Aussie Turkey

There is a honey mustard chicken dish that I love making but Philip isn't too fond of it. This recipe for Aussie Chicken, which is a copycat of Outback Steakhouse's version, looks just like my dish but is much more man friendly because it adds bacon, mayonaise and cheese. For Michaela, my little meat hater, I shredded the turkey after it was cooked and added it to her mashed potatoes along with some corn.

Ingredients
4 turkey tenders
8 slices bacon, cooked and cut in half
1/4 cup mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoon mayonaisse
1/2 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 cup cheddar cheese

Directions
Mix honey, mustard, mayonaise, and onion flakes in a bowl. Place the turkey in a 8x8 casserole dish that has been lightly coated with cooking spray. Cover with the honey mustard mix and top with bacon and cheese. Bake in a 350 degree for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Notes
*The original recipe adds mushrooms. I didn't have any, but next time I would definitely try this.

Salmon Sticks

Looking for a quick Friday Lenten meal that is a bit more complex than grilled cheese sandwiches, but still something my family would enjoy, I came across this recipe for salmon fish sticks. Philip ate seconds and Michaela ate almost two, which is way more than she usually eats for dinner, so it was definitely a success.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/2 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons honey

2 medium skinless salmon fillets

Directions

Mix bread crumbs, spices, flaxseed and Parmesan together in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk egg and honey together. Cut salmon into sticks of your desired size. Dip the salmon into the egg mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture. Lay out on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray and bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Notes

*Although we enjoyed these, both Philip and I thought they could be better. Perhaps next time I would pulse the bread crumbs in a food processor so that they coated the fish more evenly, or maybe I would use molasses instead of honey. If you experiment with this recipe with success, let me know so that I can try out your version!

Moroccan Chicken and Date Pastilla

Every month my Mom's Club hosts a potluck cooking club with various themes. I knew as soon as I heard that this month's theme was International Foods that I wanted to make something Moroccan. Have I ever had Moroccan food? No. In fact I had no idea if Moroccan food was even good, the name just popped into my head and I couldn't think of anything else. I googled Moroccan food (how would we survive without Google?!?) and found this dish that sounded oh so yummy and relatively kid friendly. I don't know why, but I have a thing for dishes that mix the savory and the sweet, and boy does this fit the bill. I realllly enjoyed this, and the other mommies seemed to also. Michaela didn't eat any because there was chocolate mousse and whipped cream in the room, which completely clouded her desire to eat anything else. I have a feeling that she would enjoy this, so I'll have to try feeding her the leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon + 1 pinch turmeric
2 lbs chicken breast
2 cups chicken stock
3 eggs
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped coarsley
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
1/4 cup parsley, minced
3/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
Salt and pepper to taste
6 sheets phyllo dough
olive oil
powdered sugar and cinnamon

Directions
Saute onions in a bit of olive oil for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add garlic and spices and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add chicken and chicken stock. Cook for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and shred. Return to the pan along with the eggs, dates, raisins, cilantro, parsley, salt and pepper. Incorporate all the ingredients together.

Prepare your phyllo dough on a flat work surface. Lay out one sheet and brush with olive oil until the whole sheet is moistened. Lay another sheet tilted 45 degrees on top of the first and brush with olive oil. Repeat with 4 more sheets (6 total) tilting each 45 degrees from the previous one. Lay the phyllo dough in a 9 inch springform pan and fill with the chicken mixture. Fold the overhanging dough over the top to seal the pie. Brush olive oil on the top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until brown. When cooled, top with powdered sugar and cinnamon and serve.

Notes
*To toast the almonds, spread them in a single layer on a baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden. You can use untoasted almonds, but toasting them releases their flavor.
*If you don't have a springform pan, a regular pie pan would be fine, you would just have to scoop out the servings.
*If you are using a larger pan (I used a 10 inch), your phyllo dough won't close over the top. Simply prepare another 6 pieces of dough as above and cover the top, tucking in the extra around the sides of the bottom crust.
*The original recipe calls for saffron, but this is not an ingredient readily available in my area. If you are using saffron, use a pinch in place of the extra pinch of tumeric.
*Tumeric stains! I didn't wipe up the juice from the chicken that fell on my counter until several hours later, and by then it had already left quite a stain. I managed to remove most of it with the magic eraser, but please be careful with this.

