Easy Turkey Pasta Casserole

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you're all having a great week! We made it past Hump Day and are in the home stretch!

I was able to snap this picture on my way into work this morning. I have really been enjoying the beautiful sunrises that we’ve been having lately! I don’t mean to get too deep today, but sometimes, we get so busy that it’s easy to miss all of the beauty in the world around us. It’s nice to stop and take notice from time to time.

I’m back today with one of the new recipes I promised you in this week’s meal plan. This recipe comes from Skinnytaste. She is one of my favorite WW bloggers. I love when I’m able to find recipes that are easy, use ingredients that I already have on hand and the family loves. Camden had three helpings of this one. Granted, we had a busy day and he was pretty active, but I like to think that it’s because he liked it so much, more than the fact that he was probably extremely hungry!

Here’s the recipe:

Easy Turkey Pasta Casserole
Source: Skinnytaste
Points+: 8
Servings: 8

1 lb 93% lean ground turkey
1 T.olive oil
1 c. chopped onion
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup finely diced carrots
1 (14.5 oz can) petite diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups light spaghetti sauce
2 cups water
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
8 oz uncooked pasta (I used Barilla Protein pasta)

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground turkey and season with salt and pepper. Cook until meat is browned. To this, add onion, pepper, celery & carrots. Cook until veggies are tender. Add in tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, water, Italian seasoning and salt. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F.

Remove from heat. Spoon a little bit of the sauce into a 9x13 pan and spread over bottom. On top of this, pour in the uncooked pasta and spread over sauce. Cover the pasta with the rest of the sauce mixture. Top sauce with cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and baked covered for 50-55 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit for about 10 more minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

I hope you all have a great day! I have at least one more recipe to share with you soon. So be on the lookout for that!

So long for today…

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Hello? Spring? Are you out there? If someone has seen Spring, please send it my way. I'm so over this Winter. The kids were out of school yesterday because of freezing rain in the forecast. I guess it was a good call since we did end up having some ice sticking in some places. Better safe, than sorry, right?

This casserole is a perfect cold weather dinner. It's comfort food at its finest! I love how rich and creamy it was. The recipe made enough for us to get two dinners, plus a lunch for TC out of it. It takes a little bit of prep work, but it's definitely worth it!! 

Here's the recipe:

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU CASSEROLE
Servings: 8
Points+: 9

8 oz uncooked pasta
4 T. light butter
3 T. flour
2 c. skim milk
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
8 oz. 2% Swiss cheese, either shredded or torn into pieces
1/3 c. FF sour cream
2 c. chicken breast, shredded
6 oz. lean cooked ham, diced
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1/4c. reduced fat Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Cook pasta according to package.

Meanwhile, melt 3 T. butter in medium saucepan. Add four and stir until mixed. Gradually add milk and whisk until smooth. Add salt and pepper and mix again. Add Swiss cheese. Stir until cheese has completely melted in.

In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, ham, sour cream and cheese sauce. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Spread the mixture into baking dish.

In small skillet, melt remaining butter over medium heat. Add bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Stir for 1-2 minutes until lightly browned. Sprinkle this mixture over casserole.

Bake casserole for 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Enjoy!!

This is definitely a winner-winner chicken dinner! Add these ingredients to your grocery list and make it soon! You won't regret it!

I hope you all have a great day!

So long for today...

Source: Emily Bites

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Mother Nature has been teasing me. I'm not very happy with her right now. It's almost April and it still feels like Winter here. I moved to South Carolina for warm weather!! Not cold. Yes, I do realize that it could be a lot worse, but it could also be a lot better. We had a beautiful weekend, and then the cold front rolled back into town. The next 10 days still aren't looking much better. We are going to the circus on Friday and I might just hibernate the rest of the weekend. I still have plenty to do to get ready for the baby, so maybe that's what I'll work on this weekend. We'll see.

I'm so glad to be bringing you a new recipe today. This is a recipe that I've seen on Pinterest a lot, but wasn't happy with their instructions or the ingredients, so I decided to figure out my own for mula for ingredients and instructions. Feel free to play around with this and add or change ingredients until you're happy with it...but I hope you'll like it the way it is!! This was so good. Even Addison ate it right up! It's really easy, too. I actually made it the night before and then put it in the refrigerator. I covered it and baked at a bit of a higher temperature for a while then uncovered it so the top could get nice and brown. So, so good! Here's the recipe:

CHICKEN PARMESAN CASSEROLE
Servings: 6
Points+: 10



1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips or cubes
2 c. uncooked pasta
1 jar light spaghetti sauce
2 c. 2% milk shredded mozzarella cheese
italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle Italian seasoning over chicken. Bake about 12 - 15 minutes or until cooked through. (You can also skip this step and cook the casserole for a little bit longer.) When chicken is done, lower oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta until just al dente and drain.

Spray 2 qt. casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread a little bit of sauce (about 1/3 c.) in bottom of baking dish. Place chicken on top of sauce. Sprinkle with about 1/3 c. of cheese. Pour pasta over top of chicken. Pour remaining sauce over pasta and stir just a bit to cover all pasta with the sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top of pasta and sauce.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover and bake for additional 10 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Enjoy!



EXERCISE:
Last night I did some strength work on my own. I made sure that I had gotten in my 8,000 steps for the day and then I did some leg work and arm work. We had done walks for the last two evenings and TC even wanted to do another one last night. But for some reason, I wasn't feeling it. It might be because it was a little cooler, I'm not sure. But I still got in some exercise. It wasn't a lot, but it was better than nothing!!

So long for today...

