Light Tomato Sausage Pasta Bake

We forgot to thaw meat from our freezer, yet again....our life story!!!

This happens often so we try to have other meat option available in the fridge.

I happened to have a pack of chicken sausages on hand.....but what to make for dinner????

I had a craving for pasta, but didn't just want sauce and sausage over pasta. I wanted to fancy it up a bit, so this is what I came up with!!

I went digging in my fridge and pulled out any vegetables that needed to be used, so I grabbed mushrooms, onions, garlic and spinach.  I also grabbed the package of chicken sausages, which we get from Aldi's and always have on hand.  I love them with my eggs in the morning!!

We also had some Trader Joe's whole wheat penne in the pantry so I grabbed about 10 ounces and cooked according to the package until al dente. 

I added about a tablespoon of oil to a pan on the stove on medium heat and sliced about about half a large onion. I added this to the hot pan and started to sauté. While that was cooking, I sliced the chicken sausages and add them to the pan along with the mushrooms, onions and garlic. I sautéed until veggies were done and the sausage was cooked through (It's pre-cooked so it wasn't very long considering it was going to bake also!)

Once the penne was cooked, I added the raw spinach to the strainer in the sink and drained the pasta over the spinach to wilt it a bit.  The less you cook vegetables, the more nutrients the maintain, so this is perfect to lightly cook the spinach.

In a small bowl, I combined 1 can organic diced tomatoes, 1 cup organic pasta sauce, 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt, 1/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese.  Season with salt,  pepper and garlic powder and mixed until blended. 

 I then added the chicken sausage mixture and pasta/spinach mixture into the sauce and mixed until everything was covered with the sauce.

I greased a 9x12 glass pan with olive oil spray and poured in the pasta mixture.  I then topped with remaining 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese and a little parmesan (about 1/4 cup)

 I covered the pasta bake with aluminum foil and baked at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes covered and removed the foil. I then baked for another 10 min. just to melt the cheese.

We divided it out into 6 servings and each serving came out to about:

Calories- 402

Carbs- 46g

Protein - 27g

Fat 13g

This was all based on the brands used!!

For the 21 Day Fixers, it would be:
1 Red
1.5 to 2 Green
1 Yellow
1 Blue

Light Tomato Sausage Pasta Bake

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

-10 ounces whole wheat penne pasta

-1 lb spicy Italian chicken sausage, sliced

-1 5-6 oz. bag baby spinach
-10 ounces sliced mushrooms
-Onion, large sliced

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-1 cup diced tomatoes or chopped fresh tomato

-1 cup prepared tomato sauce (e.g., Prego)

-3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

-1/4 cup milk

-1 and 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or less if desired)

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp pepper

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (less or none if you don't like spicy)

-1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.

-Slice onions and added to a medium heat pan with about 1 tablespoon oil.

-When onion are about halfway cooked, add mushrooms, garlic and sliced chicken sausage and cook over medium heat for 12-14 minutes, or until browned and sausage is cooked through. 

-Place the spinach in the bottom of your pasta strainer. When pasta is done, pour pasta and pasta water over the spinach into the strainer, allowing the spinach to wilt slightly.

-In a small bowl, add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, yogurt, milk, 3/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and spices to bowl. Mix very well. Add pasta and sausage mixture and mix well until all blended. 

-Pour into casserole dish and top with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Cover dish with foil.

-Cook for 30 minutes covered. Remove foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

ENJOY!!