The Daily Balance

Nothing’s worse than getting through a ‘Manic Monday’ and having to come home and worry about dinner. Especially when you don’t get home until 8 p.m. because someone wanted to sleep in and push our morning workout to the evening. (yes Mister, I am calling you out )

I’ll admit it, I wanted to sleep in, as well. We had a busy weekend, complete with a trip to Columbus, Ohio to visit two of our best friends and their adorable baby one-year-old girl. But after indulging this weekend (Pasquales rolls are my drug…anyone from Columbus, OH? — YOU MUST get yourself a taste of these Pasquales garlic twists. Westerville, Ohio — it’s where it’s at!) we both knew we wanted to get a good workout in.

Side note about the amazingness of these rolls: When I would visit friends in Columbus, I would actually have Mr. Pasquale cook rolls halfway and then freeze them for me. I would come back with 3 dozen rolls each time. What is the problem you ask? I HAVE NO CONTROL around these little demons! I CANNOT have 3 dozen of these sitting around within my arms reach or I will eat them all. I’m not kidding. From now on, I rely on my visits to Columbus for the opportunity to indulge. When the Mister and I lived in Columbus, he made the mistake of telling me Pasquale’s delivered. The delivery man knew my name and order. Dinner salad (see? I still got my greens in!) with a basket of garlic twist rolls, thank you very much!

Anyway, I digress. After our later-than-usual workout, the last thing I wanted to do tonight was spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

This is when I thank my lucky stars that I live in an age where convenient and healthy options are available. I really don’t think I would have cut it back in the day when everything was homemade. As much as I try to pretend, I am not a domestic goddess

One of my favorite go-to meals is whole wheat gnocchi sweet potato .

The gnocchi is made by Gia Russa

Take a look at the fantastic nutritional info!

I split the recipe in half between myself and The Mister, so it works out to be about 355 calories each, and almost 10 grams of protein. Not bad for an incredibly rich pasta dish!

Product shot

From above….

 Close up

To add a bit more protein, I brown some extra-lean ground turkey meat and add it to the sauce. Today, I was extra lazy and used store-bought sauce, but I have an excellent recipe for making sauce from scratch.

I’ve actually adapted the recipe from all recipes, and it was actually titled the “World’s Best Pasta Sauce!”

Using healthy substitutions, I was able to create a recipe with all the flavor– but not the fat!

3/4 pound extra lean ground turkey
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

If you like your sauce a bit sweeter, you can add some sugar, to taste. I find that the natural sugars from the tomato work very well and don’t see a need to add additional sugar.

In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the turkey, onion, and garlic until well browned; drain fat. Stir in tomato-based ingredients and water.  Season with basil, fennel seed, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

This sauce freezes and re-heats wonderfully (I find that with most sauces, it actually tastes better after sitting ‘in their own juices’ for awhile).

Pour over your favorite whole wheat pasta (I STRONGLY suggest the gnocchi I mentioned above)

Enjoy!

OK, I know I’m not the only one who gives in to cravings….

Where do you go to indulge in your favorite foods?

3 Responses to “World’s Best Pasta Sauce? You be the Judge…”

1. Daliy Delish - My name is Shannon and I’m a garlic twist addict « The Daily Balance said:

   [...] I may have mentioned my obsession with Pasquales Garlic twist rolls once or twice before. Do I need to hit you over the head with it people?! I LOVE THIS [...]

   Posted on July 27, 2009 at 4:14 pm | Reply
2. elias j. yeung said:

   Hi i was wondering how much you would bill to set your blog theme up on my web logs for me, because i truly like the look of your web log but i don’t know how to make such a sweet design.

   Posted on November 2, 2009 at 12:19 am | Reply
3. Lena Baumgartner said:

   It’s always excellent to discover innovative inspiration for tasty recipes together with easy to understand methods to fix them. We made this dish for our the evening meal at the weekend. Everyone liked it, I am going to be serving it on a regular basis from now on.

   Posted on May 6, 2010 at 10:06 am | Reply