Turkey Day BBQ Pizza

Is everyone stuffed? Are you seriously sick and tired of turkey?? Well I've got a fabulous solution for you. Pulled turkey BBQ pizza! You can make this with any leftover turkey you have or if you want just used torn up sliced cold cuts.


Truth be told... I'm not a turkey fan... thankfully my cousin also made a ham!! In all reality though I could have gotten by just fine with everything else there was to eat. We started with fruit salad, followed by homemade ravioli, then cream of chicken soup, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fried cauliflower, eggplant, cranberry dressing, normal stuffing, pineapple stuffing (this stuff is bright yellow and horrible for you... but I LOVE it)... and so many more things... who ever needs the turkey!! And then there was dessert, pumpkin pie, 2 kinds of apple pie, crumb cake, pumpkin chocolate cheesecake, brandied pears... is anyone else getting full just listening to this? To put it simply it was delicious!! I'll try to wrangle a picture out of my family so you can see the setup... a giant square of cobbled together tables made to fit all 23 of us... YIKES!!!

So how did you all celebrate?

Turkey BBQ Pizza (the easy way)
by steph chows

1 premade crust (sure you can make it yourself but this is the easy version)
Dinosaur BBQ sauce (or whatever your favorite is)
part skim mozzarella
turkey (cooked and torn into small pieces)
chopped onion (if you want to get fancy caramelize them first)

Layer sauce onto the crust and then cover with torn turkey, sprinkle on cheese and then finish with some onions. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

CHOW!!!!

World Pasta Day

Did you know that today is world pasta day? Seriously! Of course I had to take part and help celebrate :)


John and I had turkey lasagna last night with mushrooms and zucchini mixed in, perfect! This is my go to recipe I made up forever ago. Perfect if you ask me :)


So what will you be making to celebrate?
Need some ideas? How about some homemade pumpkin gnocchi!?

The comfort of Lasagna

The temperature has been down right chilly here, and the snow keeps on blowing... my nice professional long black wool coat has been put back into the closet and replaced with my crazy warm BRIGHT RED ski coat... not so subtle I know... but darn warm. A hat is always required, and gloves are of course a must. *sigh* I am far from being any form of stylish this time of year. Yeah... you should have realized I'm one of those comfort over style girls... what shoes am I wearing you may ask? Certainly not a cute little trendy pair of "boots"... I use quotes because really most of these "boots" wouldn't last 5 seconds in this weather... I've got on sh*tkicker boots for sure... and they keep my feet happy and warm :)

I digress... either way you come from style wise, this lasagna will warm you up just right for dinner. You can make a batch, eat half, and freeze the other half, it keeps great, and packs up perfect for lunch time as well... although you might want to pack it up in a larger container than this one...



Turkey and Spinach Lasagna (or Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna for the veggies)
by steph chows

In a large pan with a little olive oil brown up
1 lb 99% lean ground turkey (or to make it vegetarian friendly, 1 lb of chopped mushrooms)

Once cooked through add in
1-2 cups frozen spinach
Set aside

In a medium bowl mix together
15 once container part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup lower fat parmigiana cheese
1/3 cup skim milk
1/2 cup freshly chopped flat leave parsley
1 cup fat free mozzarella shredded
salt and pepper to taste

You will also need:
26 once jar diavola tomato sauce (or other spicy sauce)
1/2 cup part skim mozzarella shredded (use this as the top layer... it melts better)
whole wheat lasagna noodles

First pour a little sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Top off with a layer of whole wheat lasagna noodles. Then add half of your turkey spinach mixture. Next spread a 1/3 of your sauce over top. Then do a layer of your ricotta mixture. Now do your next layer of noodles going in the opposite direction (if you went long wise first, go across the short way now) this helps hold everything together better when you slice it up! Then put the remainder of your turkey/ 1/3 of the sauce and remainder of the ricotta on top. Put on one more layer of noodles and sauce, and top with your park skim cheese!

Bake at 350 for around 45 minutes.


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Big sauce night

Awhile back John and unofficially made sunday "big sauce night" basically we'd have some kind of pasta with red sauce. We got out of the habit for awhile but we brought it back last night with a bang!! It was a beautiful day here, the perfect kind for raking leaves. Crisp blue skies, a slight chill in the air, beautiful. Last night the menu was thin spaghetti with turkey meatballs. I've taken a recipe that was originally from my Aunt and switched it up a bit, I LOVE these meatballs, perfectly garlicky and tender, what more could you ask for??


