Turkey & Kale Whole Wheat Pasta Bake

I mentioned in my most recent monthly recap that I've been having to make a lot of quick and easy meals lately, often just throwing together whatever I can find in my fridge or pantry.  This sometimes means that my meal is missing a key component though, like a protein or vegetables.

But when I know I have a busy week ahead and I actually take the time to make sure I have something more substantial but also healthful around to eat, this turkey and vegetable pasta bake is usually my go-to meal!

This easy pasta dish is made by tossing together some whole wheat pasta, sauteed veggies (including onion, mushrooms, and kale) and seasonings, lean ground turkey, canned tomatoes, and just enough cheese, then baking it in the oven, which is the most time consuming (but hands-off) part. 

You end up with a well-balanced meal with plenty of whole grains, fiber, protein, and nutrients, that's hearty and filling!  I've reduced the amount of cheese that I used when I first made this dish (so it has much less than many baked pasta dishes) and find there's still plenty of cheese to satisfy me.  And if you're vegetarian, I think you could easily throw in some black beans or chickpeas instead of the turkey for added protein.

I love that this is a baked pasta because I can just cover the dish with saran wrap and throw it in the fridge, then I can easily cut out a square of pasta to throw in a container for lunch the rest of the days of the week.  The pictures I took here were right after this pasta came out of the oven; it does firm up afterwards.

I've made this many times already and I'm sure I'll make it many more times until I get sick of it :)  If you have any great go-to meals to have around for busy weeks, feel free to share as I'm finding I need them more and more!

Turkey & Kale Whole Wheat Pasta Bake

Adapted from ifoodreal

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 (375g or 13oz) box of whole wheat penne, rotini, or fusilli

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 lb lean ground turkey

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cups sliced white or cremini mushrooms

4 cups (packed) chopped kale

1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes  (I don’t use the whole can; maybe around 3 cups) OR 1 jar of your favourite pasta sauce (I've used this one)

1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes (I usually use a seasoned variety)

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta to al dente, according to times on package directions.  I’ve used penne, rotini, and fusilli for this before and all work fine.  Drain when finished.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add turkey, season lightly with salt and pepper, and use a wooden spoon to break it up as you cook, letting cook until evenly browned (around 5 minutes).  Remove turkey and set aside in a bowl.  Using the same saucepan, add your garlic and onion and cook until slightly softened for a few minutes.  You can add a small amount of oil to the pan first if needed.  Add mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms are browned, another 5-7 minutes.  Add the kale and cook until wilted, stirring often.  Add the cans of tomatoes, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, a pinch each of salt and pepper or to taste, along with the turkey and the cooked pasta to the pan.  Stir and let cook over low-medium heat for a few minutes.  Add half of the mozzarella cheese (1 cup) and all of the parmesan cheese and stir.

Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour the pasta mixture into the pan and top with remaining mozzarella cheese (1 cup).  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 3-5 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving (this is important!).

*Note: If you want to use spinach instead of kale, use about a 5oz container of baby spinach and stir in to the mixture when you add the turkey and pasta.

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

Even though it's now officially Spring and it seems like everyone's already talking about spring produce like asparagus and peas and all those bright and crunchy fresh veggies, it's hard to get into the spring mindset when this is your view out the window:

With the seemingly never-ending snow and cold, I'm naturally still craving warm and cozy comfort food.  And with a sore throat signalling the start of another cold yesterday, I quickly developed a particular craving for the ultimate comfort food, chicken noodle soup.

But because I couldn't show you guys just any old chicken noodle soup, this one has a twist!

This soup takes on an Asian flavour with the addition of ingredients like mushrooms, bok choy, cilantro, fish sauce, lemongrass, and lime juice, and the use of soba noodles instead of more traditional egg noodles or other pasta.  This gives the soup such a great depth of flavour that still has the comfort factor and familiar taste of chicken noodle soup but is a little more exciting!

Even better, the addition of ingredients like ginger, garlic, and spicy chiles are great for fighting off a cold (at least I hope that's what I'm telling myself!)

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that actually felt like spring on the first day of spring, send some warm and sunny thoughts up north!  In the meantime, I can't really complain when I have a giant pot of this delicious soup to keep me warm :)

Asian Chicken Soba Noodle Soup

Loosely adapted from LCBO’s Food & Drink

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil

2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sliced mini bella or crimini mushrooms

1 large carrot, julienned (I used a couple handfuls of pre-sliced waffle cut carrots instead)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 liters (8.5 cups) chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon frozen chopped lemongrass (or 2 stalks lemongrass)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed off

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (or more if you want it to be really spicy!)

8 oz soba noodles*

4-5 heads baby bok choy, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise

Juice of half a lime

2-3 green onions, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Cilantro and additional lime wedges for serving, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add ginger, garlic, mushrooms, carrot, and onions.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened, stirring often.  Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, lemongrass, and chicken breasts.  If using a lemongrass stalk, remove the outer stalks, cut into chunks, smash, and wrap in cheesecloth – you will need to remove it before serving.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken breasts and set aside.  Add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce to broth and stir.  Add soba noodles and cook in the simmering broth for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken.

