Maple BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joe's

I was recently reading someone's Tasty Tuesday type list and stumbled upon this. It sounded great so I couldn't wait to try it! Normally, I'd serve it on some Sandwich thins or homemade hamburger buns, BUT a wonderful lady from church made us some homemade bread(which I need to get the recipe for now) so I served it on that!

Maple BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joe's-shared from Rachael Ray
1 pkg ground turkey(usually around 20 oz)
1 red pepper, diced
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup maple syrup(the real stuff!)
2 tbsp tamari(or 3 tbsp soy sauce)
8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar(approx.)

Season turkey with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Brown turkey until its no longer pink while breaking it up. Drain. Add in peppers, onion, and garlic and cook for about 5 mins until tender. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Allow to simmer for about 5 mins until heated through.(Taste when done to check for seasoning). Serve over rolls or bread.

**These were really good and tasty! I was glad I only put in the 2 tbsp tamari as I think anymore it would have been to powerful! It was both sweet and salty and we loved it!

Turkey Salisbury Steak and Cheesy Spinach Orzo

I really do love my Salisbury steak recipe, but I thought this sounded like a tasty twist on a classic meal. I can't say that it is "healthier" because I used the 93% lean ground turkey, but if you use all white meat it would be that much healthier.

Turkey Salisbury Steak-shared from Apples to Zucchini
1 lb(or 20 oz) ground turkey or chicken
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
3 tbsp water
1 onion, diced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, minced(omitted)
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tbsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Gravy:(this is a half recipe, still made more than I needed)
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp cornstarch
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If using ground chicken breast, make sure to grease the pan or line it with parchment paper.

Mix together the water and flax seed and set aside to get thick...I missed this step and I'm not sure what its actually supposed to do, so you don't have to.

Mix all the ingredients together until fully mixed in. Form into thin patties and place in a 9x13 pan or a jelly roll type pan.(I got about 6-7 patties out of the 20 oz of meat). Bake for 20-30 mins until golden brown and firm.

While the patties are cooking, place ingredient for gravy in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and allow it to thicken. Pour over patties.

**I really liked these, almost better than the beef version! The gravy on its own wasn't anything to write home about, but with the patties it worked very well! They were very flavorful and pretty quick to make!

Cheesy Spinach Orzo-How Sweet It Is

This was originally a 3 cheese orzo, but I only used 2! It was pretty simple to make and really tasty!

1 cup orzo

1-2 tsp olive oil

1 bag baby spinach

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup cheddar cheese(I used extra sharp)

Boil water and cook orzo according to the package directions.

Place oil oil in large frying pan and heat up. Add in onion and saute until onion is soft about 5 minutes. Add in garlic and spinach, cook until spinach wilts.(I did place a lid on this to help speed it up.) Drain pasta and add to spinach and onion. Stir in cheese until its melted.

**This was really good and its just about the only way K will eat spinach...it can't be plain spinach, at least cooked! He will do a spinach salad, and that has to be baby spinach! The boys looked at me like I had 6 heads but perhaps maybe someday they will try it! You couldn't even taste the spinach because the cheese was very flavorful!

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Cheesy Chimichangas

I always see people talk about chimichangas, but I've never actually had one. Then I saw this recipe so I wanted to see what it was all about. The only problem...was that it reminded me of a burrito or an enchilada. So maybe perhaps these weren't "authentic" and I'm missing something, but either way they were still pretty tasty!

Cheesy Chimichangas-shared from Debbi Does Dinner Healthy
1 lb ground turkey
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion diced
1 1/2 tbsp cumin
1 4 oz can diced green chilis(omitted)
2 tsp oregano
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8-10 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brown turkey and onions. Drain.  Add in spices, tomatoes, sauce and chilis. Let simmer for 10 mins or until thickened. Turn off heat and stir in cheese until melted.

Place a 1/4-1/2 cup of mixture down the center of tortilla. Roll up and place in baking dish. Continue until all filling/tortillas are used. Spray tops with cooking spray and bake for 25 mins.

**These were pretty good, but nothing super special to me! K liked them, but they bordered too spicy for me. I was glad that I didn't have that extra can of chilis as it was spicy enough! I felt like it was missing something...but not sure what!

Creamy Brown and Wild Rice Turkey Soup

I made homemade turkey stock yesterday and from then on all I wanted was some soup...but I know K is getting souped out. Although, I'm not sure why, but today I wasn't feeling well so I made this soup for lunch as I had most of the ingredients on hand and if K doesn't want any...well that is fine too!

Creamy Brown and Wild Rice Turkey Soup-adapted from What's Megan Making?
1 onion diced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1/4 cup butter
1/2-3/4 cup flour
1.5 cups chopped turkey
2 pkg brown and wild rice with veggies(bird's eye steamfresh)
6 cups turkey broth
2 cups milk
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp salt(only if you use homemade stock, otherwise adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp dried parsley
*this also called for diced celery and mushrooms, which i didn't have but you can add

Melt butter in a large stock pot. Add in carrots and onion. Cook for about 5-8 mins. Stir in 1/2 cup flour and let cook for about 1-2 mins. Slowly stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 8 mins. Add in spices, turkey, and rice mix and stir until heated through. Add in milk.(I also whisked in 1/4 cup more flour into the milk to help thicken it more) Simmer for another 10 mins or so.

