Tequila Turkey

Back in the day, I made just about everything posted by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. It's all completely non-compliant for me, but if you feel the need for a cheat day, make her steak with blue cheese cream sauce. I made it for myself on my birthday, and it was amazing.

I used to make this dish regularly in its original form with chicken. Now, I substitute turkey and omit the hot peppers, but it still tastes great.

Tequila Lime Turkey (adapted from Tasty Kitchen)

Ingredients

• 3 whole limes, juiced 
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped 
• 1/2 cup tequila (I used Jose Cuervo)
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil 
• 4-6 boneless, skinless turkey breast fillets

Directions

1. Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a food processor (or chop what needs chopping by hand) and marinade the turkey breasts overnight.
2. When you're ready to cook, fire up your grill and let em rip. And by that, I mean cook for 10 minutes per side.
3. Serve with salsa, pico de gallo, and/or mixed salad. 

Are They Real?

Of course they are!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been asked by a few people whether I actually make the food on my blog. Since I haven't taken many pictures, it's easy to assume I would just adapt things I've seen around, and then post them.

I make everything you see on this blog. Often, I make it more than once to try different variations and get things just right. This is why I sometimes go for long periods without posting - because I'm in the midst of recipe development. My process is to try everything at the same time and come up with a gem of goodness that works its way into my rotation. I don't stick with one thing and keep at it until it's perfect. That would be boring.

I have some more adaptations to post in the coming days that I have already drafted, and then you'll start to see more things with pictures. I have a small digital camera in my kitchen, and I've been using it while making dinner most nights. It's been pretty fun for me, and you'll all be able to see what I do, step by step.

Turkey Burgers with Pear Salad

Are you ready for... the Umami Burger?!

It's a meat burger with beautiful Vietnamese flavours. The original recipe can be found here, and I've modified it o make it more BTD friendly. This is not a 100% compliant burger because of the fish sauce (anchovies), but it just tastes so darn good that I can overlook the small deviation from the diet.

As for the original recipe from Bodyrock.tv, I'm not keen on sauces with meat, so I made a pear fruit salad, which really involved grilling pears and pineapple and adding them to a salad of tossed greens and some walnuts.

Ingredients - Burger

• 2 lbs ground turkey (mixed breast and thigh)
• 1-1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp honey or agave
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions - Burger

1. Mix all ingredients together and let sit for at least 20 mins. The longer, the better.
2. Form into patties and grill. I grill mine for about 10 mins per side.
3. Serve with salad. What salad? This salad!

Ingredients - Salad

•  2 pears, chopped into large chunks
• 1/2 a pineapple, chopped into large chunks
• small handful of basil and parsley, minced
• drizzle of olive oil
• skewers for grilling

Directions - salad

1.  Combine all ingredients together (except skewers) and let sit for a few minutes.
2. Thread the fruit onto skewers and cook on the grill with your burgers.
3. Combine the grilled fruit with mixed greens, lemon juice and olive oil. Top with walnuts for some crunch. 

Indian Dish

Or, Dahl done another way. The original recipe here called for chickpeas (Garbanzo beans), which I can't eat, so I substituted lentils. I have a had huge success making Dahl, so I used the spice mix from this dish with the technique of making Red Lentil Dahl, and a beautiful new recipe was born!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 onion, diced 
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 average size broccoli, cut into florets
• 1/4 pineapple, cut into small pieces 
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 
• 1 ¼ cup red lentils 
• 4 cups vegetable stock or water
• Juice of 1 lime 
• 2 Bay Leaves 
• 1 cup chopped cilantro (for garnish) 
• Plain yogurt or sour cream (for garnish)

• 3 tbsp of Mustard Seeds 
• 1 tsp ground Cumin 
• 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds 
• 1 tsp Turmeric Powder 
• 1 tsp of Ground Cinnamon 

Directions

1. Toast the spices (not the cinnamon) in a large skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet, cool, and then crush into a fine powder with the cinnamon. I used my spice grinder in this case, and it worked great.
2. Heat the oil in the same large skillet over medium heat, sauté the onions for 3-4 min or until translucent. 
3. Add garlic and ginger and sauté another 3-4 minutes. Add spices and salt and sauté 3-4 minutes more. 
4. Add lentils, vegetable stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 20 min. 
5. Add broccoli and pineapple and stir to combine. Add lime juice and some water if it looks too thick. 
6. Simmer 5 minutes more or until lentils are tender and broccoli has softened, but still has some bite and colour. Garnish with cilantro and some plain yogurt or sour cream. 

