Turkey Jambalaya

This dish is flavorful! I actually halved the ingredients to make less and to also  turn down the heat a bit, which I’m glad I did cause it was FULL of flavor, the husband was in love after his first bite! If you like a good jambalaya, this is a much healthier version with only 336 calories per serving. By using turkey you save lots of calories then using other proteins, though you could definitely change this as to what you wanted!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1  half of a yellow onion, diced

3 teaspoons of garlic, if you are using already prepared garlic, if not 3 cloves mashed will work

1 half of a green bell pepper, chopped

1  half of a red bell pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon  paprika

1/2 teaspoon of  salt

1/2 teaspoon of oregano

1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper

1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup uncooked long-grain brown rice

2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1 tomatoes, diced I use a Roma

1 pound of ground turkey, cooked

6 oz turkey andouille sausage, sliced

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot  over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 6 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in bell peppers and next 5 ingredients; saute 1 minute.
2. Add the rice; saute 1 minute. Stir in broth and tomato; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30-40 minutes. Add turkey and sausage; cover and cook 10 minutes.

Adapted from Prevention RD. 

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Gooey Enchiladas

I saw this recipe in Parenting Magazine and put into my files, I’m glad I found it, because it’s just a different spin on enchiladas!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of garlic

1 can (14.5) ounces of diced tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon of coriander

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of oregano

Pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 pound ground turkey

1 can (15 ounces) of black beans, rinsed and drained

6 tortillas

1 1/4 cups of reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in pan. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer, but don’t allow garlic to brown. Add the tomatoes, coriander, cumin, oregano, and pepper; cook for a few minutes longer. The  sauce will be a bit chunky. Stir in cilantro.
2. Cook beef; drain fat and stir in beans. Warm the tortillas in the oven for about 5 minutes to make them easier to roll; remove. Spread 1/2 cup of cheese among tortillas. Fold over tortilla sides, place seam side down in the baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce on top and bake, uncovered for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle on remaining cheese and bake another 5 minutes more or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Rollantini

We eat a lot of chicken in our house and it’s always nice to switch up some recipes! I was in the mood for something totally different, so I decided to throw together this recipe!

 

Ingredients:

2 thin sliced chicken breast halves

4 slices of deli smoked turkey

2 slices of provolone cheese

4 large basil leaves

2 toothpicks

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread chicken cutlets on a cutting board, make sure they are thin.
2. Place 2 slices of smoked turkey on each piece of chicken. Top each slice with one slice of provolone cheese and 2 basil leaves. Roll up chicken to enclose filing, folding any overlapping edges of turkey over cheese. Secure closed with toothpicks. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken rolls and brown on all sides, turning about 4 minutes. Place rolls to a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Make sure you remove toothpicks before serving!

Enjoy!

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Sausage Manicotti

This version of baked pasta classic is rich and satisfying yet, easy to prepare. It also it’s a lightened up version, instead of using ricotta cheese, I used cottage cheese. It turned out just as yummy. The only difference is, is that the cottage cheese cooks it’s self away, so the shell it’s self isn’t as stuffed with cheese. I will definitely  make this recipe again.  This makes  4 manicotti and each manicotti has 204 calories.

Ingredients:

1 pound turkey sausage

2 cups (16 ounces) of cottage cheese

1 package (8 ounces) manicotti shells

1 jar (26 ounces) spaghetti sauce

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. First, bring a pot of water to a boil and boil manicotti till all dente. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sausage and cottage cheese. Stuff into manicotti shells. Place in greased 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Top with spaghetti sauce.
2. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until meat thermometer inside into center of a shell reads 165 degrees.
3. Uncover, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 8 to 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

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Meatball Stew

I love fall for two reasons, ok, well a few but these two are my favorites: the cooler temps and crock pot meals! We are going to start a new thing this fall in our house and have crock pot Thursday’s! So for our first crock pot meal of the fall, I found this recipe in the September 2009 issue of Family Circle. The original recipe called for ground beef, but I always substitute ground turkey for ground beef.  This recipe makes 4 servings.  It has 337 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 pound of ground turkey

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

3 tablespoons of plain bread crumbs

2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1/2 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of low sodium beef broth

1 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

1 bag (16 ounces) of baby carrots

1 medium size onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Directions:

1. Stir together egg, beef, onion, bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon of the parsley, the Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Form into 1 inch meatballs, makes about 20, set aside.
2. Stir together 1/4 cup of ketchup, 1/4 cup of broth and the vinegar. Place carrots and onion in the slower cooker and put meatballs on top. Drizzle with ketchup mixture.  Cook on high for 3 1/2 hours or on low for 5 hours.
3. Stir together remaining tablespoon of parsley, 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 tablespoon of broth and cornstarch. Gently stir into slow cooker and cook until thick about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Turkey T

Chris and I haven’t had turkey tetrazzini in a LONG time! In fact in the 5 years we’ve been together, we haven’t made it once. I found some turkey tenderloins on sale at the grocery store a few weeks ago and froze them with the intention to make something else with them, but I totally remembered about turkey T! Turkey T is such a comfort food and it’s quite easy to put together. There are so many variations of the recipe out there, but this recipe is a combination of what our mother’s used to make when they made turkey tetrazzini.  This recipe has about  339 calories per serving and makes  6 servings.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon of olive oil

10 ounces of white mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

4 tablespoons of flour

6 ounces of whole wheat egg noodles

1 can(14.5 ounces) of low sodium chicken broth

3/4 cup light cream

4 turkey tenderloins, cut into cubes

1 package(10 ounces) of peas

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large(deep) sauce pan over medium heat. Add mushrooms,turkey tenderloins and onions and sprinkle with 1/4 of salt and pepper. Cook for about 7 minutes or until onions and mushrooms are tender.
2. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Remove mushroom mixture from pot and set aside.
3. Return pot to medium high heat and add noodles, broth and light cream and 2 1/4 cups of water. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 12 minutes or until noodles are tender.
4. Stir in mushroom mixture, remaining salt and pepper, turkey and peas. Heat through and serve.

