Yes, This is "Diet" Food

This morning, I got up and made breakfast for everyone. As I ate my eggs, I planned out the rest of the days food intake. Even though I am not physically going to LA Weightloss, I am doing it at home. I was successful with it at one time, and since I have all the info, have decided to do it on my own. I have the cookbook and was going through it and came across this recipe. It is YumO! (As Rachael Ray would say). Here is the recipe that serves two. If you are on the LA program, it counts as 2 vegetables, 1 starch, 1 dairy. I doubled the recipe and divided it and put into freezer containers for the future. I also used the left over ingredients and made one for the rest of the family. One thing that I don't like about some recipes, is that you have left-over ingredients. For example with this recipe even though I doubled it, I still had left-over tomato sauce. As I was taking it out of the oven, everyone was complaining because it was "diet" food, but when I started spooning it out, they crowded around with their oooo's and awwww's. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Vegetable Ziti Bake

1/4 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/4 cup thinly sliced zucchini
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup fresh spinach
2/3 cup cooked ziti*
1/4 cup light tomato sauce
1/2 cup part skim Ricotta cheese
1/2 tomato, diced
2 oz. part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Coat skillet with nonfat cooking spray; heat over medium flame.
2. Add onion, garlic, and carrots to skillet and saute 1 to 2 minutes, or until onions begin to soften.
3. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic powder, and saute 2 minutes.
4. In large mixing bowl, combine ziti, ricotta cheese, tomato sauce, and vegetable mixture. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Remove vegetables from heat and set aside.
5. Coat casserole dish with nonfat cooking spray. Pour ziti mixture into casserole and top with diced tomato.
6. Cover and bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

*I could not find ziti at our grocery store, so I used rotini...whole wheat