JJ's Chopsticks: Baked Spaghetti Bolognese with Ground Turkey Sauce

This is another one of hubby's recipes :) He found this online and we made a few modifications to it. The first time we made it, we used ground beef and it was really good but we wanted to cut down on our red meat intake. The second time we made, we decided to use ground chicken instead but it was pretty dry (so we don't recommend it). Finally, we decided to use ground turkey and it worked surprisingly well.

In this recipe, we had precooked our ground turkey the day before because we had already defrosted a tray of meat but we got called to dinner at my in-law's for home cooked Pho...oh so YUM!! How could we turn down such a yummy invitation!? Hence, the precooked turkey that sat in the fridge overnight :)

As you can see, this recipe is quite versatile from the type of meat used, to whether the meat is fresh or precooked. You can even swap the pasta to your favourite type.

Here are the ingredients we used for this recipe :)

Veges & Meat:
- 5-7 button mushrooms, chopped
- 1 small yellow onion or half of a large one, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tray of turkey meat (I buy the four pack from Costco) or 2-3lbs of ground lean beef or chicken
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 6 oz pasta sauce (use your favourite one!)
- 1/2 can tomato paste
- 1 medium carrot, shredded
- 1-2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1.5 cups ketchup

Spices
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar or raw sugar
- 2 tbsp olive oil

Pasta
- Spaghetti, whole wheat, cooked and drained.

Directions:
1. Shred carrot, mince garlic, chop onions, chop mushrooms.

2. Heat up a large sauce pan on med/high heat with some olive oil. Cook carrots, onions, and mushrooms until soft. Add minced garlic last.

3. Add the cooked ground turkey to the mixture. Lower heat if needed.

4. Add the diced tomatoes (along with the liquids in the can), tomato paste, ketchup, and pasta sauce. Mix well. You can increase the heat a bit so that all of the liquids are properly mixed together.

5. Add in the rest of the spices so that everything is the pan (except for the cheese and spaghetti of course). If you don't like it with a little kick, skip the red pepper flakes or use less.

6. Stir and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes.

7. Cook pasta according to box directions. It tastes better if you make the pasta fresh so don't cook too much in one go! You can always refrigerate the leftover sauce for another day.

8. Place drained pasta into a baking dish and spoon sauce over it. I use just enough to cover all of the pasta.