Turkey Pasta Casserole!

I am really behind on recipes. Well, not really. I have 3 I haven't posted, but otherwise I haven't been cooking much. I've been getting ready for this baby, who, is due today but is deciding to just not show up. So I figured I would post some recipes finally.

A few weeks ago I made a turkey pasta casserole. This is actually one of the dishes I made for my husband and I to eat after the baby shows up - we currently have a large batch of it in the freezer. It was a brand new recipe, so risky to make a large batch before tasting, but I made a small batch along with it that we ate that week and luckily, we really enjoyed it.

It's pretty simple to make! I made it one night after work. 9I also forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so the picture is the little bit of leftover we had that I brought for lunch one day! ha!)

I actually don't think I made any changes to the recipe. If I did, it was using a mix of tomato sauce and ketchup instead of just straight ketchup. I can also see making this dish with using tomato sauce and mozzarella to make it more Italian.

It came out well. The recipe is below. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 pound spaghetti
1 pound ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups ketchup
1 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, brown turkey over medium heat. Remove turkey from skillet to a large bowl; do not drain any grease left in skillet.

Add onion and bell pepper to skillet; saute until softened.

Add garlic to saute for 2 minutes and add tomatoes; mix well and remove from heat.

Add vegetable mixture to turkey and stir in ketchup to coat; mix well.

In a 9x13 inch baking dish, spread mixture and top with spaghetti and cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted; serve warm.

Fun with Turkey Sliders

For Father's Day (which we hosted Saturday), my husband whipped up a batch of ground turkey sliders to serve with his famous (so far secret until we enter it into a contest) topping. Everyone enjoyed the topping so much, they ate it alone without the turkey sliders!! So we ended up with a bunch of turkey sliders leftover, and we got creative last night in how we ate them.

We also had a batch of my Asian Grilled Eggplant on hand, so I cut up a slice of that and laid it in between two turkey sliders. I then topped off my burger with a balsamic vinegar and honey reduction sauce. MMM! The combination of flavors was very, very tasty!



My husband was a little more creative than I was with his turkey slider. He bought himself a poblano pepper at the farmers market yesterday morning and sauteed it with some onion.

Along with some taco-seasoned shredded cheddar cheese, my husband also used Trader Joe's Spicy Black Bean dip as a garnishment. He really enjoyed his southwest spicy turkey burger!




So we had fun with our Sunday night dinner.

Here is our basic ground turkey burger recipe:

Ingredients

Ground turkey
Italian bread crumbs
salt & pepper
oregano
garlic powder
crushed red pepper flakes

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and form into patties. Grill, broil or bake until done - no longer pink inside.

Enjoy!

Ground Turkey Boats

So, the recipe below is what I consider the "grown up" version of THIS recipe (mushroom mozzarella bruschetta). I used to make the bruschetta all the time when I was a recent (poor) college graduate because it is very cheap to make and it serves you for a couple of meals, especially if you pair it with a half can of soup. (While I provided the link, see below for the recipe I used during my poor recent college graduate days!)

I actually had forgotten about my staple meal ever since I moved from the DC metro area in 2006. But the other week my husband and I had acquired a loaf of whole wheat Italian bread from the "day old" bakery section of the grocery store for a very low price. I was thinking and thinking about what to do with it, and when I typed "Italian bread" into the ingredients list of Allrecipes.com, my old standby came up.

Bingo!! A light went on in my head. I wanted to do something similar, but with a little more substance. Slowly, an idea formed in my head. I also had an unopened container of Philly's brand new product, their cooking creme, in my refrigerator. I got it for 50 cents because there was a $1.50 coupon in the Sunday newspaper one week and the grocery store had it on sale for $2.00. So I figured I would try it out. We bought the savory garlic flavor. I also had some ground turkey. I knew exactly what I was going to do now.

So, here is my recipe:

1/2 pound ground turkey
1/2 loaf Italian bread, sliced again in half lengthwise
1/4 - 1/2 container Philly's Cooking Creme, Savory Garlic (amount depends on how much you want to use)
Chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
Chopped onion
Chopped bell pepper (any color desired)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a skillet, saute ground turkey with some salt and pepper until no longer pink. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.

Combine spinach, chopped onions and bell pepper in a bowl. Once manageable, add turkey and combine well.


Spread the cooking cream on the halves of bread. Top with turkey/vegetable mixture.

Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top.

Place on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted on top.


Serve hot and enjoy!

This is such an easy and quick idea to make, especially on a rushed week night. You can always play with the portions to make them smaller. We ate some large pieces because we didn't have a side with them, and they definitely were tasty and filling. It's also a relatively inexpensive meal and easy to interchange ingredients such as ground chicken or beef for the turkey.

Since Philly makes 4 different flavors of their cooking creme right now, you can also play with flavors and ingredients to make your own! I could see using their Santa Fe flavor as a base for a Mexican boat.

The possibilities are endless!


Recipe for Mushroom Mozzarella Bruschetta, my staple as a poor college graduate. This fed me for a few days, especially when paired with soup! Courtesy of Campbell's Kitchen.

Ingredients

* 1 (16 ounce) loaf Italian bread, cut in half lengthwise
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, crushed
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
* 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 small red pepper, chopped
* 2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place the bread on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until it's lightly toasted.

3. Stir the soup, garlic powder and Italian seasoning in a medium bowl. Stir in the mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, pepper and onions.

4. Spread the soup mixture over the bread to within 1/4-inch of the edges. Bake for 5 minutes or until it's hot and bubbling. Cut each half into 12 slices.

Broccoli Corn Noodle Casserole

Part of me feels like my dinner tonight will be out in the country. It's a very warm dish and by warm, I mean it's very much like a comfort food. I pre-made this last night because I am starting a brand new job today and wanted to have everything ready for when I got home! (My husband and I also baked up a storm yesterday making dessert for Rosh Hashanah dinners!)

So tonight's dinner is a Broccoli Corn Noodle Casserole with Ground Turkey. It was very easy to make!

Here are the ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package uncooked egg noodles
1 pound ground turkey
1 (15 ounce) can canned or frozen corn
1 (10.75 ounce) can cream of broccoli soup
salt and pepper to taste


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium casserole dish.

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles, cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until al dente, and drain.


3. Place turkey in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until evenly brown. Drain grease.


4. In a bowl, gently mix cooked noodles and turkey, corn, and soup. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.


5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly.


This recipe is very versatile because you can use ground chicken or beef or cream of chicken soup or cream of mushroom. I love recipes with interchangeable ingredients like that!

I already took a taste and it's very yummy. I can also see sprinkling something on the top before baking, maybe some cheddar cheese or breadcrumbs. Or both!

We're going to be eating this with some good ol' fashioned cornbread. Yum! Can't wait!