White Bean and Vegetable Gnocchi

It's been a busy summer and at one point in an attempt to keep my sanity while preventing us from ordering take-out, I put together some freezer meals to be enjoyed at a later time. This recipe worked well as a freezer meal, but was also easy to make, so it would make a nice week night dinner as well.

Recipe from Fast Top Ten.

Ingredients:

-1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided

-1 16-ounce package shelf-stable gnocchi

-1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

-4 cloves garlic, minced

-6 cups chopped chard leaves, (about 1 small bunch) or spinach

-1 15-ounce can Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes

-1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed

-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

-1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

-1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add gnocchi and cook, stirring often, until plumped and starting to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add the teaspoon of olive oil and onion to the pan and cook, stirring, over medium heat, for 2 minutes. Stir in garlic continue sauteing until the onion is translucent. Next add the chard and cook, stirring, until starting to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, beans and pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the gnocchi.

Transfer to a 8x8 pan. Top with the mozzarella and Parmesan. **At this point, if you'd like this to be a freezer meal, let the dish cool and then cover and pop into the freezer, you'll need to defrost it in the fridge prior to baking.**

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbling.

I love how easy this was to make. You could even double the recipe if you wanted to have additional leftovers. All of the ingredients went well together and were easy to find, the most expensive ingredient was the gnocchi and even that wasn't too pricey. I was really happy with how this turned out and it was nice to defrost this while I was at work so that I could bake it when I was done. It made dinner and clean up a breeze.