Pasta to die for

A good friend of mine asked me to share my meal plans with her, so here's to more food postings! :) haha! Being single, I typically make 2, maybe 3 varieties of items and just rotate through them. I also eat every 3 hours...it keeps your blood sugar regulated so you don't end up with those "lows" that cause you to want to binge on something. Some days I only eat 5 times if I don't get up early. But, assuming there's an early morning workout, I usually have my first meal at 6:30am. Here's this week's menu:

Option 1:
1. Pre or post-workout smoothie
2. High Protein Banana Muffin
3. Sausage Vegetable Penne Pasta*
4. Pear and string cheese
5. Turkey meatloaf, brussle sprouts, baked sweet potato (with butter buds/cinnamon)
6. Cottage cheese/yogurt mix

Option 2:
1. Pre or post-workout smoothie
2. Whole wheat toast with almond butter and banana
3. Healthy chicken salad pita, carrots & hummus
4. Protein bar
5. Ground turkey taco on whole wheat tortilla (or Flat wrap), lf sour cream, spinach, tomatoes, salsa
6. Apple and natural peanut butter

I love eating healthy...I feel better and frankly, I'm much more organized about it because it requires planning...which also makes me feel better! One of my all time favorite "meal-in-one" dishes to make is definitely Sausage Vegetable Penne Pasta. I am so bummed I didn't have my camera at home when I made it, because the tray of vegetables alone was beeeautiful! This is a recipe that you are definitely going to want to keep!


*Sausage Vegetable Penne Pasta

1 medium zucchini
1 medium squash
2 red bell peppers
1 sweet onion
1 T. olive oil
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 lb. turkey sausage (or 2 links)
1 (16oz) box whole wheat penne pasta
1/8 c. white wine combined with 1/8 c. balsamic vinegar
fresh parmesan

Preheat oven to 400. Slice zucchini and squash in half, length-wise. Cut red bell peppers in half and get rid of seeds, etc. Chop onion into wedges. Throw everything into large ziplock bag (may have to do it in 2 parts) and drizzle with olive oil. Shake. Line large cookie sheet (I used a jelly roll pan) with tinfoil and lightly coat with cooking spray. Place all vegetables (except tomatoes) in a single layer on the tinfoil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes. Place grape tomatoes in ziplock and shake with a little olive oil, salt & pepper. At the end of 20 minutes, flip over all the vegetables and add the grape tomatoes. Cook 15 minutes more.

Meanwhile, thinly slice turkey sausage and brown in large skillet over medium heat. When sausage is brown and bubbly on each side, remove from pan. Leave skillet on burner and turn to high heat. Pour olive oil/balsamic vinegar mixture into pan and swirl around to deglaze. Turn heat down to low and return sausage to pan with remaining oil/vinegar mixture, stir.

Boil penne pasta according to package in large saucepan.

Remove vegetables from oven. Slice zucchini, squash and bell pepper and add to sausage in skillet. Drain pasta when finished and pour into large bowl. Add sausage/vegetable mixture and stir well. Sprinkle with fresh parmesan and enjoy!!