Cheesy Pasta Casserole

I know it's been .f.o.r.e.v.e.r. since I posted on here. Matter of fact, it's been forever since I've posted on my regular blog. But, we're getting back into normal life, and I'm starting to cook more. And try new recipes, so hopefully I'll be posting here more often.

I saw this recipe posted by a friend a few weeks ago, and I knew it was one to try. As you know, I love fast {and yummy} food, and whenever I come across a recipe that fits the bill, I'm all about trying it.


Cheesy Pasta Casserole

1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
4 cups  cooked rotini pasta
1 pkg. (1 lb.) frozen Italian-style vegetable blend, thawed, drained (I used the Birds Eye brand it worked great)
1 can  (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained
3/4 lb. (12 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

 

HEAT oven to 400ºF.
COMBINE ingredients in 13x9-inch baking dish; cover!
BAKE 40 minutes. Let stand 5 min.; stir until sauce is well blended. 



To make this recipe even easier {which, of course, I did} use an already cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  


Fast & yummy! 


Enjoy!

Lasagna

Okay, so, this is completely not a clean eating recipe. BUT, I had to redeem myself, just for my own sake.

When I made the clean eating lasagna last week, that was my first ever attempt at lasagna. I'd never been brave enough to tackle it for some reason. I've been cooking a lot in the last few years, and only in the past year have really started gaining great confidence, experimenting with new recipes, tweaking old ones, creating new ones.

So I knew that it was time for me to tackle lasagna.

{Mostly, it's because I'm lazy, and lasagna seemed like too much work}

{ I am the Fast Foodie, after all}

Anyway, I admit that I was not a fan of that recipe last week. Try it, if you'd like. You might like it. But it was not for my taste. Or my time. It was a lot of work for not a lot of great taste.

But I assure you, this recipe is a GREAT recipe.

.................................................................

Classic Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 container {16 oz} Cottage Cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce


❶ Boil water & cook lasagna noodles according to package.


❷ Brown ground turkey. Add onion flakes {& seasoning, if desired}


❸ In a mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese, egg, parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup shredded mozarella cheese, 1/4 cup cheddar cheese



❹ Add sauce to the browned turkey.


❺ Drain noodles in colander, then rinse with cold water.


❻ Spread sauce on the bottom of the dish. {I like a lot of sauce, so I used some extra from another already opened jar. You could use a larger jar, so you'll have extra.

❼ Layer 4 noodles, then meat sauce, then cheese mixture {be sure you use thirds}.



❽ Repeat.

❾ Cover with the rest of the cheese.



❿ Bake @ 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!!

***To make this a little more 'clean', use whole wheat lasagna noodles {the only reason why I didn't is b/c I haven't found them yet}. You can also use fat free cottage cheese, low fat mozarella, and low fat cheddar cheese. Also, only use the egg white. **

Classic Lasagna

Okay, so you might be surprised to find that I have NEVER made lasagna before. It always seemed like so much work to me. Guess what?

It IS too much work.

Oh, you might have recipes that are not quite as bad, but I will tell you that this one here, is not something that you can just spend 20 minutes on & be done with.

It is healthy. It is yummy. It is clean eating. But it is A LOT of work.

So, make sure to give yourself enough time if you decide to try this one.
Classic Lasagna

Ingredients:

Meat sauce:

• Meat Sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces hot or sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 12 ounces mushrooms, wiped clean and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 2 28-ounce cans plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, (not packed in oil), slivered
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste

Pasta & Cheese Filling:

• 12 whole-wheat lasagna noodles, (12 ounces)
• 2 cups nonfat ricotta cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Ground nutmeg, to taste
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:

1. To prepare meat sauce: Heat oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking up clumps, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add onions and carrot; cook, stirring, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushroom liquid evaporates, 4 to 6 minutes.

1. Stir in wine, plum tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, basil, thyme and crushed red pepper. Bring to a simmer; reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce is very thick, 30 to 45 minutes more. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
2. To prepare filling & assemble lasagna: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
3. Cook noodles until just tender, about 10 minutes or according to package directions. Drain, then cool by plunging noodles into a large bowl of ice-cold water. Lay the noodles out on kitchen towels.

1. Season ricotta with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread about 1 1/2 cups meat sauce in the prepared pan. Layer 3 noodles on top. Spread another 1 cup sauce over the noodles. Dot about 2/3 cup ricotta over the sauce, then sprinkle with 1/4 cup mozzarella and 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Continue layering the noodles, sauce and cheeses, finishing with the sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan. Sprinkle with parsley; cover with foil.

1. Bake the lasagna until the sauce is bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes. Uncover and bake until golden, 5 to 10 minutes more. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

My version: sorry for the blurry pic!

