Pan Roasted Herbed Turkey

Who says you can only eat turkey for Thanksgiving? I bought some turkey breast at Sprouts the other day and decided to cook it up for a meal at work. I still have all of that fresh thyme and rosemary from the farmer's market, so i wanted to make sure I used that too!

Pan Roasted Herbed Turkey
1 turkey half breast per serving
4 sprigs of rosemary ps
3 sprigs of thyme ps
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil in an oven safe pan. If you don't have one, don't worry, you can just do the whole thing in the oven.
Cut a slit down the middle of the turkey, and make sure to only go about half way through. Season your turkey with the salt and pepper. Chop up all of the rosemary and thyme except for one sprig of each and sprinkle it over the turkey. Put the remaining sprigs into the slit you created.

Sear the unherbed side of the chicken for about 5 minutes in your pan on the stove top. After, place the whole pan in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the turkey is fully done.
**BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU TAKE IT OUT OF THE OVEN!!! Don't forget that the pan handle will be hot once you pull it out. I did, and i burned myself. Ouch!

Once you're done, serve with your favorite side dish - maybe something that reminds you of Thanksgiving?

Lemon Rosemary Roasted Salmon

My parents went to Canada in July and brought back a ton of fish that they caught and froze. I have had it for a bit now and I have not found the time or occasion to cook it - until last night. It was perfect. I'm sorry I don't have my usual array of images, but I didn't even think about it until I was done, and this was too delicious to pass up.

Lemon Rosemary Roasted Salmon
1 portion of skin-on salmon per person
1/4 leek per person, chopped in half moons
1 lemon, sliced to cover the lemon, plus some of its juice
2-3 sprigs of rosemary
salt and pepper
**Preheat the oven to 400

Heat up an oven safe pan with olive oil, and place the salmon skin side down into the oil. Add the salt and pepper, then rosemary with the lemon slices on top. Sprinkle the leeks around the salmon.
Let the skin cook for about 5 minutes, then put the salmon, pan and all, into the oven for about 10-15 minutes. You can check the doneness of the salmon by flaking it with a fork on the thickest part and making sure that it is a more opaque pink.
Take the salmon out and remove it and the leeks from the pan, and put your freshly squeezed lemon juice on top. Serve with an appropriate side, such as roasted rosemary potatoes (see previous recipes!).

Meatball Soup

I had a bunch of veggies from the Farmer's Market that I wanted to use together, so I decided to make a soup out of it!

Market Fresh Meatball Soup

1 Box of chicken broth or stock
1 1/2 carrot
10-15 baby summer squashes
4 Sprigs of rosemary
4 sprigs of thyme
1/2 cup of broccoli florets
2 leaves of kale (per serving)
4 meatballs (per serving) **I used Trader Joes Turkey Meatballs, because I didn't have the means to make my own when I made this soup. Use your favorite kind or make your own!


Cooking your Soup
In a large pot, warm up a table spoon of oil. Add in your carrot and squash first, and let them soften a bit. Then add in your herbs and broccoli.
Don't add in your kale - place your prepped kale in the bottom of your bowl, and set aside. This is important so that you won't overcook it!
Add your stock to the soup and cook your meatballs however you need to. Once your soup is warm, ladle some hot soup on top of your kale, and cover so that it steams and cooks the kale. After this, serve up your soup and enjoy!

Farmer's Market

I wanted to post some pictures of the Farmer's Market that I go to. I think I'll do this periodically, just so you can see how wonderful it is :) Next time, I'll try to get some fruits :)

Garden Fresh Pizza

One of my neighbors has a lot of vegetables that she grows in her garden. Yesterday, she left a basket with 2 Japanese eggplants (aubergines), a bunch of tomatoes, a cucumber, and 2 green bell peppers. I knew I wanted to use the aubergine as soon as possible, and I still had some squash blossom to use. So, this pizza was born. Pretty simple, but it is delicious!

Garden Fresh Pizza
1/2 Japanese Eggplant
4 squash blossoms
1/4 cup broccoli
1 pizza dough
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
1/8 cup crumbed goat cheese
1/4 cup pizza sauce

How to prepare the Japanese eggplant
You have to salt eggplant to get rid of the bitterness. However, Japanese eggplants are a little different, and it works better if you soak them in salted water after you slice them up. Slice them in thin circles, then dump them in the salted water, and allow the water to turn kind of a brownish color. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes for these little guys.


Build your pizza: sauce, cheeses, veggies. Cook according to your dough directions, and enjoy!
**I decided to tear up my squash blossoms to get a better distribution over the pizza.

Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms
4 oz of goat cheese (soft)
An herb of your choice - I used fresh thyme
4 squash blossoms

Get Stuffed!
Prep your herb, whether it is removing it from the stem then chopping it or whatever you must do! You want it to be pretty small so that you don't get a huge bite of it.
Mix in the goat cheese and combine thoroughly.
Slit the blossom down one side so that it is easy to get the cheese into.

Stuff your blossoms with the cheese mixture.
Then, while lightly squeezing the blossom, roll the flower around the cheese so that it holds together tightly.


Cooking
Heat up olive oil in a pan that you can just cover the blossoms about half way. Fry them on one side and then flip, until the cheese is melted and soft. Pat off excess oil and let cool for a moment, then enjoy!

**this makes 2 servings!

Gnocchi al Pesto e Pomodoro

Gnocchi with Pesto and Fresh Tomato
Pesto
Gnocchi
Fresh tomato
Lemon juice
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Speckled Green Potatoes!
Sorry I didn't document the making of my pesto! However, you can use any pesto recipe you want for this. I used pistachios, basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Right before you use it, hit it with some lemon juice. Simple, and delicious! Or... you could just buy it :)

Gnocchi are little potato dumplings, in an essence. I love them, and I have not eaten them since i was in Florence, Italy and had the most amazing gnocchi pesto ever. They only take a few minutes to cook in boiling water, they just float to the top.