Baked Penne Pasta

I want to start by patting myself on the back for getting in a bonus run this week. It was such a beautiful and warm day here today, I wanted to take full advantage of it, and I'm so happy that I did. I got a 3 mile run in today at a 9:05 pace. I felt like it had been so long since I had run. Since last weekend was so busy and rainy, I only got to run on Friday. I will hopefully be able to get a workout in tomorrow during lunch because I definitely won't get one it tomorrow evening...

Ok, now for the food...Wow! 13 points for a dinner. Is that still WW-friendly? This is an example of when I made a recipe, then went back and plugged in all of the ingredients to see how many points were in it. I know this is pretty high in points. I mean, come on, that’s half of my daily points right there. Needless to say, I did a lot of scrimping on my other foods today in order to save enough for dinner. But let me tell you, it was worth it. This meal was so good! Usually, when I make a baked pasta meal, I have to put a ton of cheese in it in order to make it creamy and delicious. But I didn’t have to add all of those extra points of cheese to this one. The Philly Cooking Crème did that for me. The way it blended with the other ingredients was just perfect! I had seen these cooking crèmes last year when they first came out and bought one in every flavor. Once again, though, I didn’t check the points in them and of course, they ended up being higher in points than I was willing to sacrifice. So a couple of weeks ago when I saw that they had come out with reduced fat versions of a couple of them, I was completely on board. Count me in and sign me up! It was a good day when I found these on shelf at my grocery store. Here’s the recipe:

BAKED PENNE PASTA
Adapted from Plain Chicken
Servings: 4
Points+: 13

4 c. cooked penne pasta
½ lb. extra lean ground beef
½ c. onion, chopped
½ c. green pepper, chopped
2 c. spaghetti sauce
¾ c. Reduced Fat Italian Cheese & Herbs Philadelphia Cooking Crème
1 c. reduced fat mozzarella cheese

In a large non-stick skillet, brown ground beef. Add onion and green pepper and cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in spaghetti sauce, cooking crème and ½ c. mozzarella cheese. Stir until combined and cheese is melted. Transfer to a 2 ½ qt. baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

There are so many different ways that this could be tweaked according to your personal preference. You could use turkey instead of the ground beef. You could add mushrooms to it. You could use any shape pasta that you wanted to. This is definitely a recipe that I will make again, it just might have a few changes.

This stuff was so good! The portions were pretty big, too. So I guess the 13 pts.+ per serving isn't unreasonable. Pair this up with a nice tossed salad on the side and you've got a delicious and filling dinner.

So long for today...

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

TC is a self-proclaimed "meatatarian". He absolutely loves meat lover's pizza. I saw this recipe a few weeks back and thought it sounded pretty good. When I started following the recipe for it, I decided that it needed something. I decided that that something was some turkey pepperoni, which I just happened to have already cut up in the refrigerator. If you're going to do a pizza casserole, it definitely needs to have pepperoni! You could also add onion and green peppers to this, or any other vegetable you like on your pizza.

We've recently developed a new meal rating system at our house. When I make a new recipe, TC tells me how much he likes it by telling me how often he wants me to make it. If he really, really likes it, its a weekly meal. If he just really likes it, its a monthly meal. And so on and so on. He must have really, really, REALLY liked this one, because after dinner, he asked me how hard it was to make, because he thinks he might make it as a weekend lunch sometimes. Those are pretty high praises! Here's the recipe:

DEEP DISH PIZZA CASSEROLE
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 6
Points+:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef
14 oz. jar pizza sauce
oregano to taste
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
3/4 c. turkey pepperoni, chopped into small pieces
1 10-oz. refrigerated pizza crust
4 oz. shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
4 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cook meat (seasoned with oregano, onion powder and garlic powder to taste) in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Add pizza sauce and cook until heated.

While meat cooks, coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough and press into bottom and halfway up the sides of baking dish. Sprinkle half the cheese over the bottom of the crust. Top with meat mixture.

Bake uncovered in the oven at 425 for 12 minutes. Remove and top with remaining cheese. Put casserole back in the oven for 5 additional minutes or until crust is browned and cheese is melted. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

The rest of the week is going to be a busy one. Tomorrow evening, I have to make cupcakes for a friend of mine's birthday at work. Thursday evening, we are tied up all evening at a United Way soiree. I'm looking forward to this as its my first "soiree". Also, before we leave Friday after I get off work, I have to make brownies and alabama firecrackers. I also have to wrap the presents for Sydney and pack everything. I'm hoping to cut out of work a little early Friday so that I can get a run in before we leave...but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So long for today...

Bubble Up Enchilada Casserole

So apparently, I've never had enchilada sauce. You can ask most anyone, and they'll tell you that I don't like a lot of spice in my food. My sister gets annoyed when I eat her lasagna because it's a litle too spicy for me. But I can't help it!! So today, I was just following the recipe for this casserole and added all the ingredients that it called for, plus a couple other ones. When I tried it, I made the realization about the enchilada sauce. It's still a very good casserole that I will probably make again, but I was just a little surprised at how spicy it was.

BUBBLE UP ENCHILADA CASSEROLE
slightly adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 6
Points+: 9

1 1/4 lb. extra lean ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (7.5) can refrigerator biscuits, cut into quarters
1 c. 2% milk mexican cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Brown turkey in large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender.

Add the enchilada sauce, tomato sauce and black beans and stir to combine. Stir the biscuit pieces into the meat mixtures.

Transfer the entire mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread out evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Like I said, I think I will definitely make this casserole again. I might add some corn to it next time. We'll see. When I am making a new recipe, I like to follow it pretty close before I start changing it up. It must be good the way it is though, since we were all members of the clean plate club. TC liked it. He told me for the third time as he was eating his second helping.

Now go make this casserole and laugh when you taste it because you don't think it's spicy. Go ahead, it's ok.

So long for today...