"The High Performance Cookbook" - Power Pasta (Whole Wheat Pasta with Ground Turkey Tomato Sauace)

Date I made this recipe:  May 5, 2012

The High Performance Cookbook by Susan M. Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D. and KarenRae Friedman-Kester, M.S., R.D.

Published by:  Macmillan

ISBN:  0-02-860370-2

Recipe:  Power Pasta p. 64

Talk about a case of good timing!  A few weeks ago, I spied this book at the Paperback Exchange bookstore (50^th and Penn) and thought it would be perfect for my husband, Andy.  Andy has become quite the biking enthusiast (he did the RAGBRAI bike ride across Iowa last year) and has been in semi-training mode this spring for several bike rides including tomorrow’s Minnesota Ironman, a 100-mile (a/k/a “century ride”) bike ride through parts of the Twin Cities’ southwest metro.

As I posted on Facebook today, while Andy was out riding 100 miles, I completely overextended myself cleaning my downstairs bathroom.  True story. 

But I am nothing if not supportive so not only did I pick up this cookbook just for him but I also agreed to make this pasta recipe that he selected involving ground turkey.

As previously stated in this blog, I normally don’t have what other friends describe as a “textural problem” with any other meat except ground poultry.  But the very thought of ground or diced poultry just gives me shivers.  Of course, this recipe called for ground dark turkey meat and seriously, I felt ill at the very thought of it.  So poor Andy said that he would make it if I couldn’t bring myself to but I rallied because what kind of wife am I to send my man off on a 100 mile ride after making him prepare his own dinner? (In the end, we bought white meat ground turkey and that has less of an “ick” factor than dark meat.),

So I overcame this new idiosyncrasy and dumped the turkey meat into the pan as directed (and did not do anything with it for oh, quite some time until it practically incinerated itself) and got to it.

Truth be told, this recipe is so easy to make I almost feel guilty posting it.  I mean, come on, when it says to go out and buy a jar of spaghetti sauce and you do and you add garlic powder and pepper and serve, is that really considered cooking?  (Let’s not forget though, that I boiled the pasta!)

But I followed directions and heated the sauce thoroughly, almost over-boiled the whole wheat pasta and it was actually decent.  Actually, more than decent, it was pretty good.  And Andy wrapped up the 100 mile ride in about 6.5 hours so there you go—it worked!

But. I do feel a tad guilty using jarred sauce if only because the sodium content is so high but I didn’t have time to make my own sauce.  So perhaps Andy could have shaved off more time had he not been as bloated as a camel but such is life.

Power Pasta – serves 3

½ pound ground dark-meat turkey

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch white pepper

12 ounces spaghetti sauce

½ pound whole wheat spaghetti

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Brown the meat in a nonstick saucepan over medium heat with the garlic powder and pepper.  The meat should be thoroughly cooked.  Add the sauce and cook until the sauce is heated.

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Poor the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

For those needing to know the calorie-protein, etc. breakout, here you go:

For 2 servings each serving contains

688 Calories

31 g Protein

116 g Carbohydrates

15 g Fat

31 mg Cholesterol

1,147 mg Sodium

For 3 servings each serving contains:

458 Calories

21g Protein

77 g Carbohydrates

10 g Fat

20 mg Cholesterol

765 mg Sodium