If you are up to putting in some elbow grease in the kitchen and making an incredibly delicious and healthy pasta casserole recipe, well then this Butternut Squash and Spinach Pasta Casserole Recipe with Caramelized Onions is for you. Loaded with delicious veggies and a fabulous creamy bechamel sauce, each serving is just 5 Points +. It does require lots of separate pots and pans for cooking various components of the casserole, but it is oh so worth it. The garlic sauteed spinach, the onions caramelized in butter, and the roasted butternut squash all combine perfectly in this vegetarian pasta casserole recipe. I used a fresh, whole milk buffalo mozzarella to top it with and it was amazing! It’s a big recipe, so we had lots of leftovers, and it re-heated very nicely as well. This is definitely a Weight Watchers casserole recipe that will impress. And though I made it in the middle of a high temp summer, I’d ideally make this tomato-free pasta recipe in the fall, as the sage and nutmeg give it a fall-like flavor.
Butternut Squash and Spinach Pasta Casserole Recipe with Caramelized Onions
Some serious effort in the kitchen goes a long way in this amazing Butternut Squash and Spinach Pasta Casserole Recipe with Caramelized Onions. Delicious and filling, each serving is just 5 Points+ making it a great Weight Watchers dinner recipe idea.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry, high fiber pasta
- 4 cups butternut squash, cut into small cubes
- 3 large onions, thinly sliced
- 16 oz fresh spinach leaves
- 8oz fresh, whole milk mozzarella, sliced
- 15oz container fat free ricotta
- 2 tbsp light butter
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ cups fat free milk
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp dried sage powder
- 1 tsp chili flakes
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Instructions
- To roast the butternut squash, preheat oven to 425F. Lightly spray the butternut squash with an olive oil mister and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the butternut squash for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, set a non-stick skillet over medium heat and heat olive oil. Then add cloves of garlic and a pinch of chili flakes.
- Heat until garlic begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Add in spinach and sauté until spinach is completely wilted. Set aside on a paper towel to drain.
- Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- To caramelize the onions, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions with a tsp of salt and cook down for about 20-30 minutes, until onions turn brown. Set aside.
- To make the creamy sauce, bring the milk, nutmeg, sage, ½ tsp pepper, and remaining chili flakes to a simmer.
- In a separate sauce pan, make the rue by melting the remaining tbsp. of butter and then adding in the flour. Stir until doughy (about one minute).
- Whisk the milk into the butter and flour mix (the rue). It should be smooth and velvety, not chunky or too thick. If it is, just add some more milk to thin it out. Add in the Parmesan, and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine ricotta, basil, remaining garlic, salt, pepper and chili flakes.
- Now, preheat the oven to 375.
- In a large, 5qt casserole dish, place a layer of noodles, spinach, butternut squash, onions, and then dot with a third of ricotta. Then cover with about 1/4 of the cream sauce. Repeat with the remaining ingredients until are used up.
- Then top evenly with the sliced mozzarella.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until bubbling.
- Turn the broiler on and bake for another 5 minutes, or until browned on top.
- Remove from oven and let cool for about 15-20 minutes.
Preparation time: 30 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 30 minute(s)
Diet type: Vegetarian
Diet tags: Low calorie, Reduced fat, Reduced carbohydrate
Number of servings (yield): 12
Culinary tradition: Italian
Entire recipe makes 12 servings
Serving size is 1/12th of casserole
Each serving = 5 Points +
PER SERVING: 192 calories; 4g fat; 30g carbohydrates; 12g protein; 4g fiber
Emotional Eating: Feeding Your
Feelings
Eating to feed a feeling, and
not a growling stomach, is emotional eating.
Heather Hatfield
When you're happy, your food of choice could
be steak or pizza, when you're sad it could be ice cream or
cookies, and when you're bored it could be potato chips.