**This soup smelled AMAZING while it was cooking. It tasted AMAZING as well! It was pretty quick and simple to make as the rice was already frozen and pretty much ready to go! This is perfect for a cold snowy day!

Rustic Turkey Tart...or pie

*This was NOT photographing well...but I promise it is good! I saw this tart in our local grocery store's magazine and really wanted to try it. So I put it on the menu after Thanksgiving, but some of the people that were here don't like blue cheese and the rest of us were sick so it was put off for a bit.

I did omit the pecans, used fresh cranberries, apples instead of pears, and made it more into a pie than a tart.

Rustic Turkey Tart-from Big Y
1 pie crust
2 cups chopped cooked turkey
4 oz crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup chopped cranberries
2 apples, chopped
1/4 cup pecans, chopped(omitted)
1 cup light sour cream
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Make pie crust and place in pie plate. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and place inside pie shell. Bake for 20-25 mins until heated through and pie crust is done.

**This was really good...if you like blue cheese! It has a sweet and savory taste and is a different take on a turkey pie.

Apple Braised Chicken Breast

A friend on Facebook wrote she was making this for dinner...and in honor of having a billion apples I decided to try it! The original recipe did call for turkey thighs and I used bone in chicken breast, if I liked dark meat, I would probably go with that next time!

And speaking of facebook...did you know you can now find me there? check it out and become a fan...er like me!

Apple Braised Chicken Breast-shared from Food&Wine
1 tbsp olive oil
2 turkey thighs(I did use 4 chicken breast)
salt and pepper
2 large shallots, thinly sliced OR 1 small onion and 2 tsp minced garlic
4 apples, peeled, quartered, cored
2 cups apple cidek
2 cups of broth
2 tsp cider vinegar(optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In an oven proof pot, heat oil.Season both sides of the meat. Add in chicken/turkey skin side down into pot. Cook for about 8 mins until skin is golden and crisp. Remove meat from pan. Add in shallots or garlic/onion. Cook for about 5 mins or until tender.

Add in apples, meat, broth, and cider. Bring to a boil, cover and place in oven for 1.5 hours. Uncover and cook for 30 more minutes.

Remove meat from pan. Skim fat and add in vinegar. Slice meat and serve with apples and pan sauce.

**You can cook the apples for a bit before adding in the broth. I did not as I didn't want mush apples and they cooked fine. I think by using the breast it did dry out, I would highly recommend using a dark piece of meat. It did smell amazing!! K really enjoyed it and the flavors were great, just the meat seemed a bit dry to me. Although my friend did like it and she used the dark meat. The recipe does say it will taste better the next day, and it did! I used the leftover sauce/apples to make an apple cheddar soup, which will be posted soon! This can easily be finished off in the slow cooker!

Leftover Turkey Bake

This is essentially homemade stuffing with cranberries and turkey already mixed in. It was pretty simple to prepare once you have the bread made. I love Thanksgiving dinner so this was just about all the essentials in one casserole!

Leftover Turkey Bake-adapted from Taste of Home
6 cups cubed whole wheat french bread(or any bread)
2-3 cups cooked, cubed, turkey
1 onion, diced
3-4 stalks celery, sliced
2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
2 tsp poultry seasoning
pepper to taste

Saute onions and celery for about 5 mins. Add in turkey. Pour in broth,cranberries, and seasonings. Stir in bread until completely moistened. Place in 350 degree oven for 20-30 mins until heated through.

**My mom thought something was missing, so I was a bit hesitant to try it. But I found that it was quite tasty(a bit on the salty side, but that was because I used bouillion). I think serving it with cranberry sauce would be a nice

Italian Wedding Soup-updated!

We love this soup...but I've never made it from scratch before. While I was reading my daily addiction of blogs, I found a recipe for one. This is what we are having for dinner tonight, hopefully its good because I will also be feeding my in laws with it. It will be served with homemade breadsticks! YUM!  This is linked over at my friend Amy's blog Home Cookin' Healtified where it is Slow Cooker Sunday!

Italian Wedding Soup- adapted from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Meatballs:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese,grated
palmful of italian seasoning and garlic powder
1 tsp parsley
pepper to taste

Combine ingredients and shape into small balls. Cook in pan until browned.

Soup:
4 cups of chicken broth
baby carrots, chopped to equal 1-2 cups
3 celery stalks, sliced
1 onion, diced
4 cups of water
2 bouillon cubes
9-10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed, strained
1/4 cup small pasta(ill be using alphabet noodles)
1 egg(optional)
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese(optional)

Place broth, water, bouillon, and veggies in 5.5 quart slower cooker. Cook on low 8 hrs or high 4 hrs or until veggies are tender. 30 mins before serving add in pasta, spinach, and meatballs. Stir. Dish into bowls and serve with Garlic breadsticks.

**This was a delicious and easy soup...ok so the meatballs to me were a bit labor intensive, but sometimes I just do not have the patience for meatballs, but it was so worth it in the end. Next time I'll pop them in the oven to cook vs. cooking them on the stove top. Just takes less effort...
The pasta did take longer than 30 mins to cook, so depending on what kind of pasta you use, I'd drop it in an hour before, if possible. You could also cook it on the stove top and then add it in. I also ended up using 2/3 of of the pasta and could probably really use more!

Kid Help: Measure/stir/pour, and if you are lucky they might like to roll the meatballs. A made a heartshaped one!

Enjoy!

also linked to What's in your crockpot?