Maintaining a healthy lifestyle required me to balance the foods I eat so I didn’t over do the carbs and fats. The best way I have found to do this is to find healthier substitutes to refined carbs and processed foods. This recipe is an example of a simple modification – replacing pasta noodles with zucchini or “zoodles” – that will enable you to eat some hearty, delicious Italian food without getting your diet out of balance. Enjoy!
Ingredients
3 large zucchini (or 6 small)
1.25 lb. lean ground turkey
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic
24 oz tomato sauce (no sugar added, low sodium) or homemade sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Sea salt, pepper to taste
Crushed red pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Start by making your zoodles (cut ends off zucchini, cut in half, slice in long, wide noodles).
- Boil a pot of water, add salt, and boil zoodles for 2-3 minutes. Drain in colander and pat the zoodles with a paper towel to remove excess water.
- Saute the diced onions and garlic in a large pan until slightly translucent. Add ground turkey and cook until there is no pink left in the meat.
- Add tomato sauce and bring to a simmer, then reduce the temperature to low for about 10-15 minutes.
- Mix greek yogurt and parmesan cheese together and set aside.
- Spray a 9”x13” casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray and layer 1 cup of the sauce over the bottom.
- Place half the zucchini noodles in an even layer on the sauce. Cover with half of the remaining meat sauce and optionally sprinkle with desired amount of crushed red pepper.
- Dot small amounts of the greek yogurt/cheese mixture on top.
- Repeat layer and sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese.
- Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.
21 Day Fix: For 1/6 of the casserole count 1.5 Green/Veggie, 0.5 Red/Protein, 0.75 Blue/Healthy Fats are the container equivalents if made with a homemade or store-bought sauce with no added sugar. If you use jarred sauce with added sugar, the container equivalents are 1 Green/Veggie, 0.5 Purple/Fruit, 0.5 Red/Protein, 0.75 Blue/Healthy Fats.
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