Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

I love stuffed peppers.  LOVE THEM.  But I hate the many steps involved in making them.  So, the other night, I decided to use mini-peppers and make an "unstuffed" pepper dish.  No stuffing is involved, so it cut down on the number of steps.  Also, whenever I make the stuffed variety I always up with more stuffing than peppers.  I never know what to do with the stuffing - do I bake it alongside the peppers, do I just save it as leftovers?  I usually end up baking it (because I like it a little crunchy!) and serving it alongside the peppers.

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef or turkey
2 C cooked brown rice
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
24-30 mini multi-colored sweet peppers, washed, tops removed and seeded

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Brown ground meat in skillet.  When done, combine the meat with the rice, diced tomatoes, about 3/4 of the jar of marinara sauce and the spices.  Stir to combine.  Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray and place the mini-peppers on the bottom of the dish.  Cover the peppers with the meat and rice mixture.  Add more marinara sauce on top of the meat and rice mixture if desired.  Bake in oven for about 25-30 mins or until the dish reaches your desired level of browning :)

AFC Note: You can use more or less rice depending how you like your meat to rice ratio.  Same thing with the sauce.  I love sauce, so I used an entire jar!

Turkey Kebabs

I am constantly looking for new recipes to try.  I look in magazines, I ask friends, I go to blogs, and I check out cookbooks from the library.  Do you do that?  It is kind of dangerous for me since there is a good chance that I may ruin the borrowed cookbook while I am cooking.  I am the type of cook who makes a mess wherever she goes - touches pages with wet and yucky hands, spills spices, splatters oil, etc.  So when I check out a cookbook from the library, I try to keep it on the opposite side of the kitchen.  It appears that this time, it worked!  The cookbook has survived without a burn or a smudge!

This recipe comes from "The Primal Blueprint Cookbook" by Mark Sisson.  It was a fun and easy recipe to make.  If you do not like cumin, I would skip this recipe or omit it!

Turkey Kebabs
adapted from "The Primal Blueprint Cookbook"

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs ground turkey breast
1 garlic cloves
1 T olive oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp or less cayenne pepper

2 T finely chopped parsley

1 T finely chopped mint

Instructions:

If you are using wooden skewers, soak them for about 15-20 mins to prevent burning.  Pre-heat your grill or skillet to med-high heat.  Spray grill or skillet with cooking spray.  Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Form elongated turkey meatballs with the mixture.  Thread the elongated meatballs onto the skewers and immediately place on the grill or skillet.  Cook for 6-8 mins and then flip to cook the other side for a similar amount of time.

Updated: I'm linking up at I Heart Crafty Things!

Unstuffed Cabbage

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  We had a great time hanging out with some friends, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and celebrating the Husband's birthday.  Thankfully I was pretty good with my eating habits this weekend.  I didn't even have cake for the Husband's birthday.  This is progress!

Last week I made this recipe on one of the coldest days.  It was perfect, because I was looking for comfort food, but really wanted to be good.  I found this recipe from Clean Eating Magazine, but tweaked it a little, and I think it came out great.  The Husband thought it had too much red pepper in it, but I liked the kick!

Unstuffed Cabbage
Inspired by Clean Eating Magazine's recipe for Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 C cooked bulgur
1 medium head green cabbage
1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef or chicken)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauce ingredients:
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
3 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Cook the bulgur according to the package.  In a large skillet over medium-hi heat, cook turkey until brown.  Add onions and cook for 3 more minutes or until onions are softened.  Add tomatoes, oregano, cinnamon and cayenne and saute for another couple of minutes.  Remove mixture from skillet and combine with the bulgur.  Use as much or as little bulgur as you like.  Season the mixture with salt and pepper if desired.

Meanwhile, core and slice the cabbage.  Place the cabbage on a microwave safe plate and microwave the cabbage in 30 sec. increments until slightly softened.  (It took me about 2 minutes).  Add the cooked cabbage to the turkey mixture and combine.

To make the sauce:  empty the canned tomatoes into a sauce pan and combine with remaining ingredients.  Add more tomatoes or vinegar as desired. Set over medium heat and allow it to heat through. 

To serve - divide the cabbage mixture among 4-6 plates and ladle sauce over each serving.  Alternatively, add sauce directly to cabbage mixture and then divide the mixture among 4-6 plate.  Enjoy!


