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…

Parmesan Chicken Crescents

Thanks everyone for the great comments you left about yesterday's post. I feel really great about my plans for the year. I'm glad you all had such nice things to say about them. So how are those resolutions coming? I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't do as well yesterday as I would have liked. Granted, I did a lot better than I have the last couple of weeks. But I have this bag of Italian cookies on my counter that my mom made for me. So, so good. She always made them when we were younger, and still does now. They're not crazy bad for me, but my problem is that I can't eat just one...or two. I need to get them off of the counter, so I won't be tempted to eat them as much. We'll see how that works out.

So here we go! Starting off the year with a delicious recipe for you. I made this a while back and never shared it with you all. I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to share this quick and easy recipe with you all. It's a pretty easy one that has a scrumptious result. TC and Addison both loved this one. It comes together pretty quickly, too. Then, of course, there are the crescent rolls. Don't they always add something that nothing else can? I'm telling you, if you don't already have all the ingredients for this one, pick them up the next time you go to the grocery store. You won't regret it.

PARMESAN CHICKEN CRESCENTS
adapted from Plain Chicken
Servings: 4
Points+: 10

16 oz. chicken breasts, cut into strips
garlic & herb seasoning
1 package reduced fat crescent rolls
2 c. light spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Light Smart)
1 t. garlic powder
1 c. FF shredded mozzarella cheese
reduced fat Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken strips on baking sheet and sprinkle with garlic & herb seasoning. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from oven.

Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. Pour sauce into a bowl or saucepan. Sprinkle 1/8 c. of mozzarella cheese on top of crescent roll. Dunk chicken strip into spaghetti sauce and place on top of cheese. Roll up crescent and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken strips and crescents. Sprinkle each roll with garlic powder. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes. Remove from oven and top each crescent with Parmesan cheese if using. Bake for additional 5-8 minutes. I served our crescents with spaghetti.

I'm teaming up with the wonderful ladies for another edition of That's Fresh Friday. Head on over to the link-up for some more great ideas!

Enjoy!

So long for today...

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Pasta

Happy Thursday everyone! We're more than halfway over with the week! We have no definite plans for the weekend, but I'm still looking forward to it. I have to apologize for not doing a WIAW post in 2 weeks. I started off taking pictures of my food yesterday, then didn't take any of lunch OR dinner, so I figured I had better scrap that idea. So instead, I am giving you a new recipe. Even better, right?

They say this is a crockpot meal, but I don't really like that name so much. Yes, you do put it in the crockpot, but there is an awful lot of prep that you have to do before hand in order to get it ready for the crockpot. Then you pretty much just heat it through and get all of the cheese melted together. I guess it saves you from having to bake it, but I think it might be good with a nice browned top right out of the oven. In any event, it was really good. TC and I both really liked it. Addison didn't care for it too much, but I think she was just being picky that day. Here's the recipe:

CROCKPOT CHEESY CHICKEN PASTA
adapted from Half My Size
Servings: 12
Points+: 6

16 oz. dry pasta, cooked
1 lb. Velveeta Light cheese
12 oz. chicken breast, cooked and shredded
10 3/4 oz. can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
10 3/4 oz. can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
10 oz. can diced tomatoes and green chilies (Rotel)
1/2 cup water
salt & pepper, to taste

Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and stir to mix well.

Cook on LOW for 2-3 hours. Stir again just before serving.

EXERCISE:
I didn't get any formal exercise in yesterday. I did get my 8,000 steps in yesterday, but after the Dr's appt earlier in the day, I was ready to relax for the evening. Although I did end up making cupcakes for work today. So relaxing was out of the question. Oh well, there's always tonight, right?

So long for today...

Lasagna

Sometimes, I don't make the best decisions. Take today for example. I not only made a batch of Alabama Firecrackers, but I also made a batch of Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even now, after I have put everything in a sealed container, I can still hear them calling to me from the kitchen, begging me to try just one bite. I've been pretty strong so far and I hope I stay this way. I made these to share with my co-workers tomorrow at the Oyster Festival that my company plays host to. It usually draws a pretty good crowd and everyone has a good time. I have to work this year, as every other year, but since I'm going to be working the t-shirt table, I should be able to still have time to step away and socialize.

One of the ways to stay successful with Weight Watchers is to plan ahead. Tomorrow is a great example. I don't like oysters, and the other food that will be available to me isn't healthy either. There is usually a tent set up selling hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries. Nothing that is WW friendly. So I will be taking my own lunch with me tomorrow. I'm planning to take a ham & cheese wrap with some fruit, carrot sticks and some Special K Cracker Chips. I'm also going to take a couple of bottles of water in order to make my 6 - 8 glasses of water recommendation for the day. When you know that you're going to be in a situation where you're not going to have a lot of healthy options available, it's a good idea to take something with you that you already know the points value of and will be able to enjoy without feeling guilty.

We had lasagna for dinner tonight. This was the first time that I made this variation. It was pretty good, but the next time I make it, I will make some tweaks to it to make it a little better. Here's the recipe:

LASAGNA
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 9
Points+: 9

1 lb. extra lean ground beef
3/4 lb. italian turkey sausage
1 medium green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
26 oz. spaghetti sauce
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1 c. 2% cottage cheese
6 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1 c. part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 t. italian seasoning, divided
1/4 c. reduced fat parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground beef and turkey sausage. Add pepper, onion and garlic and cook until veggies are tender. Set aside 1 c. spaghetti sauce and add remaining spaghetti sauce to meat and veggie mixture. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 8 - 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, melt cream cheese over medium heat. Remove from heat and add cottage cheese.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 of meat mixture in bottom of dish. Top meat layer with 3 lasagna noodles, followed by 1/2 of cream cheese mixture and 1 1/2 t. italian seasoning. Repeat meat, noodle and cream cheese layers. Cover with reserved spaghetti sauce. Top this with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

EXERCISE
So I'm happy to report that the scale was down a little bit this morning. I'm hoping that I can keep this trend throughout the weekend. Tonight, I changed up my workout again and did JM No More Trouble Zones. This is a pretty difficult video to do for me, especially because it's 50 minutes long. I gave it my all for as long as I could and made sure to have a good cool down. I'm still feeling the workout in my shoulders.

I'm hoping to get in a morning run before I have to go to the Oyster Festival. Tomorrow is usually a pretty tiring day and I want to get my workout in before I leave so I don't have to worry about trying to do it after working the festival all day. Keep your fingers crossed...

So long for now...