Add bok choy and shredded chicken to the pot and let cook for another 2-3 minutes, until bok choy is slightly wilted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in lime juice and green onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Use a sharp knife or clean kitchen shears to cut some of the soba noodles in half, otherwise they will be difficult to divide into bowls.

Serve with additional lime wedges (I highly recommend this) and cilantro, if desired.

*Note: I used soba noodles because I have a ton of them to use up right now (and I like them!) but you could substitute rice noodles if you like.  Just cook them separately according to the package directions (usually soaking in hot water), toss with a bit of sesame oil to keep them from sticking, then add to the soup at the end.

Pasta with Chicken & Broccoli in a Mushroom White Wine Sauce

When I was looking through my hundreds of bookmarked recipes for a comforting, easy meal to make for dinner one night, I came across this pasta with roasted garlic, white cheddar, and wine sauce on Annie's Eats and it fit the bill perfectly. Most normal people would have made the recipe as written, because it looked pretty amazing. But because I can't seem to follow a recipe for the life of me, my brain immediately started whirring with ideas to change things up a little, and this is what I came up with!

Instead of making a butter-flour based sauce with chicken broth and a bit of white wine, I decided to use equal parts wine and broth, and I switched to a mushroom broth (and threw in some onions and mushrooms) so the sauce would have lots of flavour. I eliminated the butter because the cheese made the sauce thick and rich enough. I kept in the roasted garlic but added a bit of Dijon mustard for an extra kick. Finally, I threw in some sundried tomatoes for added flavour and texture.

Everything was so flavourful and combined into an amazing meal that tasted rich but was still reasonably healthy by my standards. The best part was the sauce, which you can't really see in the pictures because it absorbed into the ingredients pretty well, but it had such a deep flavour that really made the dish. It may seem like a lot of work to make this, but if you prepare a few things ahead of time, like the roasted garlic and chicken, then it's pretty easy to throw together. And of course, you can easily make it vegetarian by leaving out the chicken as there's plenty else going on in this pasta!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Mine will be filled mostly with school work and housework, but I'm hoping to get out to enjoy the sun a bit - it's been gorgeous here lately!

Pasta with Chicken & Broccoli in a Mushroom White Wine Sauce

Adapted from a recipe originally from Good Things Catered (no longer active) and seen on Annie’s Eats

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

2 heads of garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 large chicken breast

1 lb penne pasta (whole wheat or regular)

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets

1 small onion, diced

8 oz pre-sliced white or crimini mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

1 cup mushroom stock (I made this from a bouillon cube, but if you can’t find it, you could substitute chicken stock)

1-1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon flour

Ground black pepper

1/2 cup diced sundried tomatoes (rehydrated if necessary)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Cut the ends off the two heads of garlic so that the cloves are exposed.  Drizzle the exposed cloves with a teaspoon of olive oil, then wrap the heads with aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.  Roast in the preheated oven for about 1 hour.  Unwrap and let cool, then squeeze the garlic out of the skin and mash into a paste.  Mix the Dijon mustard into the garlic paste.  Set aside.

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook chicken breast in the skillet for about 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked through.  Remove from heat and let rest a few minutes before slicing into small pieces. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for length of time specified on package.  Set chopped broccoli in a steamer basket over the boiling water and cover.  Steam for about 3 minutes until crisp-tender, then remove from heat.  When pasta is finished cooking, drain and set aside.

At the same time, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add chopped onion and mushrooms and cook until soft, stirring often, about 5-7 minutes.  Add the roasted garlic paste and stir for about a minute.  Add the white wine and mushroom broth and bring to a boil.  Let simmer until reduced by about half, about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the cheddar cheese until melted.  Add the flour and whisk the mixture over low heat, until thickened slightly.  Season generously with pepper.

Combine the pasta, chicken, broccoli, sundried tomatoes, and sauce in a large pot.  Heat briefly over low heat if not warm enough.  Serve warm.

Quinoa Risotto with Mushrooms, Spinach, and Goat Cheese

After finally learning how to make risotto a couple of months ago, then experimenting a bit with a beet and goat cheese version recently, I've been wanting to try other versions using healthier grains instead of white rice. I've seen a lot of barley risottos that sound delicious, but I feel like either my arm would fall off or my face would melt off (or both) if I had to stand above a steaming pot stirring for over 40 minutes, so I haven't been too eager to try one out!

Recently though, I saw a quinoa risotto (and can't remember where now) that intrigued me. I've already talked about my love for quinoa before, but I never knew you could cook it risotto-style. I loved the idea of replacing rice with a healthier seed, and especially loved that it wouldn't take any longer to cook than regular risotto.

I decided to make a version with onions, mushrooms, spinach, and goat cheese, which all went really well together. The quinoa was cooked in the same way as regular risotto; I sauteed the onions and mushrooms first, then added the quinoa to briefly toast it, stirred in white wine until it was absorbed, then slowly added vegetable stock while stirring for about 25 minutes. The quinoa didn't reach quite the same creamy consistency as regular risotto when it was finished cooking, but once I stirred in the goat cheese at the end, it was perfect!

