Baked Penne

( Before putting in the oven)

I am "rookie" when it comes to making pasta. The best I ever done was to use ready made off the shelf pasta sauce. However, I am not a fan of ready made sauce and have been toying with the idea of making my own pasta sauce. I tried to make a spaghetti with a made from scratch sauce recipe last month and it was a failure. Kudos to the BF for trying to finish his plate :)

I have been reading and researching on pasta recipe since. The idea of baked pasta has been floating in my head for the longest time and I finally decided to try last night with my own "concoction" - The measurements in the recipe are "estimate" as I added the ingredients based on my "feel"

Ingredients:
1. 1 pound of ground turkey
2. 1 cup of onion
3. 2 can diced tomatoes
4. 2-3 table spoon of paprika
5. 2-3 table spoon of oregano
6. 2-3 table spoon of basil
7. 2 -3 table spoon of chili flakes
8. 1 table spoon of garlic
9. Shredded mozzarella
10. 1.5 table spoon of tomato paste
11. pepper and salt
12. Olive oil
13. 1 pound of penne


Directions:
1. Marinate the ground beef with paprika, pepper and salt
2. Cook the Penne accordingly to box direction
3. Add olive oil to the skillet. Brown the ground turkey and add onion and garlic. Add the basil , chili flakes and oregano.
4. Add the can tomato and tomato paste and bring to a boil
5. Simmer for 15 minutes
6. Add the cooked penne to mixture
7. Placed half of the penne to a casserole. Add a layer of cheese. Repeat layer
8. Baked in oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes till bubbly


Here are some variations :
1. Use Italian turkey sausage instead of ground turkey
2. Use one can of crushed tomato with one can of dice tomato
3. Use Italian seasoning instead of oregano and basil

~bel~

Chili and Pizza !

Gosh...I did not realize that my last post was almost 7 months back. Running and working had pretty much left me with no time and energy to cook or bake

Bf and I decided that we should eat more at home for the simple reason that it is healthier ( and of course.. cheaper as well) . Bf was really excited about this new arrangement and immediately pulled out two recipes- chili and pizza !

I did not cook this weekend but he did.

The Chili recipe was from allrecipe.com. It was so simple and yet so good. I could not resist a second helping.


The pizza recipe was from Runner's World Magazine. The recipe gave pizza a new twist by using pesto as base instead of the usual tomato paste. It also uses goat cheese instead of mozzarella. I never realize that pesto and chicken go so well together


Ingredient for Pizza
1. 12 inch whole wheat pizza crust
2. 3/4 cup of pesto
3. 1 cup arugula
4. 8 0z cooked chicken strips
5. 1/3 cup sliced red pepper
6. 2/3 cup of olive ( we omitted this as bf is not a fan of olive)
7. 1.2 cup of basil
8. 4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese
9. Black pepper

Directions:
1. Place the pizza crust on a baking sheet and baked at 400F for 6 mins
2. Remove crust and turn oven to broil
3. Spread the pest on crust.
4. Top with arugula, chicken, red peppers, olives, basil and cheese
5. Season with black pepper and broil for 1 min

~bel~