Printable Recipe

Enjoy!

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Turkey & Pepper Baked Ziti

Mmm, ziti is probably one of my favorite Italian dishes to make and to eat. I was in the mood for ziti but not just the ziti I usually make, which is just ground meat, ziti and some spices, this time I thought about just adding red peppers and ground turkey meat to it. It came out great! I also used whole wheat ziti for the first time(in the ziti dish itself, I typically use whole wheat/whole grain pasta) and it was just as tasty. This dish makes about 6 servings with about 505 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of whole wheat pasta

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 of pound of ground turkey meat/or turkey sausage

1 cup part skim ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

2 cup marinara sauce

Parsley, Crushed Red Pepper, Italian Seasoning and Basil to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta in  large pot of boiling water that is lightly salted. Cook pasta till al dente or the texture you like.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onion and ground turkey. Cook for about 10 minutes or until ground turkey is browned. Remove from heat.
3. Mix ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan and parsley in large bowl. At  this time, also add in Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper and basil Drain pasta; toss with cheese mixture, turkey mixture  and  1 cup marinara sauce.
4. Pour pasta mixture into a 2 quart shallow baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce on top sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake uncovered, 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!

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Stuffed Peppers with Orzo & Ground Turkey

Simple week night meals are the best! We loved stuffed peppers, we have them a few times during the summer months.  Typically I fill my stuffed peppers with brown rice and ground turkey, my mom’s recipe. This time though orzo was on sale at the grocery store so I picked up a box. I always like to have pasta around just in case it’s needed. I thought why not try to use it in the stuffed peppers instead of rice.  I liked this recipe as well. Chris definitely enjoyed my other recipe better, I think because it has more sauce in it. But I really enjoyed this recipe and will be making both kinds from now on! This made 3 servings, with about 325 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

3 medium sized peppers, your choice of color

3/8 cup of dried orzo

2 ounces of ground turkey

Half of onion chopped

1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper

Pinch of Italian seasoning

Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes

3/4 cup of tomato juice

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan cook orzo to al dente, drain and set aside.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
3. In  a large skillet cook ground turkey, onion and other seasonings. Remove from heat and drain fat. Stir in orzo and tomato sauce and mix well.
4. Cut the tops from peppers and remove the seeds. Spoon orzo mixture into pepper and bake for about 45 min or until pepper is tender.

Enjoy!

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Turkey Quinoa Alfredo

This was SO good! I’ve never used turkey with an Alfredo sauce ever.  I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out because there wasn’t much flavor added to it, but it was SO good.  This recipe makes 2 servings. Prep time is about 5 minutes.  It’s great for a week night meal because you just put it all in a casserole dish and pop it into the oven.  There are 442 calorie per serving.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of quinoa

1/2 cup jarred reduced fat Alfredo sauce

1/2 cup of kale, chopped

2 turkey cutlets

1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese about 1/8 cup,  you can make as cheesy as you want

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 2 1/2 quart baking dish with non stick cooking spray. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, stir together quinoa, 1 cup of water, Alfredo sauce and kale.  Pour into prepared dish.

3) Top quinoa mixture with turkey cutlets, spacing them apart, making sure they don’t touch. Sprinkle with grated

Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with pepper.

4) Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Remove the foil and continue to bake for 15 more minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes, sprinkle more mozzarella cheese if you would like on top.

Enjoy!

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5 Hour Bolognese Sauce

I’ve always make my own meat sauce for spaghetti.  I also make my own sauce for when we make our home made pizza, I do need to blog about that! But I have yet to tried a sauce that takes 5 hours to make.  It’s roughly about 45 minutes to an hour of prep time then you let it simmer on low for about 4-5 hours.  The particular recipe I was looking at to get an idea used a hearty red wine, but we didn’t have any in stock here, so I decided to use a White Zinfandel.  It gave it a different flavor I’m sure, but it still was very good.  This makes a lot, we were able to get 2 meals out of, 3 meals for Chris’s lunch and about a full half gallon size to freeze for a later date.

Ingredients:

1 large onion,  diced

4 cloves garlic

Extra-virgin olive oil, for the pan

Kosher salt

2 pounds ground turkey meat and 1 pound ground beef

2 cups tomato paste

2 cups hearty white zinfandel

1 bunch thyme

Pepper

Crushed Red Pepper, about a tablespoon(if you like spicy)

1 pound spaghetti

1/2 cup grated fresh mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1) In a food processor, puree onion and garlic into a coarse paste.

2) In a large pan over medium heat, coat pan with oil. Add the pureed veggies and season generously with salt/pepper/red pepper.

3) Bring the pan to a medium-high heat and cook until all the water has evaporated and they become nice and brown, stirring frequently, about 15 to 20 minutes.

4) Add the ground beef/turkey and season again generously with salt.  Brown the beef. Cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

5) Add the tomato paste and cook until brown about 4 to 5 minutes.

6) Add the white zinfandel. Cook until the wine has reduced by half, another 4 to 5 minutes.

7) Add water to the pan until the water is about 1 inch above the meat. Toss in the bundle of thyme and stir to combine everything. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally. As the water evaporates you will gradually need to add more, about 2 to 3 cups at a time. Don’t be shy about adding water during the cooking process, you can always cook it out.

9) Stir and taste the sauce often. Season with salt, if needed. Simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

10) Serve with some pasta and garlic bread  and don’t forget to add the fresh grated mozzerella!

Enjoy!

Adapted from Anne Burrell, Food Network.

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