My Notes:
*I used lean ground turkey instead. Be sure to drain after cooking.
*I also didn't have dry red wine, so I left some of the juice in the canned tomatoes.
*This meat sauce was not juicy enough, so I added an entire can of tomato sauce.
*It also proved to be not enough for the lasagna, so either cook it as suggested, or add some
more sauce.
*I didn't cook this sauce as long as suggested. That seemed WAY too long to me. I just didn't
have that kind of time.

*I accidentally added all of the ingredients together that were mentioned in the cheese filling
section {except for the noodles, obviously}. It turned out fine, in my opinion.
*I added extra mozzarella cheese on top before baking.
*Be sure to add sauce all the way to the outsides of the noodles in the dish. I didn't have
enough sauce, and figured it would be okay, since that's how they showed it in the picture
and it was going to be covered in foil. The outer edges ended up too crispy.

Overall, this lasagna was really good. It had a good flavor, even though I'm used to my beloved Prego. I will just have to decide if it was worth making again, considering the amount of time it requires.

After all, I am Amburger, The Fast Foodie.

:)

Barbecued Chicken Burritos

Hello all! It's been awhile since I posted to this blog. This blog took a backseat to other things in life, but I can guarantee that I'll be posting recipes more often.

I am happy to announce that I've taken up clean eating. I heard a friend mention how great he felt with his new lifestyle of clean eating. I did a little research that night, and started right away.

Over the last week, I've been doing a lot of research on clean eating. I've been finding lots of great recipes, and I'm going to start sharing them with you.

Here's one that we tried last night. It was really good, and best of all, super fast. :)



Barbecued Chicken Burritos

Ingredients:

• 1 2-pound roasted chicken, skin discarded, meat removed from bones and shredded (4 cups)
• 1/2 cup prepared barbecue sauce
• 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed
• 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed, or canned corn, drained
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 4 leaves romaine lettuce
• 4 10-inch whole-wheat tortillas
• 2 limes, cut in wedges

1. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, barbecue sauce, beans, corn and sour cream; stir to combine. Cook until hot, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Assemble the wraps by placing a lettuce leaf in the center of each tortilla and topping with one-fourth of the chicken mixture; roll as you would a burrito. Slice in half diagonally and serve warm, with lime wedges.

My notes:
Based on the way they suggest, the beans were not cooked AT ALL. They were pretty hard still. I would suggest cooking them a little beforehand.

These taste really similar to the Barbeque Chicken Wrap from Red Robin. I couldn't put my finger on it, but Tahner's the one that mentioned it. Once he did, I was so surprised. He was right! They DO taste like Red Robin. Only 1/3 of the fat & calories, I am sure of that.

Chicken & Noodle Casserole

Chicken & Noodle Casserole

1 can {10 3/4 oz} Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups medium egg noodles, cooked and drained
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese


1. Cook noodles for specified time & drain.
2. Cook and cube chicken {or buy an already cooked rotisserie and cube}
3. Stir soup, milk, black pepper, Parmesan cheese, vegetables, chicken and noodles in
oven safe casserole dish.
4. Bake at 400f for 20 minutes or until hot.
5. Stir.
6. Top with Cheddar Cheese.

Enjoy!!

*** I made an entire package of egg noodles.
***Therefore, I doubled the rest of the ingredients. It made a huge batch with leftovers! ***

Super good, super fast foodie.

Pumpkin Cream Pie

*** courtesy of Kenz from All the Weigh***

Pumpkin Cream Pie

7 oz 1/3 less fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (canned is fine)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked

8 oz Cool Whip Free, thawed

9 inch reduced fat Graham Cracker Crust

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, whip cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar for a few minutes until fluffy. Add Cool Whip and whip until smooth. Spoon mixture into pie crust and chill for a few hours, until firm.

Servings: 8 • Size: 1 piece • Time: 10 minutes • Calories: 239 • Points: 5.25 ww points

Roasted Eggplant Parmesan

**courtesy of Kenz from All The Weigh**

Roasted Eggplant Parmesan

1 large eggplant (2 lbs)

1 tbsp olive oil

12 oz fat free ricotta

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1 egg

2 cups reduced fat mozzarella (I use Weight Watchers)

3 cups tomato sauce

salt

slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lightly salt the slices and put in a colander to release excess moisture for about 1/2 hour. Lay on paper towels to soak up any extra moisture.

Preheat oven to 450°. Brush eggplant lightly with olive oil on both sides and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way through until eggplant is golden brown.

In a medium bowl combine ricotta, egg, parsley and 1/4 cup of grated cheese.

In a 9x12 baking dish, put a little sauce on the bottom of the dish and put a layer of eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce. Add another layer of eggplant and repeat the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and sauce until everything is used up. Top with sauce and the mozzarella cheese and the remaining grated cheese.

Cover with foil and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbling, about 30 minutes at 400°. Remove foil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it sit about 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Servings: 6 servings • Time: 60 minutes • Points: 5 ww points