A Better Bag of Groceries

A Healthy Favorite: Turkey Eggplant Casserole

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 07:10 AM

When I first heard the name of this casserole, I thought “ewwwww!”  Turkey?  Eggplant?  Together???  However, if you are a fan of Eggplant Parmesan, then you have to try this one. 

First of all, I need to say a few words about casseroles.  Many of my recipes here on A Better Bag of Groceries have been casseroles as of late.  You might be wondering if I ever make anything that is not in one dish and does not go in the oven.  I do, but at this time of year, casseroles are my best friend.  There are 3 reasons why I make a lot of casseroles in winter – and they’re all based on the leftover factor:

1. I like to bring warm lunches to work
2. My husband works late a few nights a week and he can bring leftovers for dinner at the office
3. The weeknights that we all are actually home for dinner are a whirlwind of activity – Cub Scouts, sports, homework, blogging – so I often rely on leftovers or a Dream Dinner

I first started making Turkey Eggplant Casserole about 13 years ago.  It was in the first book that I received at a Weight Watchers meeting.  I still have that book and the page with this recipe is splattered and dog-eared.  The great news is that this recipe is only 3 Weight Watchers points per serving, so it’s one of my Go To recipes when I need to be good.  You know – if I’ve gone a little over my happy weight.

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 package, extra lean ground turkey (about 1 1/4 lbs)

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 large eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 lbs)

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp dried basil

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large Dutch oven, sprayed with cooking spray, heat onion and garlic.  Add ground turkey and brown.  I break it up into small pieces while I brown it.

Add the green pepper, red pepper and eggplant.  When vegetables begin to soften, add the crushed tomatoes, bread crumbs, and basil.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer.  Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Spray a 9″ X 13″ baking dish with cooking spray.  Pour the mixture into the pan.  Bake, covered, for about 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.  Bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.  Serves 8.

All my casseroles look kind of the same, don’t they?  But they are all unique in their own way!

So how does this casserole score on the NuVal scale?

It has 5 ingredients that score in the 90s!!

Onion: 93

Garlic: 91

Eggplant: 96

Green Pepper: 94

Red Pepper: 96

And bite for bite, you can see that these high-scoring veggies take up a lot of the “space” in the casserole.  As for the other ingredients, they are not as high scoring, but the amounts are rather small relative to the entire recipe.  The ground turkey scores a 33.  The Parmesan cheese (I used DiGiorno) scores a 20.  The Progresso Italian style bread crumbs only score a 6.  Ouch! 

The real surprise in the scores for me was actually the crushed tomatoes that I chose.  Since I do not live near a store that has NuVal scores on the shelf, I have to rely on my memory, and that is fading fast.  Plus, I was shopping with my 4-year-old, so my concentration was limited.  Anyway, I grabbed a can of Tutto Rosso crushed tomatoes because I remembered that they make a very high-scoring tomato puree.  When I researched the scores for this blog, I found that the Tutto Rosso crushed tomatoes only scored a 14!  I was shocked.  I would have been better off buying the Hunt’s Basil Crushed Tomatoes.  They get a 67.  The scores in canned tomatoes really vary and I don’t have time to read the labels to see which ones have added salt or sugar or both.  That is why I can’t wait to get scores on the shelf in a grocery store near my home!

Full disclosure here:  my kids are not fans of this casserole (yet!).  So, we usually supplement with a side of whole wheat pasta (which becomes a main dish for the kids) or ravioli (we have like 3 of them, the kids have a main meal of them).  But then, my husband and I have this Go To dish in the fridge for the rest of the week.  So, in those last 3 minutes we have before he needs to sprint for the train and I for my car, we can slide some Turkey Eggplant into our handy-dandy new Pyrex travel containers.  Later, when I heat it up for lunch at NuVal, I always get some co-workers asking, “What is that?  It smells soooooooo good!”

Winner of the Bread GiveAway

Congratulations to Bill, Commenter #10 on yesterday’s Arnold Bread GiveAway!  You’ve won some of my favorite bread.

Posted by: Melissa 6 comments

Posted in: Dinner Recipes

Tags: turkey eggplant