Pumpkin Pasta Bake - 21 Day Fix Friendly!

So, you've been warned.

Around this time of year, I'm a pumpkin - a - holic.

From savory to sweet, it's all about pumpkin for me.

So thanks to Mom getting me a little pumpkin cookbook, I found this recipe and realized it was really quite 21 Day Fix friendly!

It's from a cookbook called Favorite Brand Name Recipes - Pumpkin! (I'm pretty sure it's one of those checkout aisle at the grocery store books).  I really didn't change much except I used regular tomato sauce instead of marinara. 

I also measured out all of the ingredients in the fix containers so I could accurately (or at least as close as possible) give you the Fix container servings.

This recipe makes 8 servings, and I used the green container to measure a serving.  I figured that was what Autumn recommended for lasagna in the book, and this is a fairly close idea to lasagna.

One last note, turkey sausage isn't in the book, but I researched on the Beachbody website and the mods on the board there said it could count as a red if you checked the ingredients and it was clean.  The sausage I got was meat, water and spices so I figured we were good :)

So here goes!

Pumpkin Pasta Bake

Organic coconut oil spray
5 links of lean spicy turkey sausage out of casings ("fried up" those equaled three red containers)
1 minced garlic clove
2 1/2 greens of tomato sauce
1 1/2 greens of 100% pure pumpkin puree
1 blue of shredded parmesan
10 yellows of cooked whole grain pasta (I used a quinoa / brown rice blend!)
3 blues of shredded part skim mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 375.

First up, cook the pasta according to package directions.  Drain.  Measure out 10 yellow servings (the package made more, I saved the rest in a separate container).

In the same pasta pot, spray with coconut oil and "fry" up the turkey sausage until cooked through (I actually measured this out after it was fried for three containers, just in case, then put it back in the pot).  Add the minced garlic and let cook for about a minute.

Stir in tomato sauce and deglaze the pan.  Then stir in the pumpkin and half of the parmesan cheese.  Stir well, then add in the pasta. 

Spoon into a sprayed 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan and the three containers of shredded mozzarella.

Bake for 15 minutes (you can cover, but I found I didn't need to!) or until bubbly.

Now for the containers (this is as mathematically as close as I can figure out, it might be a little high on the red but if it is it's only a slight amount).

1 green container serving = 1 1/4 yellow, 1/2 blue, 1/2 green, 1/2 red

As a side note, I had this for dinner with a leftover green of roasted veggies and it was a perfect dinner!  Would also be great with a salad!