Who doesn’t love pasta? If you are anything like me you love pasta, but your waistline doesn’t agree with you. I love that brands have come out with a wide variety of vegetable pastas. Most of these pastas are packed with protein and additional nutrients that you don’t typically find in regular pasta. If you haven’t tried any of these pastas yet…give them a try. Add this turkey and asparagus green lentil pasta to your meal plan this week! Especially if you meal prep or counting macros. You will love how this recipe reheats and how easy it is to adjust to meet your macro goals.
Turkey and Asparagus Green Lentil Pasta
Ingredients
- 12 oz Turkey Breast Strips Olive Oil & Herbs Marinated
- 226 g Green Lentil Pasta (1 box)
- 100 g Red Onion diced, (½ medium onion)
- 240 g Canned Tomatos with Chilies (1 15oz can)
- 250 g Asparagus chopped (1 bundle)
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Heat a large saute pan to medium heat.
- Once the pan is hot add the turkey brest strips to the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes tossing often to prevent buring.
- While the turkey is cooking, bring a medium pot with 5 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling add the pasta to the pot. Season the water with a few dashes of salt. Cook the pasta in the boiling water for 8 minutes.
- While the pasta is cooking and once the turkey has been cooking for 3-5 minutes, add the red onions to the pan and toss with the turkey, cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- After 2 minutes add the asparagus and canned tomatoes to the pan. Toss together and cover with the lid, cook for 5 minutes.
- By now the pasta should be done. Strain the pasta, reserving about 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add the pasta and the reserved pasta water to the pan with the turkey, asparagus, and tomatoes. Continue to cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. At this point the turkey will be cooked thru, and the asparagus will be done!
- Serve and enjoy. Or portion out into your meal prep containiners.
Nutrition
Question:
- Are you trying to get better at meal planning?
- Sick of eating the same boring recipes all the time?
- Are you having trouble finding recipes for meal prep?
- Or are you counting macros or calories?
If you are bored of eating the same recipes every week and answered yes to any of these question, then you are going to want to check out my notes below. Tips on how you can incorporate this turkey and asparagus green lentil pasta into your meal plan and meal prep. If you are counting macros, I have also included notes on how you can easily adjust the protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.
NOTES FOR MEAL PLANNING:
Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. In fact, meal planning can be fun when you are provided with easy new recipes each week. Meal Planning can also help save money, prevent food waste, and save you time.
If you love pasta but looking for something a little healthier, you are going to love including this recipe made from green lentil pasta into your meal plan.
NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:
This turkey and asparagus green lentil pasta is a wonderful recipe for meal prepping. You can store each serving in the fridge for up to 1 week. Typically I would say you could store a pasta dish in the freezer, but the green lentil pasta in this recipe does not freeze very well.
When its time to reheat:
- Heat by wrapping the dish in a paper towel to hold the moisture in. Microwave for 60-90 seconds. Stirring halfway thru.
NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:
PROTEIN:
The main source of protein in this recipe is the turkey, making this recipe super easy to increase or decrease the amount of protein per serving.
- Every 1 ounce of turkey has 5.8 grams of protein.
The turkey strips I used in this recipe does contain a decent amount of fat, 3.5g per every one ounce of turkey. Therefore, when making adjustments you will want to take this into account.
However, there are many different brands and cuts of turkey in most grocery stores, meaning you will want pay attention to the packaging. If buying basic turkey breasts, unmarinated you could reduce the fat to also zero.
CARBOHYDRATE:
The pasta and the asparagus is what provides most of the carbohydrates in this dish. However, asparagus really doesn’t have many carbs, leaving the main ingredient that can be adjusted being the pasta.
- If you are looking to increase or decrease the amount of carbs changing the amount of pasta would be the way to go. For every 25 grams (about 1/4 cup dry pasta) of pasta there is 16.1 grams of carbs.
FAT:
The fat in this recipe comes mainly from the turkey.
- For every 1 ounce of this oil and herb marinated turkey there is 3.5 grams of fat.
As mentioned above, changing the amount of turkey breast strips in this recipe will not only adjust the fat but also the protein.
Although, when counting macros that makes this the best thing about this recipe. There are many different types of turkey breast, marinated and unmarinated that you can choose to use, allowing you to pack as much or as little protein/fat into this recipe as you want.
When making adjustments to the macros in this turkey and asparagus green lentil pasta, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.
Do you love lentil pasta? If so check out this:
Cheese Chicken and Broccoli Penne Pasta featuring red lentil pasta.