Lean Ground Turkey Pasta Recipe, Breakfast and Lunch Ideas

Hello, my friends!

It’s been a busy couple days here…

Breakfast yesterday morning had to be quick and easy to make since Carmen took a while to wake up and get dressed, and I was running out of time. So I threw together one of my favorites – fruit sandwich on a light English muffin:

It is not very filling though, so I brought some more strawberries, blueberries and yogurt covered peanuts to work to snack on later that morning/afternoon:

Lunch yesterday: the night before last I did try to re-create the salad Carmen and I had at the Swim Club (as I predicted, Carmen hardly touched it at dinner) so I had a lot of leftovers for lunch yesterday:

Last night I had my dinner alone – Simon was invited for dinner to his friend’s house and my hubs had to go out for a business dinner. I had just one hour after work before my appointment to make and eat my dinner, so I thought I’d throw together something quick. And – nothing is quicker to make than pasta!

I love pasta! You can make pasta sauce basically from whatever you have in the fridge – just like I did last night…

After inspecting my fridge content I discovered the following ingredients that could be used to make pasta sauce:

• lean ground turkey breast
• bella mushrooms
• garlic
• fresh baby spinach
• fresh parsley
• onions
• heavy cream
• tomato pasta sauce
• butter
• olive oil
• graded Parmesan cheese

I had some leftover gemelli, but it wasn’t enough even for me alone so I added some whole grain penne to the mix, and here’s what happened:

Here’s how it all happens:

1. Cut up mushrooms, onions and garlic – whatever size cubes/slices you prefer (I like chunky mushrooms and finely chopped onions and garlic).
2. Melt butter in a pan and add olive oil.
3. Cook turkey in butter and oil over medium heat until half ready.
4. Add mushrooms, onions and garlic, cook for a couple minutes.
5. Add tomato sauce and cream, cook for another 5-7 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cut up some parsley and baby spinach.
7. Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain. (Tip: add some olive oil to the water while cooking pasta so it doesn’t get all sticky after you drain it)
8. Toss cooked pasta with spinach and parsley.
9. Serve pasta with the sauce and some graded Parmesan cheese over it.
10. Garnish with parsley.

An absolutely great thing about making pasta is that no measurements are necessary. Just eyeball it and enjoy the process 🙂

On an unrelated note:

I earned a couple new badges on Lose it!  – The “Medalist” is for being in the top 3 finishers for one of the challenges I took there, and the “Unstoppable” is for logging my food and exercise every day for at least 16 weeks!

Stay fit, friends and have a great Thursday!