Turkey Mac & Double Cheddar

Do you ever have something in mind planned for dinner and then when you go to make it, find you don't have a key ingredient?  That's what happened to me this evening.  I'd planned on making the low-carb Mexican casserole for my family for dinner.  At 4pm, which is normally when I go down to make dinner, I found I had no taco seasoning. 

Now of course, I could have scanned the Internet for a solution, but nahhhh, I sat and sulked on twitter for a few minutes.  Then I went back downstairs to figure out what else I could make. 

I had a jar of Ragu Double Cheddar cheese sauce that I'd had forever.  I looked at the back and found a recipe that sounded pretty good - at least, I figured, the kids would probably like it.  The problem was, I had ground turkey already defrosted, and no time to defrost hamburger, so I was going to have to substitute the turkey for the burger it called for.  Eh, who cares, really - I was going to have a salad with some leftover chicken in it from last night's dinner (heh).  What I wound up making, with some of my own tweaks, came out SO GOOD, I didn't have my salad, I had what I'd made for them! LOL

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 lb (or more) ground turkey (7%) - browned and drained
• 3-1/2 cups water (I wound up using closer to 4 cups)
• 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 jar Ragu® Cheesey Double Cheddar Sauce
• 1/2 - 1 cup sweet peas
• 2-3 tsp (or Tbls)

 

Brown the ground turkey in a skillet.  Drain the grease (I know - there isn't alot) and set turkey aside.  In same pan, bring the water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 6 minutes or until tender.  (Mine took closer to 10 minutes and I had to add water to it.)  Do not drain pasta.  Return ground turkey to the pan, add in sauce.  This is when I also threw in the sweet peas.  Blend it all up and heat through.

When I'd dished it up, I spotted the McCormick Smoky Sweet Pepper Seasoning.  I sprinkled it over the pasta & turkey and let it sit for a few minutes or so, to help it dissolve/blend.   Oh MAN did that make a difference!   It really was awesome.

Shrimp & spinach w/angel hair

I literally threw this recipe together this weekend.  It was delicious!

• 2 c. fresh baby spinach
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 c. oven roasted tomatoes (recipe below)
• 12 large shrimp
• 4 oz. angel hair spaghetti

Using the oil from the roasted tomatoes, brown the garlic.  Once the garlic is fragrant, add the spinach and begin to wilt it. After the spinach has wilted, add in the tomatoes. Allow the juices from the tomatoes coat the pan, and then add the shrimp. If you’ve bought pre-cooked shrimp, just heat them up and toss with tomatoes & spinach.  Otherwise, cook until the shrimp have turned pink.

When pasta is finished, drain and add pasta to pan and coat. Serves 2.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes:

To roast the tomatoes, I had about 6 tomatoes that were ready to turn. I coated a cookie sheet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. I cut the tomatoes into 6ths (making sure they were about 1/2” at the most) and spread them out on the cookie sheet. I drizzled some more olive oil on them, sprinkled with Italian seasoning and garlic salt. I baked them at 300 degrees for about 90 minutes or so, then shut the oven off and left them in there most of the day. They were EXCELLENT alone, but also perfect for the shrimp thing. :)