reduce the cooking time a little bit so pasta is al dente/very slightly firm and not too soft. Drain and set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes. Add zucchini and cook until it begins to soften and onion is translucent.
  4. Add ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink, stirring regularly. Sprinkle with garlic salt and stir.
  5. Pour marinara sauce into the pot and allow to simmer while you create the cottage cheese mixture.
  6. In a VERY large bowl, combine cottage cheese, egg whites and Italian seasoning.
  7. To the large bowl with your cottage cheese mixture, add marinara ground beef mixture and stir. Gently stir in the cooked pasta.
  8. Pour pasta mixture into a 9×13 baking dish. Top with the shredded mozzarella.
  9. Bake uncovered for approximately 30 minutes and enjoy!

Notes

You may omit the zucchini if you don’t have any. I’ve also added additional zucchini because we had one that was about to go bad and the recipe turned out great.

You may also add an additional cup of cottage cheese if you like a super cheesy pasta. Again, this is a hard recipe to mess up, so do your thang!

The nutritional facts of this recipe were calculated with lean ground beef (93/7), low fat cottage cheese, Rao’s vodka sauce and this high-protein pasta.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 serving
  • Calories: 408
  • Sugar: 6g
  • Sodium: 673mg
  • Fat: 14g
  • Saturated Fat: 5g
  • Carbohydrates: 34g
  • Fiber: 8g
  • Protein: 42g
  • Cholesterol: 74mg

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Find it online: https://www.pbfingers.com/cottage-cheese-baked-pasta/