Updated:  I am linking up here:

Farmer's Pie

Hey there!  Hope you had a great weekend.  I did, but I could use some more sleep.  I really do not like waking up when it is still dark outside.  So I am running about 30mins late this morning . . .

So you may remember that the Husband and I are trying to eat according to the Paleo Diet.  It is going okay.  Actually we are really good during the week, but the weekend is pretty hard.  We're still on the "transition" or "level 1" stage.  We won't ever get past that since it allows us to have 3 cheat meals.  I had sushi last week . . . yum!

But this "diet" has given me a reason to look up new recipes in new places.  I've been learning a lot and seeing a bunch of new stuff.  Lots of stuff doesn't look appetizing to me (beef heart skewers anyone?) and some stuff doesn't turn out so good.  But this recipes for Farmer's Pie came out great, and it is easy to make "Paleo" or "Non-Paleo".  The recipe below is for the Paleo version, but if you eat like a normal person, sub in potatoes for cauliflower!!

Farmer's Pie
Adapted from Paleo Comfort Foods

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
3-4   cloves fresh garlic, chopped
2  pounds ground turkey (or lean ground beef)
1 C onions chopped
2  cups carrots, peeled and sliced
1  T fresh rosemary, chopped fine
2  tsp dried thyme
1  small can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2  T balsamic vinegar
2  T Worcestershire sauce
4-6 C mashed cauliflower (or mashed potatoes)
  **for mashed cauliflower - cut cauliflower into florets and follow mashed potato recipe or see here

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat a large skillet over medium/medium-high heat. Add the 1 tablespoon of the oil and once hot add in the ground beef.  Add garlic. Cook until the meat is browned.

Remove the meat mixture from the pan, then add the onions, carrots, rosemary, and thyme to the pan. Cook until onions are translucent and carrots softened.

Add the meat mixture back into the pan, and stir in the tomato paste, balsamic, and Worcestershire and bring to a simmer. Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated off (especially if your tomatoes are really juicy).
Pour meat/vegetable mixture into a 9″ x 13″ baking pan, and with a rubber spatula spread a layer of the Mashed Cauliflower over the top, forming a solid layer of the mash.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the mashed cauliflower is slightly browned on top.  (**AFC note: my cauliflower never browned.  Or maybe it did just a little, but I am so used to topping mashed potatoes with cheese on Shepherd's Pie, that I am too used to bubbling browning cheese on top of potatoes to notice a little browned cauliflower . . . yum, cheese!)

P.S. I'm linking up to the blog hop at Serenity Now!

Salisbury Steaks

This is another meal that reminds me of what my mom cooked when I was growing up.  Except my mom would buy the frozen Salisbury steaks (sorry to rat you out mom!).  But they were so good.  I remember devouring them!

So when I saw a recipe for them in Better Homes, I knew I had to try it.  It calls for ground turkey, but I decided to do half ground turkey, half ground sirloin.  I did that for a few reasons: (1) I figured the turkey would be too dry by itself; and (2) I wanted to double the recipe and all I had was the ground turkey and the ground sirloin!

This recipe is awesome!  I mean really, I started to pick the mushrooms out of the sauce "just to taste" and it was down hill from there since I found myself stealing pieces of steak from my daughter's plate and taking spoonfuls of sauce out of the skillet.  I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if I licked my plate when I was done with the meal.  That's how much I enjoyed it.

Also, I was so excited about the meal that I forgot to take a picture of it plated.  So you will only see the final product in the skillet (and that picture was taken after we had eaten and I had started cleaning everything up!).

Salisbury Steaks
recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
Ingredients:
1lb uncooked ground turkey
1 envelope beef-flavored onion soup mix (half of a 2.2oz pkg)
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T butter
2 C sliced mushrooms
1/4 C reduced sodium chicken broth
1/4 C dry red wine (or chicken broth)
1/4 C tomato paste

Instructions:

• In a large bowl, combine the turkey, 2 T of soup mix, and 1 T of the Worcestershire sauce and mix well.  Shape mixture into 4 oval patties about 1/2 inch thick.
• In a large skillet cook patties in hot oil on med-high heat for 3 minutes or until browned, turning once.  Remove from skillet.
• In the hot skillet, cook the garlic in butter for 30 sec.  Add mushrooms.  Cook and stir for 5 mins or until tender.  Add broth, wine, tomato paste, remaining soup mix, and remaining Worcestershire sauce.  Stir, scraping up browned bits.  (AFC Note:  I like a less tomatoey sauce, so I added more chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce).
• Return patties to skillet, spoon sauce over patties.  Cover and cook on med-low heat about 8 mins or until done.

