Filed under 8P+

Creamy Gnocchi Alfredo with Spinach and Mushroom

I think I have mentioned before that I have an unhealthy relationship with cheese. What I didn’t mention was that when I was looking for a blog name, I was going to choose “Cheese Fetish” and only blog recipes that had cheese in them.

Two things derailed this idea:

  1. I really enjoy baking, and felt that I would need to incorporate that into my blog.
  2. I Googled “Cheese Fetish” to make sure the name wasn’t taken. My search results made my tummy feel weird.
I made some Gnocchi Mac and Cheese a few weeks ago, and had a lightbulb moment: alfredo! I headed back out to the market and purchased some mini-gnocchi. If you can’t find exactly what I used, 2 (17.5) oz packages of fresh gnocchi would suffice. It shouldn’t change the serving size too much, your gnocchi will just be bigger and plumper.

Anyhow, this recipe contains cheese, is cooked on the stove top, and is incredibly decadent.

WIN.

Creamy Gnocchi Alfredo with Spinach and Mushroom

Stovetop method adapted from whiteonrice couple

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
  • 12 oz pre-rinsed, pre sliced mushrooms
  • 1 (6oz) bag baby spinach, rinsed and drained
  • ½ cup sweet onion finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 (17.5 oz) packages Rienzi mini gnocchi, fresh, not frozen
  • 2 ¼  cup reduced fat milk (2%)
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a medium skillet sauté mushrooms. When mushrooms become soft, add spinach and remove from heat. Cover, allowing spinach to wilt while the gnocchi cooks. Set aside, covered.

2. Rinse raw gnocchi in a colander and let drain.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, warm 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion,cook  2-3 minutes until fragrant.

4. Add gnocchi and milk to the saucepan with garlic and onion. Slowly bring the milk/gnocchi mixture to a simmer, stirring frequently. Once the mixture comes to a simmer, immediately turn down the heat to low. Gnocchi will cook in the milk. Plan to stand at the stove, if this mixture boils over it will be VERY messy!

5. Cook and stir for about 5-7 minutes or until milk has been fully absorbed.  When milk has thickened, stir in cheese, until melted. Remove from heat.

6. Stir mushrooms and spinach into gnocchi.

7. Place a lid on top of pan and cover for about 5 minutes. This rest period will allow gnocchi to plump up and absorb any excess milk.

Nutritional Information Per Serving* (8P+ per 1 cup per serving, makes 8 servings):
Calories: 475
Carbs: 45
Fat: 6
Protein: 14
Fiber: 3
Sodium: 954
Nutritional Information from myfitnesspal.com
*NI may seem high for this particular item. Myfitnesspal did not have the exact gnocchi listed, so I estimated with a heavy hand. :)

Cider-Spiced Banana Oatmeal with Almonds

The title of this particular recipe is a mouthful. It was a happy accident Sunday morning. I was trying to get in a good, hearty, hot breakfast, while giving myself the little “treat” of splurging on Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider. I bought the cider before Thanksgiving, after sampling a warm little “shot” of it.

The cider is decadent and cinnamony (take THAT, spell check!) I planned on heating it in the teapot at the end of a cool fall evening. But it hasn’t really been “cool” here in New York. Let the record show that I am extremely happy about the unseasonably warm weather.

I don’t have a picture of the finished product because I ate it up before I decided to share it with you – so you will have to settle for this one:

It's a "thesis-writing" kind of day.

Cider-Spiced Banana Oatmeal with Almonds

A Kelly’s Stellar Kitchen Original!

Ingredients:

  • ¾ c Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider*
  • ½  c quick oats
  • 1 tbsp slivered almonds
  • ½ banana, mashed

Directions:

1. Pour spiced cider into tea kettle and heat until it reaches desired warmth. (I took it to a full boil, as my banana was frozen). Mix oats in a cereal bowl.

2. Pour cider over oat and almond mixture. Mix in mashed banana until well combined.

*If you like your oatmeal dryer/wetter, you can add water, milk, or cider to your liking.

You can top this with cinnamon if you wish, but the cider has such rich flavor that it doesn’t really need anything. (On Monday, I made this with 1/2 cup canned pumpkin instead of banana, and topped with 1 tbsp brown sugar.)

Nutritional Information Per Serving (8P+, makes 1 serving):**
**I put this into the recipe builder without the banana, and counted it as 8P+ with my 0 P+ banana. However, if you add the banana, as I did with myfitnesspal nutrition facts, it will come out to 10P+ per serving.**
Calories: 344
Carbs: 67
Fat: 8
Protein: 8
Fiber: 7
Sodium: 23
Nutritional Information from myfitnesspal.com

Rotini with (Turkey) Meat Sauce

Wednesday, I felt like being lazy about dinner. It doesn’t happen a lot.

Usually, when I’m lazy about dinner, it’s because I’m secretly hoping that my father or brother will volunteer to order in. Typically, when they volunteer to order in, we order from my favorite Italian Restaurant/Pizzeria.

Italian food is another love of mine. I like to attribute my ability to cook to my paternal genes. (I usually advertise that I’m Irish-German because I look the part, but shhhh, there’s some Sicilian blood in my veins.) I love to make sauces and fancy, cheese-laden pasta dishes from scratch. I’ve been making manicotti from scratch since I was 13.

But tonight (sorry grandma) I used jarred sauce.

I also used ground turkey. Sacrelige, by Italian standards. I can’t stomach beef. I like it, it doesn’t like me.

My faux-Italian dinner was delicious. And delightfully lazy….

Lazybones dinner.....

…..so lazy, in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of the completed dish. Perhaps those sexy little cupcakes photo-bombing will make up for it.

(Turkey) Meat Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 99% lean ground turkey (1 package, or 1 1/3 pounds)
  • 1 jar Francesco Rinaldi Marinara Sauce (I used Tomato & Basil Hearty Pasta Sauce)
  • 1/2 jar water

Directions:

  1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet, adding turkey to “brown.” Break up turkey constantly with a spoon. Cooked turkey will turn white.
  2. When turkey is fully cooked, add Marinara Sauce, and 1/2 jar of water. Simmer 5 minutes, or until sauce is warm.
  3. Add ½ cup of hot sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
Want to bulk this up?
  • Add chopped onions when browning turkey in step 1.
  • Add fresh spinach when heating sauce in step 2.
**I served myself 1 cup of pasta topped with 1/2 cup of meat sauce, for an 8P+ meal. You can adjust your pasta serving accordingly.
**I used 1/2 cup of leftover sauce on 2 oz of Italian bread for a “Turkey (Sloppy) Joe” sandwich the next day.
Nutritional Information Per Serving of Sauce (3P+, makes 10 1/2 cup servings):
Calories: 113
Carbs: 7
Fat: 3
Protein: 15
Fiber: 1
Sodium: 303
Nutritional Information from myfitnesspal.com