One and Only

I've never been a fan of ground turkey.

There, I said it.  It's just not as tasty as ground beef.  Sure, it's better for your health but turkey meatloaf is icky, and don't even get me started on turkey meatballs.  Turkey meatballs with tomato sauce are just plain said.

However, with that being said, I was pleasantly surprised last week with I found this recipe on Pinterest for Thai Turkey Burgers with Broccoli Slaw.  With the right veggies and herbs, these were fantastic.  Garlic, ginger, cilantro....all good stuff.  It made 6 or 7 patties and I had the rest of them as the week went on, over a little rice or quinoa with a smear of hoisin  sauce on top.  I'd certainly make them again.  The slaw, well, it was so-so.  I appreciated the flavors but after the first serving it got a bit mushy in the fridge so I threw it out.

So there you go, Ground turkey, for turning me into a believer.

Eat Your Veggies!!

We're always looking for new, innovative ways to get more fruits and veggies.  OK.....we're always looking for ways to make them palatable and not eat as many carbs.  Brian and I are total carb lovers.
The first one was my idea:  baked zucchini parmesan.  And by "my" idea, I mean that I found it on Pinterest and decided to make it one night.  It was quite easy, and fresh too.  Served with some marinated chicken and a little penne.

I love to test-drive cookbooks before buying them, because it stinks to buy a book, like one or two recipes and despise the rest.  This is where the library really comes in handy.  I brought home a Good Housekeeping Book of comfort foods that are 400 calories or less.  These crockpot pulled pork sandwiches came out of it, as well as the recipe for "Honeyed radishes and turnips."  Normally I don't like turnip.  But this was surprisingly sweet and delicious!  I think it would also go well with kielbasa and a scoop of mashed potato.  

Best Ever Chicken Thighs

Allow me to introduce you to some of the BEST chicken thighs I've ever had!!

Brown Sugar and Mustard Chicken Thighs and Sweet Potatoes.  

Here's the link to the recipe.

Hooray for awesome Pinterest finds!

Only one issue:  I really need to learn to read the recipe before putting it on the weekday menu.  This was an oven recipe, with almost an hour of baking time.  That being said, it was worth it!  Not too bad in calories and delicious to boot.  

Quinoa Cakes

That's right....quinoa cakes.  Not like a sweet birthday cake, but a savory one for breakfast.  

I had pinned a recipe on my "Operation Healthy" pinterest board some time ago for cheesy quinoa cakes.  Since I had this in mind for breakfast, I omitted the lemon-garlic aioli.  Though I would like to try that next time!  I was at a conference last week and it might've been just the jump-start I needed to eat and be healthier.  One of the other RSC's gave me some tips on getting  more protein, especially at breakfast.  So I gave these a whirl!

Couple of things:  first of all, quinoa is messy.  And unlike making a patty with ground beef, it's sticky and falls apart easily.  I had to rinse my hands several times and there was cooked quinoa all over the counter when I was done.  Secondly, when the recipe says "Cook five minutes on each side," DO IT!  Don't just say "oh, these are vegetarian so they should be ok.  I have a whole bowl of screwed-up quinoa cake in the fridge.

This was delicious this morning with a fried egg on top.  And I wasn't hungry til lunch!  (Though I had a "Be Kind" bar for snack, which was equally delightful.)  

A Cheesy Day

Today's recipes are courtesy of my trolling around on Pinterest.  Cheesy Potato Soup and Spinach, Chicken and Pasta Casserole.

First up:  the soup.  The first instruction is to cook a pound of diced bacon.  OH YEAH!!!  The chopping was almost theraputic today, onions, celery and garlic and then, potato all having a turn on the cutting board.  Brian got a new peeler set for Christmas, and I didn't realize until today just how DULL our old one is!    It took forever to cook the potatoes because I didn't cut them up small enough, making our lunch a very quick one at that because we had movie plans.  It was delicious though, and there's enough for leftovers AND the freezer.  Hooray!

The casserole was good, but a bit of a pain to make.  The only reason it was a pain was our lack of planning, though.  Brian browned red onion in the oven while I defrosted chicken and frozen spinach.  And I'm making a decision:  no more frozen spinach in casseroles.  Or maybe at all:  why would you put yourself through squeezing all the moisture out of it with paper towels if you don't have to?  Peeling chopped spinach out of a paper towel is tedious, next time I'll just wilt some fresh spinach in a skillet and add it later.  The cheesy part of this casserole that I liked best was adding 8 oz of chive and onion cream cheese to the pasta, chicken and spinach.  It melted beautifully and combined with a can of diced Italian-style tomatoes to make a thick "sauce."  And the mozzarella cheese melted on the top was pretty fantastic, too.

Hawaiian Chicken

Back so soon, you say?  We haven't moved yet.  it's been quite a stressful week with the house, but we're feeling much better about everything than we did a week ago.  We've also agreed that we are super-sick of takeout and blah food.  So, despite most of our kitchen being packed up, we made Hawaiian Chicken, courtesy of Pinterest.

It was incredible!  Though I do need to start reading recipes better and not discover that something that I want to make in the next half hour or so needs at least two hours of marinating.

Hawaiian chicken breasts, jasmine rice with saffron and peas, roasted asparagus and grilled fresh pineapple. Mmmmm.....real food hasn't tasted this good in a while!

Smothered in Love

While perusing Pinterest for recipe ideas, I came across one for Smothered Hamburger Steaks.  The thing that caught my eye was that the author said that this recipe is kind of a "blue plate special" so that pretty much sealed the deal:  I had to make it!  And again....anytime there's a ground beef recipe slightly above the norm, color me interested.

This was a quickly put together meal on a crazy Saturday.  I bought groceries, Hubby and I carried them inside and I pretty much started cooking right away.  The meal was nothing fancy but tasted like true comfort food.  Just hamburger patties mixed with onion soup mix, then left to stew and cook in a brown gravy made with cream of mushroom soup and packet gravy mix.  I know...holy sodium!  I rarely cook this way because it benefits nobody in my home.  But once in a while rules are for breaking....and when it's this delicious, it's worth it!

For kid appeal, I served it with egg noodles and left the sauce off the boys' hamburger steaks.  They picked at it, but didn't balk at the peas on their plates (or try them, but the no yelling was nice)  and did eat some hamburger.  Everyone wins last night!

Day 24: Back to "Normal"

Feeling much better today.  I finally felt like eating, so I made something special.

It turns out that leftover steak tips from the 99 make for excellent steak and eggs on a Sunday morning.

What was supposed to be for dinner last night turned into today's lunch, since the salmon was defrosted in the fridge.  This is the kind of meal that's nice to make when I'm eating it alone, because I'm the only person in the house that will eat it:

Caribbean jerk-seasoned salmon over black beans and rice, topped with fresh mango salsa and avocado!  Another recipe that I found on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try.

OMG!!!  The huge burst of flavor in this was incredible!  The salmon was cooked perfectly and not as spicy as expected.  The spice rib had chili powder, curry, cinnamon, cumin, allspice and cayenne, so you can see why I might have expected heavy heat.  The salsa was so fresh tasting, and not much to it:  fresh mango, red onion, avocado, sea salt and a few squeezes of fresh lime juice.  I felt like I should be sitting at a picnic table on the beach eating this.  I loved it, and am excited for the leftovers at work tomorrow.

When Brian and Will got home from their Philly adventures, we had tacos.  Scratch that.  Brian and I had tacos, kids had hot dogs.  Typical.  :)