Great idea, Theresa! I’ll have to look again and see if my local store is now carrying turkey pepperoni in the mini size – definitely grab that if you can find it! You know I always love to save a step and make dinner prep faster and easier!! 😉 ~Shelley

You definitely can. We always reach for whole-wheat or whole-grain pastas for the nutrition boost, but “regular” will work, too. The only thing is that your bake time will probably need to be adjusted slightly, or end up toward the lower, 30-minute end of the time range (since most white pastas have somewhat shorter cook times that whole-grain brands). I’d recommend checking for doneness a little earlier, to make sure your pasta doesn’t over-cook. Enjoy!! Hope you love this pasta casserole as much as my family does! 😀 ~Shelley

Hi Sophie! One of the most marvelous things about this recipe is that you don’t even have to precook the pasta! It just cooks merrily along in the oven while the whole casserole bakes! I’ve updated the recipe card to make this point a little more clear for other readers – thanks so much for asking! Hope you love this recipe as much as my family does! 😀 ~Shelley

Hi Pilar! Thanks for the question! We’re fortunate that we don’t have any dairy allergies in my family, so I almost always use dairy-based cheese in my cooking. As a result, I really have no experience with dairy-free cheese, and certainly don’t feel qualified to suggest which brands of dairy-free cheese might pass muster with a 7-year-old. I’d really like to help, though! I did a bit of checking around, and it looks like some brands of dairy-free cheese you might try include Daiya, Follow Your Heart, and Teese. If you’re specifically looking just to avoid the lactose, Go Veggie has lactose-free cheese options (as well as soy-free and vegan cheese), and numerous other companies like Cabot also offer lactose-free varieties. Also, I found a really interesting list of dairy-free cheese recipes – not brands that you’d buy at the store, but recipes for making your own. If you’re constantly looking for better dairy-free options, I thought that might interest you HERE. I hope these ideas help! ~Shelley