Veggie Quiche

Oh how I love me some eggs! Quiche, frittata, omelette - whatever you like, it's eggs cooked with savory goodness, and it's awesome for any meal of the day.

This quiche doesn't have a crust. The original calls for baking the quiche in one big pan, which works, but I wanted cute little quiches, so I put mine in muffin tins. Not a bad plan, and they looked cute, but I destroyed my muffin tins because I forgot to grease them first. So word to the wise, grease your bakeware!

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 onion, fine dice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 large handfuls of fresh spinach or kale (if using kale, cut into small pieces and remove the ribs)
• olive oil for sauteing and greasing
• salt
• mixed herbs of your choice (parsley, oregano, etc)
• feta cheese, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat  your oven to 400F.
2. Saute onion, garlic, and broccoli over medium heat for a few minutes with a pinch of salt, just to get them a little soft.
3. If using kale, add it with the other veggies, if using spinach, wait until the veggies are soft, turn the heat off, and add it at the end, mixing until it's wilted.
4. While the veggies are doing their thing, scramble the eggs with a splash of water (makes them fluffy), a pinch of salt, and your chopped herbs.
5. Grease the muffin tins, then all the veggies to the tins first. Fill the tins about 1/2 way up. I got about 8 standard-size muffin tins filled with veggies.
6. Add the eggs! Just pour them in until they come close to the top, but not all the way up. They will puff up while cooking.
7. Sprinkle each one with a little feta cheese.
8. Pop in the oven for about 15 mins, or until the tops are brown.

Curried Turkey Broccoli Soup

So I was really skeptical about this one, but since it combines a bunch of things I love, I decided to give it a shot.

You know what? It's good! Really good!

And a very pretty colour, don't you agree?

Ingredients

• 1 cup of soy milk
• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• about 1/2 lb of chopped turkey breasts
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• olive oil (about two table spoons)
• 1 cup of crushed walnuts
• 1 medium size bowl of grated carrots
• 1 teaspoon of curry
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• salt

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. When it's good and hot, add the turkey and some salt and sear the outside. We're looking to get it brown, not necessarily cook it all the way through. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes.
2. Remove the turkey to a plate and set aside.
3. In the same skillet, add onion and garlic with a pinch of salt. Let everything cook down for about 5 minutes, then add spices. Let the spices cook for about a minute, then add the broccoli and mix. Let that cook for a minute or two, then add the soy milk.
4. Reduce heat to low and let everything cook uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Turn off the heat and grab your immersion blender and blend til everything is nice and, well, blended. It will look like a mint green smoothie.
6. Add the meat back in and turn the heat back on. Cook on medium for another 5-10 minutes to get everything nicely mixed. Add the lemon juice to give it some zip and check for seasonings.
7. Serve with grated carrots and walnuts for garnish.

Yes, that's a giant bag of red lentils in the background. I lurve me some lentils. :)

Portobello Pizza

I've made stuffed mushroom caps before, but this was much better. The only reason it is remotely in the realm of "pizza" is because of the shape: this is wheat-free, and very pretty when served with a salad.

Ingredients

• 1 package large portobello mushrooms (mine had about 8 caps)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 handfuls of spinach or kale (I used spinach) 
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 leek, fine dice
• 1 onion, fine dice
• fresh basil
• fresh parsley
• winter and summer savory 
• olive oil
• salt
• feta cheese, crumbled 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. 
2. Clean the mushroom caps by scraping the ribs out with a spoon and discarding the stems. Put them on a cookie sheet.
3. Heat up a large skillet and add some olive oil. Saute the onion, leek and garlic with a good pinch of salt until they are soft, about 8 mins.
4. Give the herbs a rough chop and add to the pan, letting the mixture cook for another minute.
5. Turn off the heat and add the spinach and lemon. The residual heat will wilt the spinach. Keep mixing until everything is well incorporated.
6. Spoon some of the mix into each mushroom cap. I used a tablespoon measure and got about 2 Tbsp per cap, give or take. Crumble some feta cheese on each cap and pop in the oven to brown for about 10 minutes.
7. Serve with salad for a lovely summer meal.