Makeover Monday: Reduced Fat Sausage Manicotti

I think I have mentioned before that my experience with cooking Italian food doesn't extend much further than boiling spaghetti noodles and opening a jar of spaghetti sauce.  I do at least brown my own hamburger!   Since I grew up in a German family in a town without an Italian restaurant, I didn't have much exposure to Italian cuisine until I went off to college.  Now Italian is one of my favorite foods!  I specifically remember the excitement of manicotti night at the dorm dining center.  Who wouldn't love pasta stuffed with cheese and covered with marinara sauce?  

Fortunately, it wasn't served too often.  There's no fighting off the dreaded freshman 15 when you are stuffing your face with pasta, sausage, and four kinds of cheese!  Sadly, my manicotti days ended with my dorm days.  It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I attempted to recreate this college favorite at home.  And it really only happened because I had some ricotta cheese, sausage, and spaghetti sauce to get rid of.  I could have made lasagna, but I decided to try something new.  Once I had decided to take a shot at sausage manicotti, I hopped on the internet and quickly found several versions.  As I like to do, I basically took what I liked from the various recipes I found and made it my own.  And in typical Foodie RD fashion, I had to make it lower in fat!  After all, my metabolism isn't 18 anymore!

Cavatini

There are so many foods my mom us growing up that I loved.  I don't know that I could pick one favorite, but if I had to make a list of my top 10 favorites, cavatini would definitely be up there.  It's not something she made all the time, but it was always a treat when she did.  If you aren't familiar with cavatini, it is a delicious Italian-style casserole with noodles (of course!), beef, tomatoes, green peppers, onion, olives, and mushrooms, and topped with melted mozzarella cheese.  Who could resist that?

I have bummed a lot of my favorite recipes off my mom, but for some reason I never thought to request her recipe for cavatini.  Then a few years ago I inherited some of my grandma's cookbooks.  While going through a collection of recipes from a local bank, I found a recipe for cavatini.  It sounded just like my mom's.  Recipes like this frequently get passed around in a small town, and I was excited to take this one and make it my own.  After making it with a few minor tweaks, my only regret is that I lost so many years without my beloved cavatini.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Happy Valentine's Day to all those out there in internet land!   V-Day is a great excuse for those of us in relationship bliss to enjoy a nice romantic dinner together.  And for whatever reason, when I think of a romantic dinner, my mind goes straight to Italian food.  But every brother and their mother takes their significant other (what a rhyme!) out to eat for Valentine's Day, and dealing with a crowded restaurants can be a nightmare. 

So if you find yourself at your favorite Italian restaurant with a 2 hour wait, head home and make some delicious Italian food with your sweetheart!  Cooking together can actually be a really great date.  One of my favorite Valentine's Day dinners with my husband was when we stayed at home and leisurely prepared ourselves an amazing three course meal.  I thought about which dinner I wanted to share today and I settled on something that is quick, easy, delicious, and nutritious: Baked Eggplant Parmesan.