Rush-Hour Gourmet

Diet is as much what you do eat as what you don't eat.

Your goal should be a "diet" you can live with for a lifetime.

To that end, making healthy food choices is the focus of the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Women: The Complete Guide to Women's Health and Wellness at Every Stage of Life (Wiley, $24.95).

Rita Redberg, cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, gives the health advice and wellness tips. The Betty Crocker Kitchens provided the recipes.

This one holds the line on calories, fat and cholesterol, while providing 26 grams of protein and 15 percent of a woman's daily calcium and iron requirements per serving.

Use the baking time to toss a salad, set the table and relax.

Makes 5 servings

15 jumbo pasta shells

1/2 pound lean ground turkey

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1 cup fat-free cottage cheese

1 egg or 2 egg whites

2 cups tomato pasta sauce

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package, omitting salt.

2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch nonstick skillet on medium heat, combine and cook the turkey, Italian seasoning, fennel seed and pepper, stirring often, until meat is no longer pink, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to a bowl.

3. In same pan, stir-cook the onion, garlic and mushrooms until tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in the turkey mixture, cottage cheese and egg.

4. Spray a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon a generous tablespoon of turkey-cheese mixture into each shell. Put filled shells in baking dish. Spoon pasta sauce on top.

5. Cover with foil. Bake until hot, 20 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Per serving: 370 calories, 26 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams sugar, 10 grams fat, 80 milligrams cholesterol, 810 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.