Food does more than fill our stomachs -- it also satisfies
feelings, and when you quench those feelings with comfort
food when your stomach isn't growling, that's emotional
eating
How to Tell the Difference
1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly;
physical hunger occurs gradually.
2. When you are eating to fill a void that
isn't related to an empty stomach, you crave a specific
food, such as pizza or ice cream, and only that food will
meet your need. When you eat because you are actually
hungry, you're open to options.
3. Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be
satisfied instantly with the food you crave; physical hunger
can wait.
4. Even when you are full, if you're eating to
satisfy an emotional need, you're more likely to keep
eating. When you're eating because you're hungry, you're
more likely to stop when you're full.
5. Emotional eating can leave behind feelings
of guilt; eating when you are physically hungry does not.
Comfort Foods
When emotional hunger rumbles, one of its
distinguishing characteristics is that you're focused on a
particular food, which is likely a comfort food.
Ice cream is first on the comfort food list.
After ice cream, comfort foods break down by sex: For women
it's chocolate and cookies; for men it's pizza, steak, and
casserole.
And what you reach for when eating to satisfy
an emotion depends on the emotion."The types of comfort
foods a person is drawn toward varies depending on their
mood. People in happy moods tended to prefer ... foods such
as pizza or steak (32%). Sad people reached for ice cream
and cookies 39% of the time, and 36% of bored people opened
up a bag of potato chips."
Overfeeding Emotions
"We all eat for emotional reasons sometimes......"
When eating becomes the only or main strategy a person
uses to manage emotions then problems arise -- especially if the
foods a person is choosing to eat to satisfy emotions aren't exactly
healthy.
75%
of overeating is caused by emotions, so dealing with emotions
appropriately is important.
Recognizing Emotional Eating
The first thing one needs to do to overcome emotional
eating is to recognize it. Keeping a food record and ranking your
hunger from 1-10 each time you put something in your mouth will bring
to light if and when you are eating for reasons other than
hunger.
Next, you need to learn techniques that help manage
emotions besides eating.
Oftentimes when a child is sad, we cheer them up with a
sweet treat. This behavior gets reinforced year after year until we
are practicing the same behavior as adults. We never learned how to
deal with the sad feeling because we always pushed it away with a
sweet treat. Learning how to deal with feelings without food is a new
skill many of us need to learn.
Managing Emotional Eating
Here are a few tips to help you deal with emotional
eating:
Recognize emotional eating and
learn what triggers this behavior in you.
Make a list of things to do when
you get the urge to eat and you're not hungry, and carry it with
you, When you feel overwhelmed, you can put off that desire by doing
another enjoyable activity.
Try taking a walk, calling a
friend, playing cards, cleaning your room, doing laundry, or
something productive to take your mind off the craving -- even
taking a nap, according to the Tufts Nutrition web site.
When you do get the urge to eat
when you're not hungry, find a comfort food that's healthy instead
of junk food. Comfort foods don't need to be unhealthy.
For some, leaving comfort foods
behind when you're dieting can be emotionally difficult. The key is
moderation, not elimination. Dividing comfort foods into smaller
portions. For instance, if you have a large bag of chips, divide it
into smaller containers or baggies and the temptation to eat more
than one serving can be avoided.
- When it comes to comfort foods that aren't always healthy,
like fattening desserts, Your memory of a food peaks after about
four bites, so if you only have those bites, a week later you'll
recall it as just a good experience than if you polished off the
whole thing." So have a few bites of cheesecake, then call it
quits, and you'll get equal the pleasure with lower cost.
Lastly, remember that emotional eating is something
that most people do when they're bored, happy, or sad. It might be a
bag of chips or a steak, but whatever the food choice, learning how
to control it and using moderation are key.
Breakfast
gets a lot of attention as the most important meal of the day, but
for many of us, lunch is the deal breaker when it comes to weight
loss. Whether you are preparing the meal for your kids, your spouse
or for yourself, there are some easy ways to make lunch healthy and
satisfying.
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