Taco Bake

This recipe intrigued me. As I have said before, I LOVE anything Mexican. I just can't get enough of it. So when I saw this recipe I knew we needed to make it. I pushed around the menu for the week and fit this one in even though I had to make a special trip to the store to pick up a few things! I have made a couple of changes of my own. I don't usually use packaged seasoning but we had this party at work a while ago and I bought about 10 packets too many of the fajita seasoning and have been slowly using it up. (I mix it with light sour cream and salsa to make a dip if you are looking for a quick ap.) As always, when you are baking pasta make sure you cook to al dente. In this case I boiled the pasta for 6 minutes. I did use about a 1/2 cup of the pasta water to add a little bit more sauce to the casserole. I think it was needed but you may not. We were able to divide this into two dishes and froze one for later.

Taco Bake

1 lbs. ground turkey
1/2 t evoo
1 medium onion, diced
1 package of taco seasoning (I used fajita seasoning)
2 cans of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
1 box small shell shaped pasta
8 oz. neufchatel cream cheese, softened
1/2 C light sour cream
1 C extra sharp Cheddar cheese
salt and fresh ground pepper

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add evoo to pan. Add turkey and onion and cook until turkey begins to brown. Add taco seasoning and tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes. Cook pasta shells in large pot of boiling salted water. (Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.) Pasta should still be hard and not cooked through otherwise it will get really mushy when you bake. Mix softened cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl and set aside. Spray a 9 x 13 casserole pan with oil. (We divided into two pans.) Mix warm pasta into cream cheese mixture and gently stir to combine. Pour pasta mixture into prepared pan and top with turkey and tomatoes. Add reserved pasta water if you feel that it is too dry. Sprinkle cheese over the top and bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove top and continue to bake until cheese is lightly browned.