Turkey Sausage & Kale Stuffed Shells

It's been a rainy rainy weekend here in Northern California but despite the weather, we had a fantastic weekend.  A lazy Saturday morning and afternoon at home, a holiday party Saturday night with great friends, an early morning matinee to see Tron, Legacy in 3-D this morning, and then a stop at the local outdoor mall to finish up the Christmas shopping this afternoon.  We got caught out in the rain at the outdoor mall, so by the time we got home, around 2pm, we were soaked and pretty chilled.  A roaring fire in the fireplace was definitely in order, and for dinner, comfort food was definitely going to be on the menu.

For me, Italian casseroles are the epitome of comfort food.  Lasagne, Baked Ziti, Stuffed Shells, these are the dishes I grew up eating and when I crave comfort food, these dishes are what I want.  Stuffed Shells are probably my favorite of all.  The traditional version is stuffed with cheese, and more cheese.  I fill mine with veggies and spicy turkey sausage, and just a little cheese.  Whole Wheat pasta shells and a quick home-made spicy tomato sauce finish the dish.  Just as delicious as the original, but a little less guilt inducing on the nutritional scale.  I like to use kale for the stuffing, but spinach works too and I use reduced fat ricotta and mozzarella cheese to help keep the dish on the lighter side.

Turkey Sausage & Kale Stuffed Shells
Olive Oil
1 pkg Spicy Turkey Sausage
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large portabella mushroom cap, diced into small pieces
1 bunch of kale, roughly chopped
Salt & Pepper
1 15oz container Ricotta Cheese
1 & 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
1 box jumbo shells

Tomato Sauce
Olive Oil
7-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, finely diced\
Salt & Pepper
1 to 2 Tbsps dried oregano
1tsp red pepper flakes
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 cup red wine (Any dry red will work, Cabernet is a good choice)
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
Fresh Basil, finely chopped

1. Make the Sauce.  In a large saucepan sauté the onions in a little olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Add in the garlic and continue to cook for another minute.  Season with salt & pepper, then add the oregano, bay leaves and hot pepper flakes.  Stir for a minute or two, turn the heat up to high and add in the red wine.  Continue cooking over high heat until the wine has been reduced by about two-thirds.  Turn the heat down to medium-low, add in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, and let sauce simmer, covered, while you make the filling and cook the noodles.
2. Cook the Turkey Sausage.  If the turkey sausage came in links, remove the casings and cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Once the sausage is browned, drain the sausage and set aside.
3. Cook the Veggies.  Wipe the excess grease out of the skillet the sausage was cooked in, add a little olive oil, and cook the onions over medium heat for a few minutes.  Add in the minced garlic and mushrooms, season with some salt & pepper and continue to cook until mushrooms and onions have softened.  Add in the kale and continue to cook over medium low heat until the kale has cooked down, stirring occasionally.  Once the kale has cooked down , remove the veggie mixture from the heat and transfer them to a large mixing bowl.  Let cool.
4. Cook the Pasta.  Cook an entire box of jumbo shells according to the package directions.  I like to use whole wheat shells, but regular ones work just as well.  Once they are done, transfer to a colander and run under cold water to prevent them from sticking together.  Drain the shells really well.
5. Make the Filling.  Once the kale, onion & mushroom mixture has cooled, add in the browned sausage, the container of ricotta cheese and a cup of shredded mozzarella.  Stir well.
6. Stuff the shells.  Stuff each cooked pasta shell with a couple tablespoons of the kale & sausage mixture. 
7. Finish the sauce and build the casserole.  Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Remove the lid from the tomato sauce and stir in the basil.  Remove the sauce from the heat.  Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish with some of the sauce and then fill the dish with the a single layer of the stuffed shells.  One box of shells should fill one 9 x 13 casserole dish.  Pour additional sauce over the top of the shells.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup of grated mozzarella cheese over the top and then bake the casserole for about 35 to 40 minutes.
8. Serve!  When the casserole is done, take it out of the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes, then serve the shells with the remaining tomato sauce on the side.

Bon Appetit!

Oh, and if you are wondering what we thought of Tron, Legacy, well, it was Awesome.  With a Capital A.  We loved it.  Amazing to look at, and a pretty good story for a SciFi movie.  It's certainly not an Academy Award contender, but, it is a great sci-fi adventure that sucks you in to it's world for 2 hours, and well worth the extra bucks to see it in 3-D.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

My husband loves tuna casserole.  When he thinks comfort food, I am pretty sure it's at the top of his list.  Me?  The only way I am eating warm tuna is if it is in steak form, and warm from being quickly seared on a very hot grill.  I certainly don't want it anywhere near an oven, I won't even force down a tuna melt.  But, as they say, marriage is all about compromise.  So I set out to find a way to satisfy his yearning for noodles baked in a creamy sauce with veggies, substituting tuna with something we could both agree on.  Here comes leftover roasted chicken to the rescue!

Yup, I still had some chicken left over from Sunday's Herb Roasted Chicken.  Not a ton, but just enough to add into a casserole and finally be done with the bird.  We almost always have bunches of fresh broccoli & mushrooms in the fridge too, add them together with some whole wheat noodles, a lightened up cream sauce that uses Greek yogurt instead of Sour Cream and...Presto!  A new & improved Chicken not Tuna Noodle Casserole.  Happiness prevails in the Munoz Household!