I served the steaks with the white bean mash as suggested by BHG (recipe here) and some roasted butternut squash.  PERFECTION!!!

Updated: I'm linking up to the blog hop at Happy Hour Projects!

Two Taco Recipes

I could have made two posts out of these recipes, but decided that two separate posts about tacos may be overkill.  But you do know I love Mexican food!

In an effort to make even more of the yummy corn tortillas seen here I decided to make even more tacos.  Both recipes include the standard cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.  But for variety, one recipe calls for ground turkey (I used ground turkey breast) and the other one uses meatless veggie crumbles.  However, let's get real - you can use ground beef (or ground turkey, or ground whatever) in either or both recipes!

For both recipes, I made Taco Seasoning I from Bill Echols' recipe on allrecipes.com.  If you haven't tried that recipe, I highly recommend it!  Otherwise, you can use a pre-made seasoning mix from the store.

all my taco seasoning ingredients just before blending!

Let's do the turkey tacos first, followed by the meatless crumbles.  Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite tacos are!

Ground Turkey Tacos
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 small can tomato sauce
3 tsp taco seasoning

Instructions:
In large skillet sprayed with olive oil spray brown the turkey together with onion.  Add 3/4 can of the tomato sauce and the taco seasoning.  Stir to combine and simmer for 5 mins.  Use cooked turkey mixture in tacos, adding your favorite toppings.

turkey tacos with a side of black beans and rice

Veggie Crumble Tacos
Ingredients:
1 bag of veggie crumbles
4-6oz. broth (you can use veggie, chicken or beef)
3 tsp. taco seasoning

Instructions:
Add veggie crumbles, broth and taco seasoning to a skillet.  Stir to combine.  Cook until heated through.  Add to taco shells along with favorite toppings.

veggie crumble tacos with fresh salsa

Oh - does anyone have a good recipe for black beans?  If so, please share!  I love black beans, but every time I cook them they are so bland!  Please help me.

Burgers and Fries

I really love a good burger.  What is even better is a good burger with GREAT fries!  The Husband and I have been trying to get to Five Guys forever, but just haven't gotten there.  We plan to go this Friday for dinner.  Hopefully it works out this time!

In the meantime, I made my Oregano Turkey Burgers with sweet potato fries.  And a side of green beans!  If you have the turkey defrosted, this is a pretty quick meal.  The longest part is the prepping of the fries.  So if you are really short on time, you can just buy a frozen bag of sweet potato fries (I recommend Alexia Sweet Potato Fries!! So yummy).

Oregano Turkey Burgers:
Ground Turkey
dried parsley
dried oregano
garlic powder

 - I didn't put measurements because you can make as much or as little as you want and season it to your liking.  I love oregano, so I pour it on.  If you don't have garlic powder, you can use some garlic salt (but adjust accordingly).  I season so every spoonful of turkey has some green in it:

I used 2.3lbs turkey meat and was able to get 11 burgers.  I grilled 6 and froze the remaining.  We added Swiss cheese to the grilled burgers, and we loved that!  We've tried mozzarella, but like Swiss the best.

For the sweet potato fries, I just cut the potatoes into thick match sticks, drizzled with olive oil and some salt and cooked until just brown at 350F. 

It took me a couple attempts at making fries to master the "match stick cut".  So in case you are still trying to figure it out, this is what I do:

1. After peeling the potatoes, I cut the potatoes in half (I use one potato per person, and that gives us leftovers)

2. Cut the halves in half so you now have quarters

3. Slice the quarters.  Depending on the size of the quarter, I usually get 3-4 slices

4. Flip the slice so the skinned side is perpendicular to the counter.  Then slice the potato several times to form thick match sticks

Ta-da!  Fries!

If you like them spicy, you can season them with chili powder, cayenne pepper and a little salt.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake. 

Enjoy!