This risotto was rich and flavourful and I loved eating it for lunch all last week! I'm not always crazy about cooked spinach so next time I might leave it out, but I did like that it added a different texture and colour to the dish, along with added nutrients. Feel free to experiment with different add-ins and ingredients, just don't leave out the goat cheese, it makes the dish!

Quinoa Risotto with Mushrooms, Spinach, & Goat Cheese

Adapted/Inspired by several sources, including Daily Garnish and Skinny Chef

Serves about 2-3 as a main course or 4-5 as a side-dish

Ingredients:

4 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
8 oz package of sliced white or crimini mushrooms, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
6 oz baby spinach
2 oz (about 1/4 cup) goat cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Add vegetable broth to a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Keep it gently simmering as you make the risotto.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and sauté until softened and lightly browned, stirring often, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the garlic and the quinoa and cook for another 1-2 minutes, stirring often, until quinoa is lightly toasted and fragrant.

Add the wine and stir until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Begin adding vegetable broth to the quinoa, a small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. When each addition of liquid is absorbed by the quinoa mixture, add another small ladleful. Continue adding broth and stirring for about 25-30 minutes total, until quinoa is cooked through and no longer crunchy.  You won't have to stir it quite as much as you would traditional risotto - if you like you can add the broth in just three additions and stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add spinach to quinoa and stir until spinach is wilted. Add goat cheese and stir until melted and completely mixed in.

Remove from heat, taste, and add salt and pepper if desired. Serve warm.

UPDATE: Two commenters below have noted that they thought this was just as good cooked as regular quinoa (without the risotto method), so if you're short on time you could give that a try and let me know how it works out!

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms with Goat Cheese

When Mushrooms Canada asked Canadian Food Bloggers to share a holiday recipe using mushrooms, I thought that an elegant and crowd-pleasing appetizer recipe would be perfect. I remembered seeing a recipe for stuffed portabella mushrooms, then came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea to stuff smaller crimini mushrooms with some sort of creamy goat cheese mixture. I turned to Google to see if there was anything similar out there for inspiration, only to discover that pretty much every other person in the world has already had this idea before me. Apparently I’m not so brilliant after all.

I decided to still go ahead with the stuffed mushrooms because I’ve never tried them before, and with that many recipes out there, they must be good! Since it was too overwhelming to try to choose a recipe from all the options, I ended up just making up my own mixture based on what I thought would taste good. I’m calling them ‘Italian’ stuffed mushrooms because the ingredients I chose seemed to form an Italian theme (sundried tomatoes, garlic, breadcrumbs, parsley, basil, parmesan..), but true Italians may disagree with me :)

When the warm, savory little mushrooms came out of the oven bubbling with cheese, I couldn’t resist biting into one right away. Of course, I immediately spit it out because it was scalding hot, then stood there impatiently waiting for them to cool down, the torture from the smell growing every second. When they were cool enough to eat, I scarfed one down, then another, and another .. they were so good! I shared only a couple with my sister to get a second opinion (she confirmed they were delicious), then ate more for dinner and the rest for lunch the next day (they were definitely best fresh out of the oven but I still enjoyed them reheated the following day).

I cannot believe I haven’t tried these earlier, but I plan on making up for all my years without stuffed mushrooms by making them any chance I get from now on! I will especially make sure they make an appearance at at least one holiday gathering this month because I know everyone else in my family will love them too. I also want to try one of the many other versions out there but I feel like I don’t even need another recipe because I liked this one so much! Maybe one day :)

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms with Goat Cheese

Makes about 10-15 stuffed mushrooms - Plan on 1-2 per person as an appetizer

Ingredients:

8-10 oz cremini mushrooms (about 10-15 mushrooms, depending on the size - I found the smaller, the better)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tablespoons finely chopped sundried tomatoes (I used about 4-5 dried tomatoes, redhydrated as per package instructions, but you could also use the oil-packed kind)

4 oz goat cheese

2 tablespoons Italian breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried basil (or 1-2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

*Note: The Italian breadcrumb mixture I used already contained salt, but if you are using plain breadcrumbs you may wish to add a pinch of salt or other seasonings along with the pepper.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel to clean (don’t wash as the mushrooms will absorb the water). Break off the stems and set them aside. Gently scoop out the gills inside the mushroom (I used 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon to do this) and discard, being careful not to break through the mushrooms.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set mushrooms on the pan with the hollowed side facing up. Bake for 10 minutes at 375°F. Pools of water will form in the hollowed out part of the mushroom. Remove baking sheet from oven and pour out the water from each mushroom, then replace mushrooms on sheet.

Meanwhile, dice the reserved mushroom stems. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add diced stems and shallot and cook until lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and saute for another 30 seconds or so. Transfer mixture to a bowl.

Add chopped sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, basil, and pepper to the bowl and mix everything together until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Spoon goat cheese mixture into the mushrooms. Top each with a light sprinkle of parmesan. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375°F.

Remove from oven and top with additional chopped parsley, if desired. Serve warm.