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. 

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. 

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.