If you’ve ever watched the Rachel Ray show “30 Minute Meals”, you know that many of her recipes can easily be modified to be gluten-free. There have been a few I’ve seen that are gluten-free without modifications and Rachel often mentions she uses a gluten-free chicken, beef or vegetable stock in her dishes. I think her new Stock-in-a-box products are labeled gluten-free but haven’t verified that yet since I have never seen them and the information doesn’t seem to be on the Rachel Ray website.
The other night, I realized I was overstocked on Italian red sauce, Classic Four Cheese in particular, as it was on sale at Super Target for less than $2 a jar recently. I also came across half a box of Ancient Harvest elbow pasta in the pantry and had ground turkey in the fridge. My dinner experiment didn’t begin as an effort to create a 30-minute meal – it just ended up turning out that way.
I browned the pound of ground turkey and added a little Alchemy Spice Italian Blend seasoning and kosher salt to it. While the meat was cooking, I boiled water for the pasta and cooked it for about 10 minutes as I like it more done than it gets when following the instructions on the box. When the pasta was ready, I drained it and set it aside. When the turkey was cooked through, I added most of the jar of Classico pasta sauce to it. Then I dumped the pasta into the skillet and stirred everything together and cooked for another five minutes.
The whole dish took about 25 minutes to make from start to finish. It wasn’t really a complete meal so I made green beans and a salad to round things out. The meat and pasta dish was unusually good considering I made it on the fly and we’d never tried that flavor of pasta sauce before. In fact, the Four Cheese is without question the best I’ve sampled from the Classico line. Any gluten-free pasta sauce can be used in this dish or you could make sauce from scratch, of course.
According to the company’s website, all of the red and white pasta sauces from Classico are presently gluten-free and are labeled as such. There is even a $1 off coupon you can download and print on the website right now. They retail for around $2 (or slightly more) here so using a coupon gives you about ½ off the regular retail price. Personally, I don’t download coupons from companies that ask for personal information in order to do so. Luckily, the Classico sauces are very reasonably priced and are sometimes offered at Publix on their 2-for-1 deal.
I spread a few apricots preserves over the top and sat down to enjoy my newfound love. These bagels were just as good, if not better than I had imagined. There were plenty of raisins throughout the bagel with a touch of cinnamon taste in the background. I would say that they could maybe use a little more cinnamon, but I tend to like it more than most people do, so I can always add more at home. Udi’s has another hit with these bagels!
My entrée was very good and flavorful, but the soup was the star of the show for me. The next time I go, I’ll probably order a Caesar salad (sans croutons) and soup and call it a day. My husband ordered the Italian Pot Roast which was gluten-free and I tasted it. He loved it and I did not. I don’t like pot roast with a tomato flavor, but for those who do; this dish is a good option. The meat was super tender just as pot roast should be.
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