Turkey Meatballs (adapted from Aunt Carols recipe)
1 lb. ground 99% fat free turkey (Aunt Carol uses... beef or a combination of beef, veal and pork)
1/2 cup grated cheese (Parmesan, Romano or a combination of these) (I used part skim)
1/2 cup panko (Aunt Carol uses Italian flavored breadcrumbs)
1 egg
1 medium onion, chopped or diced fine
3 or 4 good size garlic cloves,put through a garlic press or diced very fine
1 rounded tablespoon (about) finely minced parsley
Salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
(Taste the mixture before adding salt. The cheese and breadcrumbs contain salt)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (I added these to keep the moisture level up since we got rid of a lot of the fat by using the lean turkey)

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. If mixture is a little dry, add some water, a little at a time, until proper consistency is reached. Roll into meatballs, fry lightly on each side in a small amount of olive oil (I used olive oil in a mister spray bottle). When almost all the way cooked through, add spaghetti sauce and cover to steam cook them until done.

Note from Aunt Carol: You can double, triple, etc. this recipe. Also, I find that the beef, veal and pork combination make a softer meatball. Hope you like them!

Spinach Feta Burgers

While Maria was here she made me some of her famous spinach feta turkey burgers! Totally tasty!!! You could put these in a sandwich but we enjoyed them straight up with some brussel sprout chips! YUM!

all I have to say is ... YUM!

Maria's Turkey Burger

In a large sauce pan brown garlic and onion in a little olive oil, then add spinach, cook until wilted. Set aside in a large bowl and let cool
drizzle olive oil
1 small onion diced
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 package baby spinach

Then toss the following into the cooled spinach mixture
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 cup feta cheese

Gently mix and then form into burgers. Refrigerate for 20 minutes (this helps them hold together when you grill them) and then cook on the grill until no longer pink in the middle.

CHOW

Healthy Turkey Meatballs

Even though it's summer time sometimes all I want is a BIG bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. If you go to some Italian places they will give you a delicious HUGE portion floating with oil... If you come to my house you'll get a delicious flavorful bowl of YUM! I'll have to write another day about making pasta, it is much easier then you think but definitely takes some time. I didn't have that kind of time this weekend so I used some box whole wheat spaghetti for this recipe. Nice quick and healthy! The meatballs come from my Aunt Carols recipe. Aunt Carol makes AMAZING food! I'm always trying to steal recipes from her. Since John doesn't eat red meat so I've adapted her recipe a bit to use lean 99% fat free turkey meat but keep the nice juicy flavors and textures. Onto the turkey meatballs!! Italian

Turkey Meatballs (adapted from Aunt Carols recipe)
1 lb. ground 99% fat free turkey (Aunt Carol uses... beef or a combination of beef, veal and pork)
1/2 cup grated cheese (Parmesan, Romano or a combination of these) (I used part skim)
1/2 cup Italian flavored breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 medium onion, chopped or diced fine
3 or 4 good size garlic cloves,put through a garlic press or diced very fine
1 rounded tablespoon (about) finely minced parsley
Salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
(Taste the mixture before adding salt. The cheese and breadcrumbs contain salt)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (I added these to keep the moisture level up since we got rid of a lot of the fat by using the lean turkey)

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. If mixture is a little dry, add some water, a little at a time, until proper consistency is reached. Roll into meatballs, fry lightly on each side in a small amount of olive oil (I used olive oil in a mister spray bottle). When almost all the way cooked through, add spaghetti sauce and cover to steam cook them until done.

Note from Aunt Carol: You can double, triple, etc. this recipe. Also, I find that the beef, veal and pork combination make a softer meatball. Hope you like them!

I cheated and used boxed whole wheat pasta (I like Ronzoni) and Wegmans Diavola sauce, it's an amazing spicy sauce and if you have Wegmans near you TOTALLY GET SOME!!!! (Don't however get Wegmans whole wheat pasta... kinda tastes like cardboard haha) Super fast healthy turkey meatballs, enjoy!

How to make fresh homemade pasta will come another day...

Chow!

john's version with shredded mozzerella and parmasian on top

You can also use this recipe and add it as a meat layer in lasagna! YUM!

Faster then fast food

Ok so you work a 12 hour shift (like my awesome roommate who works in the NICU go steph!!) or just a normal 8 hour day (like me)... either way the last thing some people want to think about it cooking... so you start thinking about going to one of the evil fast food places... DON'T DO IT!! With very little thinking ahead you can make a much healthier option at home.

I always keep the freezer stocked with some whole wheat bread or rolls that I froze for such emergency occasions. I also make sure to keep a package of frozen Jennie-O LEAN turkey burgers. Make sure they are the lean ones... the normal ones have a ton of fat in them (17 grams vrs 9 gms). These little babies go straight from the freezer into a lightly sprayed pan 3 minutes a side and you are DONE!

So while the burger is cooking toss a roll or slices of bread from the freezer into the toaster, then top it with the burger, a little salsa or ketchup and you are done. If you have some on hand go for the gold with some lettuce and tomato, mushrooms, or a slice of cheese. But these burgers just with ketchup are super flavorful and will help get you through that burger craving. So don't stop at fast food! Keep driving and cook up a quick turkey burger and enjoy!

Chow!