Sneaky Mommy Secrets: Skillet Wagon Wheel Pasta

I am so excited. I got a new cookbook in the mail. I could seriously sit and pour over a cookbook for hours (or squeeze in 5-10 minutes as often as I can). I may have even taken a cookbook to read while waiting for my son at Kindermusik. I love cookbooks and cooking magazines. My new love is America's Test Kitchen which is a great, informational TV show on PBS. You can visit the website, too. America's Test Kitchen is also responsible for the magazines Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. Their mission is to create and test recipes until they perfect them and then share the results. They have scientists on staff to analyze ingredients and explain why certain reactions occur and therefore why your bread turns out flat, for example. The inner science geek in me thinks that is awesome. Their job is to test and re-test and re-test recipes until they get it just right. How cool is that? Well, as you can tell, I am pretty excited that America's Test Kitchen came out with a Healthy Family Cookbook. I have tested three recipes so far and have not been disappointed.

First, I wanted to share this easy, one-skillet recipe for a healthy, kid-friendly meal. The recipe calls for turkey or chicken italian sausage, spinach, peas and fun wagon wheel pasta. It had a great flavor and the best part is that I was able to cook it all in one large skillet. I also thought that incorporating the spinach with the pasta was a great way to include wilted spinach without setting out a serving of pure wilted spinach which may not look too appetizing for grown ups much less kiddos. I used a seasoned chicken sausage as pictured below, but the recipe calls for sweet, Italian sausage. You could change the recipe easily just by changing the type of sausage and style of pasta that you use. I do think that I will add a few more peas the next time because I really like their sweetness with the other flavors in this dish. It was also really good reheated for lunch the next day. I do wish that some of the healthier pastas, like Ronzoni Smart Taste, came in fun shapes like this.