Whole Wheat Elbows with Spinach, Mushrooms x 2, & Turkey

While I was grocery shopping tonight, I decided that I didn’t feel like eating any of the cooked food I had waiting for me in my fridge, so I came up with this recipe on the fly.  It was inspired both by the huge container of organic spinach I had in my cart (for the Green Monster Smoothies) and by the fact that the weather has turned into autumn almost overnight.

Whole Wheat Elbows with Spinach, Mushrooms x 2, & Turkey

Ingredients:

12.5 oz whole wheat elbow pasta

1.25 lb lean ground turkey, Italian seasoning flavor

1 onion

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

6 cups spinach

8oz sliced “baby bella” (crimini) mushrooms

8oz sliced white mushrooms

2 TBSP olive oil

1 cup 2% shredded mozzarella

2 TBSP parmesean cheese

red pepper flakes, to taste

black pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

Nutritional: I put this into the points tracker on eTools on WW.com, and it came out to 8 servings, worth 8 points each.  Since this is a meal unto itself – protein, veggies, and carbs, it’s all you need, so the higher points value shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

Directions:

I decided to give the Dreamfields elbows a try, because so many people rave about them.  They were good, but I didn’t notice any significant taste difference between these and my normal Barilla pasta.  In fact, I think I like Barilla better.

As soon as I got home I put a pot of water on to boil.  While it was ‘getting there’ I put all the groceries away, prepped the veggies, and got the meal organized.

Cook pasta until it’s al dente, or according to package directions.

While the pasta was cooking, I started browning the turkey:

I didn’t add anything except Pam to the pot, because the turkey gives off its own fat, even though it is lean.

I drained the turkey and put it aside.  In the same pan I added 2 TBSP of olive oil, onions, and garlic and sauteed them until they were almost translucent. Then I added the mushrooms.  I wanted a combination of the “baby bellas” (don’t you just love that name!) aka the criminis along with the regular white mushrooms, just to give a bit of variety to the dish.  I love the rich, meaty texture of the criminis, but I also like the woodsy flavor of the white mushrooms.  The combination of the two is perfect, to me. I added lots of black pepper and a bit of salt to the mushrooms and onions at this point.

Once the mushrooms had released all of their water, I added handfuls of spinach.  I’m guessing about 6 cups.  (I told you I bought a HUGE container of organic spinach!)

Doesn’t this just look healthy and hearty at the same time?!

Once the spinach wilted down, I added more black pepper.

Next comes my favorite part – add the elbow macaroni  and the browned turkey to the pot and mix.  I added quite a bit of red pepper flakes at this point.  As I mixed it up, I decided that I wanted a bit more spinach, so I added another handful.  It was at this point that I also added the mozzarella cheese, which when combined with the juice from the mushrooms, made a really nice, light cheesey sauce.  No pasta dish like this is  complete without some grated parmesean, so I added that at this point, too.

This looked like the ultimate comfort food to me.  It made a huge amount, I’m guessing at least 8 servings.

Mangia!  For a meal inspired at the grocery store, I think it turned out wonderfully.  I hope you enjoy it.