I love spaghetti.
Maybe it’s my not-so-Italian heritage (my dad was adopted by my Italian grandfather), but show me a plate of spaghetti and I go absolutely weak at the knees.
So when I came across a recipe that didn’t involve boiling pasta first, I was intrigued and gave it a shot.
Not only did Mini Chef have 3 servings, but Mama Chef was pretty happy too. Yummy!
Clean Eating Skillet Spaghetti
(Makes 10 servings)
NOTE: You will need a very large pan for this. Mine was a 10 cup, cast iron pan and it was just barely large enough.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 3-4 cups water
- 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce, no sugar added
- 1 (16 ounce) package whole grain spaghetti
- Grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
- Brown the turkey in your pan, using the olive oil.
- Once the meat has lost all of it’s pink color, add all the spices to the pan and stir well to combine.
- Pour in the water (start with 3 cups, you can always add more as needed) and tomato sauce and stir gently while bringing the sauce to a gentle boil.
- Add the pasta, stir and cover the pan with a lid.
- Check on the pasta often so as to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pan. Cook until the pasta reaches your desired level of “doneness” (Is that a word?). About 20-30 minutes. Remember to stir!
- Allow to cool a bit and top with parmesan when serving.
Nutritional Content:
(Data is for approximately 1 cup)
Calories: 291
Total Fat: 6 gm
Saturated Fats: 2 gm
Trans Fats: 0 gm
Cholesterol: 54 mg
Sodium: 489 mg (this can be lowered by using low or no sodium tomato sauce)
Carbohydrates: 42 gm
Dietary fiber: 1 gm
Sugars: 2 gm
Protein: 20 gm
Estimated Glycemic Load: 26
Please Note: Nutritional information estimated at Nutritiondata.com. Data may not be accurate and is subject to the availability of specific foods in their database. Where one ingredient is not listed, substitutions must be used. Therefore, you should not refer to this data as being exact. It’s more of a ballpark figure. The Gracious Pantry does not take responsibility for the inadequacies of the nutrition calculator used. This data is provided as a courtesy and general reference only. It is not exact.
Cassandre – I shop at Trader Joe’s, so I purchase their whole wheat pasta. Safeway also has some really yummy whole wheat pastas.
Guest – There’s no negative. It’s just a big more time consuming.
Bek – I adjusted as needed. I started off high, and then lowered the temp as the liquid was soaked up by the spaghetti.
MGG – Hope you enjoy it!
Nicole – No, boiling pasta is just fine. I was just referring to shortening time and dishes in the kitchen. I typically boil my pasta.
Kerriejo – I hope you enjoy it!
SS – I hope you enjoy it! It’s very simple to make. Love this stuff!
Rhadonda – Thank you so much! You made my day.
FlyingB – Excellent point. Thank you.
BW – Ya, it really does need a very large pan. Halving it may be a good idea. Enjoy!
Hilliary – Thanks! Enjoy it!
Veronica – I’m so happy to hear that! Welcome to clean eating!
Missi – Hahaha!! That’s wonderful!
Malinda – If you don’t mention it, chances are they won’t notice. Especially if you cook the clean versions of more traditional foods. I wish you all the best!
this is a wonderful recipe, much better than anything out of a jar! and so easy! Thanks for the recipe Tiffany
Trude – You’re welcome! Glad you liked it!
Terri – Fantastic! It’s always nice to hear when somebody prefers a healthy recipe over a packaged food product. Glad you enjoyed it.
Kelli – Wonderful! Glad you liked it!
I tried last night and it was hit around here. Even my son said it was great!!
Thanks
Abby – Thanks! That’s fantastic!
I love cabbage rolls, but not the time it takes to make them… so instead I make it into a casserole. This recipe is similar to what I do:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cabbage-roll-casserole/
(You could always tweak it to make it more “clean”)
Emily – Sounds good!
Sarah – It could work. You may have to play around with how much water you add, but you can do that as it cooks. Just add as necessary. Let me know how it turns out!
I used the meat from turkey sausages and it—was—-awesome!!! The meat was defrost and I needed a recipe for it so I didn’t have to throw it away and came across this. An avid clean eater, I was elated to find this. Thank you Gracious Pantry! <3
Katertot – My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it!
This was delicious. The only change I made was adding fresh onion and garlic, although I still added some onion and garlic powder. So yummy that it reminded me why I don’t make pasta for dinner anymore, whole wheat or otherwise. I had three bowls of it!
Haha! That’s awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!
My pleasure!
Haha!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Ya, something went wrong there…
I love the idea of making it all in one skillet…less mess for this “mama chef” to clean up! I plan to also add lots of veggies (both diced and pureed…so the kiddos don’t complain about all the veggies! lol)…can’t wait to make this!
Thanks so much for your wonderful website…I’m learning sooo much about clean eating!!
This was delicious and totally hit the spot! Kiddos and hubby loved it and it was fairly easy to make.
Great supper! It makes a lot (for 2 people) so I’ll be eating it for a while.
Becky – It freezes pretty well if that helps.
Doesn’t cooking the pasta in the dish make it starchy and heavy?
Ivy – You mean in the skillet? I didn’t think so. For me it cooked up just like pasta should.