Before my race last week, the BF and I were deciding what kind of pasta we wanted to make for carb-loading purposes. We wanted to do something a little more than just pasta and sauce, but also something that wouldn't take forever.

Enter baked ziti.

My friend used to make this in college all the time and it seemed simple enough. To keep things easy, I invented my own recipe.

(My apologies for the initial lack of pictures in this post. I forgot to upload them and don't have my camera connector cord with me. Blogger fail! I'll add them sometime this weekend for sure!)

First, make the pasta according to package instructions. The BF and I did this in advance and kept the pasta in the fridge until we were ready for dinner.



When you're starting to get hungry, pre-heat your oven to 350 and begin assembling the ziti.

Dump a jar of your favorite pasta sauce in a bowl with the ziti and mix well, coating all the noodles with some sauce.



Then begin layering in the pan. We used a 9x13 bake pan because that's what we had, and it worked well.



Spread a layer of noodles and top that with a handful of mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.



Add another layer of pasta and top with the cheeses. Repeat until you run out of pasta.



Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your top noodles. We did 15 minutes and I thought it came out perfectly.







This was definitely a fun and quick meal that put a nice spin on my basic pre-race meal. It's nice to mix it up a little bit, while still going for foods that work well and don't cause stomach problems on race morning.

What's your favorite pre-race meal?