Chicken Noodle Casserole
1 pkg whole wheat wide egg noodles (or regular if you don't want to use whole wheat)
1 small onion, sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large or 2 small heads of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 to 2 cups roasted chicken, cut into cubes
1 can 98% fat-free condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
3/4 cup lowfat milk
3/4 cup nonfat or lowfat plain greek yogurt (you can sub light sour cream)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsps shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I love the ones you get from Vital Vittles, available at my much loved/mentioned Dan's Fresh Produce here in Alameda).  Regular bread crumbs will work too.
Salt & Pepper

1. Cook the noodles.  Cook the egg noodles according to the package direction.  Once done, strain the noodles into a colander, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process and drain thoroughly.  I like to use the whole wheat noodles for 2 reasons.  One, they are better for you than the regular variety and Two, the whole wheat noodles seem to stay firmer when you bake them in the oven.
2. Sauté the Veggies.  Add a little olive oil to a large sauté pan over medium heat.  Add in the onions and mushrooms and let them sweat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add in the garlic and continue to let cook for another minute.  Toss in the broccoli and season with salt & pepper.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and put a lid over the pan so that the broccoli can steam for 5 or so minutes.  Once the Broccoli has steamed, toss in the chicken, stir, and remove the pan from the heat.
3. Prepare the Cream Sauce.  In a mixing bowl or large glass measuring cup add the can of condensed soup, the milk, the Greek yogurt & the Parmesan cheese.  Mix well.  Season with a little salt & lots of pepper.
4. Mix it all Together & add the Topping.  In a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray mix together the cooked noodles, the veggie/chicken mixture and the cream sauce.  Sprinkle the bread crumbs and the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top of the casserole.
5. Bake.  Bake the casserole in a 350 F oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's bubbly and the topping has browned.  
6. Serve!  A few minutes to cool down and dinner is ready to go!

So that's it for the roast chicken, no more leftovers to figure out what to do with, and no more leftover chicken recipes to post, at least until the next time I make a roast chicken!

Bon Appetit!

Laura

Chicken Noodle Casserole

3 Bean Bison Chili

I can pretty much guarantee that I won't be updating this blog daily, but as with all things shiny & new, it's hard to resist playing with it at first.

I love fall, but fall in California is a little different from the fall I experienced growing up on the East Coast.  There are no leaves that change color and crunch under your feet when you walk around town.  We get mild sunny days and cool nights, punctuated by achromatic days full of rain.  Lots of things actually start blooming and the gold hills of summer turn green.  It took a while to get used to.  I miss the fall colors a lot, but at least I still get to break out my thick sweaters and my crock pot.  Of course, out here, I break these things out when the weather gets into the low 60's, where on the East Coast that's practically still considered warm.  Living in California makes you "soft" when it comes to weather, that's for sure.

This past weekend it rained.  All weekend.  It was uniformly gray, wet & cold for 3 days straight.  Perfect weather to make a pot of chili that could simmer away for a while and keep the kitchen warm.  I love spicy chili, but my husband is not a fan of the heat, so this chili is pretty mild, although it's easy to spice it up more.  It's another one of those recipes that I make a big batch of and then freeze half for future rainy weekends.  I like using buffalo/bison meat- it's pretty lean, and has a nice sweet flavor and the chipotle & bacon give the chili a nice smoky flavor as well.  Sweet, smoky & spicy is a winning combination in my book.  And best of all, it can all be made in the same pot.  Nothing beats a one-pot-wonder.

While technically I made this on Saturday, it is in fact what's for dinner tonight at the Munoz's.

3 Bean Bison Chili 
Olive Oil
1 lb Ground Bison (Buffalo)
1 lb Bison chuck roast, cubed (if you can't find it, you can substitute regular beef- the kind you buy pre-cut up for beef stew or even better just use 2 lbs of the ground buffalo instead, which is almost always available at Safeway)
4 strips thick-cut bacon, cut into small pieces
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can white or red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 can chili beans
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
3 Tbsp Cumin powder
1 Tbsp Chipotle powder
1 Tbsp Chili powder
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt & Pepper

1. Brown the meat.   In a large dutch oven over medium heat add a little olive oil, the onions, garlic & bacon and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions start to soften.  Turn the heat up to medium-high and add in the ground bison and bison cubes.  Season with Salt & Pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the meat is cooked through and starting to brown slightly, about another 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Add the beans & tomatoes.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add the drained black beans & kidney beans to the beef & onion mixture and stir.  Then add in the chili beans along with all the sauce they came in and the can of crushed tomatoes. Stir.
3. Add the seasoning.  Add the cumin, chipotle powder & chili powder and stir well.  How much of each is really up to you.  I love cumin so I tend to add a lot of that and since my husband doesn't like his chili too spicy I add a little less chipotle powder & chili powder than if I was making it for myself.  Add the apple cider vinegar and stir.  Turn heat down to low.
4. Simmer away.  Simmer the chili on low heat, covered, for a couple of hours, stirring every once in a while.
5. Serve!  We like ours with a small dollop of light sour cream in the middle & some shredded sharp cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.  Sometimes I make mini cornbread muffins to go on the side.  For those I just follow the recipe on the side of the cornmeal bag I get at Safeway.

I've made this chili in a crock pot as well.  I just cook the onions & brown the meat on the stove top first (step 1) and then transfer it to the crock pot right before step 2 above.  From that point everything else is just the same.  I've also made it many times using ground turkey instead of bison.

Bon Appetit!

Laura