It'll make a turd.

Gotta love my husbands family. That was one of their sayings, and unfortunately, it's made it into our vocab as well. When on earth would you say this, you ask? Well, after any magnificent meal of course!

Tonight's dinner was actually awesome. It rated the 'It'll make a turd' comment. Here, let me show you. The dinner, not the turd.

Ya, it wasn't supposed to look like Mickey Mouse...that just happened. What is this mess you ask? It's a lasagna-esque casserole. That serving is on a large dinner plate. It's a HUGE portion. In fact, it weighed in at 1 pound 8-7/8 ounces! Points? 7!! Even the big man was full. I made the garlic toast out of whole wheat sandwich thins and olive oil and they were superb! The other side was prettier...wish I'd turned one of them over for the pic.

I used the TVP that Heather (praying for your hubby to get another job every day) talked about. You couldn't tell it wasn't ground beef. I swear. I can't wait to try it in something Mexican as I'm sure you won't be able to tell in that either. The amount of TVP that equals a pound of ground beef is only 5 points! It was 2 cups of stuff.

I used 3 servings of Ronzoni Smart Pasta rotini. Yum.

I shredded up 2 zucchini's and diced a red pepper and an onion and cooked those until soft. I then added a can of Hunt's garlic and herb spaghetti sauce. Ya, I usually make my own. I didn't today. I cooked all that for half an hour or so and then took the immersion blender (boat motor) to it. I don't like chunks. After the sauce was all smooth and cooked, I added the TVP and the pasta. Made one layer in the bottom of a cake pan and then spread on a whole bag of fat free mozzarella cheese and 2 T Parmesan. This was where the fat free ricotta and egg beater mixture was going to go, but the ricotta was spoiled. Didn't miss it at all. Topped that with the remaining pasta stuff (pan was pretty full), 2 more T of Parmesan, and baked it about half an hour. A whole quarter of the cake pan (yes a 10X13 one) was only 7 points. I had half a serving for 3 points and my garlic bread and salad and I'm satisfied. Papa ate the whole serving and he's satisfied.

TVP's maiden voyage got an A+.

:-)