Light Turkey-Stuffed Peppers

Posted by CK in couscous, easy, light, peppers, recipe, turkey

0 comments

Stuffed peppers. I always thought it was a very complex and long process to make. It just always looks so delicious and exotic in cookbooks, so I never thought I had the culinary prowess to come up with something so complex.

Last time I had my friend Annie over though, we decided to give it a shot. What's the worst thing that could've happened - except, you know, burning down the house? We substituted the traditional rice for couscous (because neither of us can cook rice properly. Guilty.), and added some vegetables to the mix.

Luckily for us, we didn't burn down my brand new condo and our dish turned out to be absolutely delectable and fairly easy to make! I would definitely file this under the "easy" category. PLUS, it's a great dish to please the crowds! Not sure what to cook your partner tonight but want to prepare a low-budget fancy date? Turkey-Stuffed Peppers! Having people over and not sure what to serve them? Turkey-Stuffed Peppers! Yes, this recipe is quite versatile!

Seriously, you won't regret it.

Ingredients (yields 4 portions):

• 2 large red peppers, halfed and cleaned out
• 1/2 cup couscous
• Half a pound of extra-lean ground turkey
• 1/2 large zucchini, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic (more or less, depending on your love for garlic)
• 2 tsp Italian herbs seasonning
• Grated cheese of your choice (we used Light cheddar)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water

Method:

1. Cook the couscous according to package instructions (I simply boil some water and pour it over the couscous in a bowl. Ready in 5 minutes!)
2. In the meantime, fry up your onions and garlic in olive oil until your onion starts becoming translucent.
3. Add your turkey to the pan and cook it completely.
4. Add the zucchini, the italian herbs, salt and pepper, and continue cooking for approximately 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomato paste and a tbsp of water, mix everything well. 
6. Once your meat mixture is ready, add it to your couscous and mix well.
7. Stuff your half peppers with your couscous/meat mixture and place them in a deep oven-proof dish.
8. Add about 1.5 tbsp of water to the bottom of your dish, cover with alluminum foil and place in pre-heated oven at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.
9. Remove the alluminum foil and top the peppers with cheese.
10. Place back in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Have some left over mixture? Freeze it and save it for your next event! 

Enjoy!

- CK

Leftover Recipe: Turkey Pot Pie

Posted by CK in leftover, pie, recipe, turkey

0 comments

This week end, A hosted his hockey team (and a few more friends) for our - now annual - Christmas potluck dinner. Everyone brought some amazing dishes to the table, meaning there was definitely enough food to fill up our 21 little gluttonous bellies! Among them, my mamma's turkey recipe was a big hit!

There was so much food however, that there was A LOT of turkey left over. As much as I love my turkey, there was no way I was going to finish the portion I took home with me (which was essentially half the turkey meat) - especially with C going back home for the holidays. That's why I decided to make turkey pot pies that I could freeze and eat when I have lost all my energy from eating too much over the Christmas break.

Using a filling I found on allrecipes.com, I made the most amazing turkey pot pie. Granted it's not the healthiest one (with close to 500 calories per serving - although it does contain some good veggies and lean meat), but it's definitely one that everyone could appreciate. For the crust, I used the dough I made for the spinach pies, which turned out to be more of a bread than a pie crust, but it still turned out delicious! :)

Here we go. For the filling of 2 pies (because the 1 dough recipe is enough for 2 pies):

• 1 dough recipe, or any pie crust recipe you prefer
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 small onions, minced
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 carrots, diced
• 4 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
• 6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 cups cooked turkey
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 pie shells

1. If you don't have already made dough/pie crust, make that first and set aside for an hour and a half (as per the recipe).
2. In the meantime, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat; add the onion, celery, carrots, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper. Cook and stir until the vegetables are soft. Stir in the chicken stock. Bring mixture to a boil. Stir in the potatoes, and cook until tender but still firm.
3. In a medium skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir in the turkey and flour. Add the milk, and heat through (yes, you've just created a turkey bechamel sauce. delish!). Stir the turkey mixture into the vegetable mixture, and cook until thickened and remove from heat.
4. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
5. Once your dough is ready, split it in 4 parts. Roll out 2 parts into bottom crusts and place them in your pie shells.
6. Pour the turkey mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Roll out the top crusts, and place on top of the filling. Flute edges, and make 4 slits in the top crust to let out steam.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue baking for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy your delicious pies or bring them over when you visit family and friends during the holiday season, along with a good bottle of Chardonnay! :)

Happy holidays everyone!

- CK

Lasagna Recipe from a Bride-to-Be

Posted by CK in healthy, lasagna, pasta, recipe, turkey

0 comments

One of my lady friends is getting married in a few months and her cooking is sure to please her husband-to-be! I've always wanted to try a lasagna but always hated the prospect of a very long preparation process. Lucky for me, her recipe makes cooking lasagna fun, healthy and faster than anticipated! :) Without further ado, please go to the store and get yourself:

- 3 1/2 tbsp of olive oil

- 2 packs of ground turkey

- 1/2 white of spanish onion (diced)

- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 large can of diced tomatoes
- 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp of Italian spices (unless your diced tomatoes already have Italian spices in them)
- 3-4 fresh basil leaves
- 1 small pack of sliced mushroom
- 2-3 handfulls of spinach

- 9 pieces of whole grain lasagna

- 1 full container of cottage cheese
- mozarella and parmesan cheese
- pepper to taste


1. Heat about 11/2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the packs of ground turkey, adding a little bit of pepper to taste


2. At the same time heat 2 tbsp olive oil to a large sauce pan and add 1/2 white of spanish onion (diced) and 2 or 3 finely chopped garlic cloves.

