Family Dinner: Grandma’s Casserole
So, here we are 11 days into the New Year and my scale is about 3 pounds higher than it should be. Blame those cookie swaps that I went to in December. Or a couple of missed workouts due to lack of sleep. Or a few too many events with cocktails on the menu. What caused my little weight gain is not important. Getting back on track is.
I have two recipe boxes: one with all my everyday recipes and my Weight Watchers recipe box. Inside my WW recipe box is my Goal Weight pin, notes from meetings I attended, and recipes (of both the official and unofficial Weight Watchers variety) with points attached. It’s at times like these that I dig into that recipe box. But finding a low-calorie recipe that will please me, my husband and my two young children is not easy. Especially in the dead of winter. While I am happy to subsist on “Zero-Point Soup” and tofu in the name of annihilating aforementioned three pounds, my husband and kids are not. They want meatloaf. No, not the Weight Watchers meatloaf recipe that I used to make B.C. (Before Children) with salsa and oatmeal in it (truly!) They want the meatloaf recipe that is on the back of the Lipton Onion Soup box. Yum, but not exactly diet food.
However, I have found one recipe that works for everyone: Grandma’s Casserole. It is a baked pasta casserole, complete with tons of vegetables, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. It is based on a recipe that I jotted down on an index card probably about 12 years ago at a Weight Watchers meeting. I have since played around with ingredients and amounts to make it my own. It is hearty, a little spicy, warm and delicious. And it makes great leftovers. It’s one of those recipes that I heat up for lunch and everyone in the office wants to know what it is. It’s a recipe that I often make for my girlfriends when they bring a new baby home. They can’t believe that it’s healthy. And neither can my 4-year-old daughter when she asks for her third helping.
I took my recipe and put it into the recipe builder that I have access to as an online Weight Watchers member. It comes out to only 5 Weight Watchers points per serving.
Grandma’s Casserole Serves 8
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
10 ounces ground turkey, 93% lean (just cut the standard 1.25 pound package in half & freeze the leftovers)
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups chopped mushrooms
14.5 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained & coarsley chopped
2 cups tomato sauce
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 3/4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
This recipe packs in a lot of incredible vegetables!
In a skillet, saute onion, red pepper and celery in butter.
Add ground turkey and brown, breaking it up with a spoon.
Add mushrooms, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder and mushrooms.
Coarsely chop the tomatoes.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and water to the pan. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
Spoon enough mixture to cover the bottom of a 9″ X 13″ pan. Layer with uncooked elbows.
Spoon remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove and let stand for 45 minutes.
So, how does Grandma’s Casserole stack up on the NuVal scale? If you choose the top-scoring items for each ingredient in the recipe, it does very well.
OK, the butter does not score so well. Land o’ Lakes Sweet Cream butter scores a 2.
But the vegetables are great!
Onion: 93
Red Pepper: 96
Celery: 96
Mushrooms: 96
The score for whole canned tomatoes can really vary. I chose one of the highest scoring brands I’ve found to date: Price Chopper Whole Tomatoes with No Salt Added. They get an 82.
Tomato sauce is another product that can really vary. There are some very high-scoring varieties and some very low-scoring brands. One of the best I’ve come across is Pastene’s “The Chateau” Marinara Sauce, which gets a 66 on the NuVal scale. Fellow Bostonians might recognize this sauce from The Chateau Restaurants in the Greater Boston area. It’s a new find for me and it is delicious.
For the pasta, I chose one of my favorite high-scoring brands: Barilla Plus Elbows. They get an amazing 91! I love that the elbows go into this recipe uncooked. How cool is that? And it’s one less pan to wash. Woo hoo!
As for the mozzarella cheese, I debated between Sorrento’s Part-Skim mozzarella, which comes in a block and requires shredding. It gets a 22 on the NuVal scale. Or I could go for Sorrento’s Reduced Fat 4 Cheese Italian. You might think that would get a better score. It does. It gets a 23. I made this on a Sunday. I had time to shred. I went for the cheese with a 22.
Now, I admit, that anytime I make a Weight Watchers or Cooking Light recipe, I’m always tempted to throw in just a little more cheese. Don’t. You will end up with a crusty, chewy mess. Resist the extra cheese. Stick to the recipe. I’m just sayin’.
So, other than the cheese and the butter, both of which are under control, portion-wise, this is a very high-scoring, nutritious meal that your whole family will love. And it will help moms to get back on track after all those cookies and festive martinis. Mangia!
Posted by: Melissa 6 comments
Posted in: Dinner Recipes
Tags: Grandma's Casserole