Once the gnocchi is finished cooking, drain it and cool down your cooking pot.
Put the gnocchi back in, and then mix it with enough pesto to just coat the gnocchi. Add in chopped tomatoes, and you can add some parmesan cheese if you want. :) But, most importantly, ENJOY!

New Mexico Pizza

New Mexico Pizza!
Pizza dough (again, if you're willing to make it, go ahead!)
Salsa - I used Trader Joe's Peach salsa. It's very sweet, and I thought it would be most delicious.
Cheese - I used mozarella because that is what I had, but I think that monterey jack or pepper jack would be the best.
Olives
Hatch green chiles
Chicken (of course, optional)

Minor construction:
Get your dough out and then add as much salsa as you think you need to get a good layer going.
Next, add the cheese and olives!
Spread out the chiles all over the pizza. I used an entire one of the tiny cans. I love the stuff.
Sprinkle your chicken around in tiny pieces on top, and pop it into the oven according to your directions!


Viola!

The BBL Salad

BBL Salad!
Broccoli florets (as much as you think you'll want for as many servings you'll make)
Bacon (count on two slices a serving *note: I use turkey bacon, 98% fat free and deelicious!)
croutons (a small handful per serving)
Dressing:
*this is for one serving of the dressing. Increase amounts as needed for more servings.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon honey mustard dressing
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper and salt
*mix all ingredients together for your dressing. I do it in a tiny tupperware so that I can shake it up!

Putting The B with the B
*Preheat your oven to 400.

*Spray your lined cookie sheet with olive oil spray.
*Spread out your broccoli out on the sheet in a single layer, and spray again.
*Bake for about 10 minutes.
*in the mean time, you can cook your bacon in your favorite way!
*Once everything is cooked, assemble it all in a bowl, pour over your dressing, and toss!

Sunny Sunday Dinner

This is the first sunny day we have had here in Southern California since June began. The recipes for the potatoes and meatloaf can be found in the two previous entries to this one. I'll include the simple recipe for the greenbeans at the end of this post!
Hope you enjoy looking at my dinner as much as I enjoyed eating it :)




Red and Green Beans
One serving of green beans
About 7-10 grape or cherry tomatoes
Lemon pepper
Mixing Colors
Steam the green beans (after you have washed and snapped the ends off).
Take the green beans out of the pan, and add the tomatoes with some olive oil. Toss them around in the heat until they start to show marks on the skins. Add lemon pepper, and return the green beans to the pan. Toss until coated with oil and lemon pepper!

RoastMary Rainbow Potatoes

"RoastMary Rainbow" Potatoes
2 pounds of baby potatoes (*note: i use a potato medley, with baby purple, red, and gold potatoes. You can use any single group of these potatoes, but I prefer the medley!)
1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 large stem of fresh rosemary
salt
pepper
garlic powder
Prepping Your 'taters
Preheat oven to 375.

*Wash and cut the potatoes so that they're about as equal size as you can get them.
*On an aluminum foil lined baking sheet, spread out the potatoes and cover them with oil. Make sure that it gets all over the potatoes!
*Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic over the tops of all of the potatoes.

*Remove the rosemary from the stem and chop it. Sprinkle it over the potatoes.
Cooking!
*Pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes, making sure you toss them around a little at least once.
*When you take them out, hit them with a tiny bit more salt.

Hey Baby Turkey Meatloaf

"Hey Baby" Turkey Meatloaf

1 package (about 1-1.5 pounds) of ground turkey
1 egg
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon of garlic, pepper, cumin, lemon pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (you can use dried, too, but fresh is so much better!)


Making Babies
Preheat the oven to 375.
Put all of the spices/herbs into the bottom of a bowl.

Put the turkey on top, and "mop up" all of the spices/herbs onto the turkey.
Make a well in the turkey, and add the egg and bread crumbs.
Mix all ingredients together and form a disk in the bottom of a bowl.

Score the meat into 4 sections and form into small loafs.

Place them on a cookie sheet that has been lined with aluminum foil and parchment, sprayed with oil.
Put olive oil on the tops of all of the loaves and then sprinkle lemon pepper on top.
Pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.

"Beet it, Spinach!" Salad

Another thing I had never bought (or cooked) before was beets. I think I have actually only eaten beets once, but I was pretty sure I liked them, and it sounded like a fun food adventure. I decided I would add them to a salad, and this is one of the concoctions I came up with.

"Beet it, Spinach!" Salad

1 small beet (*this would be for the serving size of the salad, but you can certainly cook more than this)
1 cup of baby spinach
1 tablespoon of blue cheese crumbles
1/4 of a hass avocado
1 1/2 tablespoons of some fruity vinaigrette, I prefer Trader Joe's cranberry walnut gorgonzola!
Cooking Beets
I had to try something new to do this, and that was cooking beets! I looked up recipes online, and combined a few of the cooking recommendations.
*Wash the beets thoroughly, and remove their greens.
*Rub your beets with olive oil, then sprinkle with lemon pepper.
*Wrap them up in aluminum foil and place them in a 375 oven for 45 minutes (* i used my toaster oven!)
*Once they are done, remove them but leave them in the foil to cool. Allow them to cool completely, then remove the skins (they should peel off) under water so your fingers aren't... well, neon.
*Slice them up and put them in tupperware and in the fridge! They will last about 5 days in the fridge this way.
Assembling Your Salad

*Put your spinach in your bowl first! That usually helps.
*Add all of your other ingredients, I usually add cheese last. Then top it off with your dressing, and viola!
*Note that salads are not difficult to assemble, and that is why you should eat lots of them!