3. Once onions are brown, add 1 large can of diced tomatoes and 1 large can of crushed tomatoes (if you have the original diced tomatoes, add the Italian spices).

4. Add the fresh basil leafs, sliced.

5. Bring sauce to a boil and add turkey.
6. Separately, cook the small pack of sliced mushroom and the spinach on low heat in a medium sized covered frying pan. You can coat the pan with a small amount of olive oil to avoid sticking, but these veggies produce a lot of water when heated. Remove cover after 5 minutes. Cook until desired consistency.

7. Boil 9 pieces of whole grain lasagne (cooking an extra piece is not a bad idea)
8. Layer 3 pieces of lasagna over a thin coat of sauce. Over the paste, place a think layer of the meat sauce. Place 3 more pieces of lasagna over the sauce and top with the cottage cheese. Top the cottage cheese with the mushrooms and spinach. Place 3 last pieces of pasta and top with mozzarella and fresh grated parmesan.

9. Heat oven at 350 degrees and bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until cheese is golden and extra sauce evaporated.

Enjoy! It's absolutely fantastic!
 
- CK

Avocado and Turkey Quesadilla

Posted by CK in quesadilla, quick, recipe, turkey, vegetarian

0 comments

Sometimes my roommates and I don't have alot of time to cook, yet we still need something filling and nutritious. As such, we tried a variation of a recipe we found on SOS Cuisine, which turned out fantastic and fulfilled our hunger needs.  

What you'll need (yields 2 Quesadillas):

• 1 green pepper
• 1 avocado
• 4 tortillas (small size)
• 1 onion
• Turkey cold cuts (*optional if you want to make it a vegetarian recipe)
• cheese (whichever one you like, we used Mozarella cheese)
• 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1. Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.
2. Cut your pepper and your onion and sauté them in a skillet until the peppers start to darken just a little bit. (Note that you could also oven-roast your peppers instead)
3. Place 2 tortillas on a non-stick oven pan.
4. layer half your turkey, onion, pepper, and avocado on one tortilla and layer the rest on your second tortilla.
5. Cut your cheese into thin strips (or grate your cheese, whichever one you prefer) and top your vegetables.
6. Cover up the layers with a tortilla and put in the oven for 2 minutes on each side. Make sure to put another pan over your tortillas so that they dont flip up!
7. Take out and enjoy!

You can add any vegetables you like and make this recipe your own! :) Imagine this with some mushrooms and asparagus! yummy!

-CK

Mamma's Turkey Recipe

Posted by CK in peppers, recipe, turkey

0 comments

I know, I know...the holidays are over (boooo). Yet, I still crave some of the food I had over the holidays!! Having newly been introduced to the traditional Christmas dinner in the last two years by A, I had the desire to host one myself! That's why A and I invited his hockey team over for a delicious pot luck, which involved me cooking a turkey.

My mom's always been famous for her most delicious turkey. Never having cooked a turkey in my life, I decided to try and go ahead with her recipe and hoped to God that I wouldn't disappoint our guests! It turned out absolutely amazing and it was the simplest thing to make!! I cooked it the night before too so I wasn't in a rush to make it the evening of the party! Here's how:

Get:
- 3 large green bell peppers
- 4 large red bell peppers
- 6 large onions
- 2 tablespoons of margarine (or butter)
- salt and pepper
- 1 6 lb frozen turkey, with skin
- a dash of olive oil

1. First, get your frozen turkey the night before your party. We didn't think that it would take us forever to unfreeze it. So make sure you give yourself plenty of time to unfreeze your turkey. How I did it? I put my turkey in the sink and soaked it in cold water for 3 hours, changing the water every half hour.
2. While the turkey is busy unfreezing, preheat your oven at 400 degrees F. Then, chop your vegetables into small pieces (that takes a while, which also wasn't anticipated. So give yourself some time to do that). Once everything's cut, mix with the margarine, salt and pepper and put on the side.
3. Once the turkey is mostly unfrozen (it may still have be frozen a bit on the inside, but that doesn't matter much. As long as the outside is, that's the important part), take it out of the sink and use salt to "clean" your turkey. Basically simply rub alot of salt on your turkey, no rinsing.
4. Separate the skin from the meat with your hand without ripping the skin off. That's where you'll put the stuffing in your turkey.
5. Once separated, stuff the turkey with your bell pepper/onion mix. I used my hands because I thought it would be easier to get it in there as much as possible.
6. Stuff the turkey as much as you can. Once the skin is done stuffing, try stuffing the neck as much as you can. DON'T THROW LEFT OVER STUFFING JUST YET!
7. Put your turkey - breast up - in a roasting pan and add the left over stuffing to the pan. Add a dash of olive oil on top of the turkey.
8. Cover your pan and cook until the skin is golden (about 3 hours).
9. Take your turkey out, let it cool. While still in the pan, put it in your fridge. You'll finish the cooking the next day.
10. About 2 hours before your guests arrive, take your turkey and flip it onto it's breast. don't throw out the juice that's in the pan. You want the breast to soak in the juice, that's how it doesn't dry out. Once flipped, put it back in the oven for 2 hours.

By the time your guests arrive, your turkey should be done!! Flip it onto a serving plate and put on your table for everyone to admire!

Note: I think the fact that the turkey was still a little frozen on the inside helped keep it moist.

Who said that turkey is only for the holidays? ;)

What were some of your favorite recipes from the holidays?! :D

Enjoy and good luck!!

-CK