Mardi Gras Meal - Turkey Jambalaya & Cranberries Jubilee

In college, Philip and I went to a church on campus that used to feed the students dinner after every Sunday evening Mass. Every year on the Sunday before Lent began, a certain parishioner used to make a delicious Mardi Gras dinner complete with Jambalaya and flaming Cherries Jubilee. This was one of Philip's favorite meals of the year, so since I happened to have turkey tenders and sausage in the freezer this year, I decided I would attempt to recreate that meal. The recipes these are based on can be found here and here. I didn't have cherries but I did have cranberries. I figured it was similar enough so I used those instead. I also tried to whip up some ice cream with Michaela using these instructions, but it didn't really turn out. There were some small chunk of ice cream, so I think it would have if we had shaken longer. Oh well, we enjoyed our ice cream soup! Also, since Michaela is not a huge fan of soups, I shredded some of the chicken and turkey and put it in a tortilla, along with some of the rice and some shredded cheese. She loved her jambalaya quesadilla!


Turkey Jambalaya
Ingredients
1/2 onion, diced finely
1 lb Turkey tenders, diced
1lb turkey sausage, diced and casings removed
1/2 red, yellow, and green bell pepper each, finely diced
1 jar salsa
1 can tomatoes, diced
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 1/2 c rice


Directions


Saute onions in a bit of olive oil until translucent. Add chicken to the pan and brown. Add sausage and cook thoroughly. Add bell peppers, salsa, tomatoes, chicken broth & spices and simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions. When cooked, add rice to the turkey mixture and serve.


Cranberries Jubilee
Ingredients
1 cup cranberries
1/4 cup juice from jar of maraschino cherries
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 cup brandy
vanilla ice cream

Directions
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Add water and juice a little at a time and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Add cranberries and cook 3-5 more minutes or until soft, stirring constantly. Pour into a flame-proof dish. Add brandy to the top and set on fire. Before serving, blow out the flames and pour over vanilla ice cream.

Real World Wednesday - Chicken Soup with Rice

This is my staple dish whenever I have a leftover turkey or chicken carcass. What I really call it is Carcass Soup, but that doesn't sound very appetizing. If I start this in the morning after breakfast, it is the perfect amount of time to have it finished for dinner. What a perfect meal for a cold day!

Ingredients

Chicken carcass

1 cup rice (I use a wild rice blend)

1 cup carrots, diced

1 cup spinach, torn into small pieces

Directions

Place carcass in a crockpot and cover with water. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or until meat is falling off the bones. Pour through sieve into a bowl and remove all skin, bones and cartilage from the broth, leaving only the meat. Return the broth and meat to the crockpot. Add rice, carrots, spinach and any other desired vegetables. Cook on high for another 3-4 hours.

Zuppa Toscana

I've been trying to find a good copycat recipe of my favorite Olive Garden soup for awhile now. This recipe is adapted from Annie's Eats and Copykat Recipes. Although it's been awhile since I've had this at the restaurant, I thought it tasted exactly the same as I remembered. So creamy and delicious! Philip thought it was a little bland but said he would enjoy eating it over and over again. Michaela ate the potato bits and tried to eat the liquid, but it's still a little hard for her. Considering how easy this was, this is definitely being added to my rotation of dinner regulars.

Ingredients

3 links sausage, cooked & crumbled

1/4 cup onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup white wine

2 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

2 potatoes, diced

1 cup kale, chopped

4 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled (optional)

1 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Saute the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil until onion is translucent. Add the white wine and swirl it around a bit to deglaze the pan. Add the chicken broth, water, and potatoes. Simmer about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add the kale and cook until soft. Add the remaining ingredients and serve immediately.

Notes

• I don't think it matters too much what type of wine you use. I used a fruity Pinot Grigio, but I'm guessing a dry wine would work well too.
• I'm guessing this could be adapted fairly easily to the crockpot. If I were to try it, I would saute the onions and garlic, then brown the sausage in the same pan. Then I would put all the ingredients in the crockpot except the cream and cook on low for 3-4 hours, adding the cream right before serving. If anyone tries it this way, please let me know in the comments!

Real World Wednesday - Baked Potato Bar

Back in my working days, when I wouldn't get home until 7 at night, I used to make a potato bar for dinner quite often. I hadn't made this in awhile but remembered about it last week when I was short on dinner prep time. It's so easy to pull together, and you mostly use ingredients that you already have on hand.

Ingredients
Potatoes
Butter
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream (I use plain yogurt)
Bacon bits
Salsa
Flax Seed
Shredded Chicken
anything else you have on hand

Directions
Clean the potatoes, poke holes in them with a fork and rub them lightly with olive oil. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1-1.5 hours. When finished, let cool and top with desired toppings.

Notes

• This is a great way to get kids involved in meal prep. They'll love choosing their own toppings and making the potatoes to their liking.