First, this week’s menu is up.
After spending most of yesterday sleeping on the couch {I really need to not stay up so late when I have to get up to teach 2nd grade Sunday School}, I finally made it into the kitchen to cook dinner. This was one of those recipes that sounded great last week when I was doing my menu, but yesterday I wasn’t so sure I really wanted. The biggest downfall to menu planning is that you have to anticipate what you will be in the mood to eat a week or so in advance. This is especially hard when you are 5 months pregnant.
I started out with a recipe from Better Homes & Gardens: New Cookbook Bridal Edition, and I eventually stopped following it. So, a lot of this was just me throwing things in that sounded interesting.
Pasta Pizza
Ingredients:
- 2 cups dried rotini
- 1 beaten egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 lb ground turkey
- 5 mushrooms
- 1/2 roma tomato
- 1 1/2 cups chunky style tomato sauce
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbs minced garlic
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Make sure all water is out of the pasta.
- While the pasta is cooking, chop the tomato tomato, and slice the mushrooms. Set aside.
- For pasta crust, in a large bowl combine egg, milk, and Parmesan cheese. Stir in drained rotini. Spread rotini in a glass casserole dish coated with olive oil spray. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook the ground turkey until brown. While that is cooking, mix pasta sauce, garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms in a dish.
- Once the turkey is done, drain and put back in skillet. Add in sauce mixture and make sure the meat is thoroughly coated.
- Spoon the meat mixture over the rotini crust and top with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Grade: C+
Comments: This is a tough one. I can’t decide what I didn’t like about it. We think that the brand of shredded mozzarella I bought wasn’t great for melting, and it turned out almost like plastic. It didn’t taste badly, but it gave it a weird texture. So I think maybe that is having an effect on my judgment of the dish. The rest of it was just okay. Nothing super special, and definitely not something that wowed me enough that I would ever make it again. This would probably be a great dish for a family on-the-go, but it wasn’t a great Sunday night dinner.
