Southwest Black Bean Turkey Burgers

Tonight, I tried something new (recommended to me by my trainer at the gym, so you can be sure that it's healthy too!). It's super simple and quite tasty.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 can black beans
1 packet of taco seasoning

Instructions:
Drain the beans. Mix ingredients (just like you would any other burgers). Make patties. Grill, George Forman, whatever you like. I also froze the leftovers for later!

Tada! Enjoy!!

Sushi

This is one of my favorite new things. I was introduced to it recently by my beautiful sister-in-law (who, by the way is a very talented photographer - you should check out her website). The best part is that it looks and sounds so complicated and sophisticated, but it's so simple! So, without further ado...

What you'll need:
*bamboo sushi mat
*sushi rice
*seaweed wraps
*whatever else you like in your sushi (my current favorites are avocado, carrots, and crab, but I have had it with shrimp, and plan to experiment with other things in the near future...)
*a bowl of water
*knife

Here are the steps, along with photos taken during my first sushi excursion:

1. Prep: cook the rice, cut up the veggies and meat.

2. Lay the seaweed down on the mat with the rougher side facing up. Use a basting brush (or whatever you have) to lightly wet the seaweed.

(before you touch the rice, you MUST get your fingers wet - use the bowl of water - otherwise the rice will stick to your fingers, not the seaweed)

3. Put rice on the seaweed wrap. You only want to put it on about 2/3 of the seaweed. Wet your fingers as often as needed to keep the rice from sticking (to you). You can spread with a fork/utensil or with your fingers. You can put a thin layer or a thicker layer of rice, depending on your preferences.

4. Add the meat and veggies.

5. With the rice-edge of the seaweed at the edge of the bamboo mat, carefully begin to wrap/roll.

6. Once you have wrapped up the middle portion of the roll, stop and squeeze the roll. This is what should come out at that point.

7. As you can see in the picture, she pulled the roll back to the edge of the mat. Next you'll finish rolling and squeeze just a little more. This is what you'll get (and you'll feel so proud!)

8. Transfer to the cutting board for cutting. (IMPORTANT) Wet the knife (you can just dip it in the bowl of water you already have, and then just let the water drip down the blade so that the whole blade is wet. Then start cutting. You can make the pieces as thin or thick as you'd like. Re-wet the knife with each cut, just to ensure that your knife isn't sticking to the seaweed or the rice. This part takes a little practice. But once you get a feel for it, you'll feel much better. Don't be too hard on yourself if your first roll is a little bit... awkward and frustrating.

And when you're finished, this is what you get! The amount of pieces you get from the roll will depend on how thick/thin you cut your pieces.

And there you have it. Let me know if you have questions, but know that I am by no means a sushi expert (considering I've made it... less than 5 times). I hope you branch out and try it. It's so fun and tasty! Happy Sushi-Making!

Restaurant Style Salsa {The Pioneer Woman}

This recipe was introduced to me by a friend, and can be found in more beautiful pictures and more information on The Pioneer Woman website. She has lots of yummy recipes, so you should definitely head over there and check it out! Here are the basics and some pictures that I took of the process.

The ingredients and instructions are copied directly from her website...

Ingredients
*1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
*2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
*1/4 cup Chopped Onion 
*1 clove Garlic, Minced
*1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
*1/4 teaspoon Sugar
*1/4 teaspoon Salt
*1/4 teaspoon Ground Cumin
*1/2 cup Cilantro (more To Taste!)
*1/2 whole Lime Juice

Instructions

Note: this is a very large batch. Recommend using a 12-cup food processor, or you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.
Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you'd like---I do about 10 to 15 pulses. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.
Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

Posted by Ree on January 27 2010

Chicken Enchiladas

Ok, so I'm going to start this one by letting you know that I started with a recipe, which I will give you, but it didn't work out as planned exactly, so I'll let you know how it changed as I made it. This recipe is from a church cookbook...

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
*1 1/2 lb cooked chicken breast, shredded or cubed
*1 family size can cream of chicken soup
*1 (16 oz.) sour cream
*1 small can Ro-Tel, drained
*2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
*8-10 flour tortillas

Instructions
Mix soup, sour cream, and Ro-Tel together. Divide chicken equally among flour tortillas. Place a heaping tablespoon of soup mixture over chicken, sprinkle some cheese in and roll up. Place in greased 9x11 inch baking dish. Pour remaining soup mix over all and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.

What I did...
*I shredded the chicken breast
*I sprinkled the shredded chicken with some taco seasoning (a suggestion from a friend)
*I used fat free sour cream
*I forgot to drain the ro-tel... oops!
*I also forgot to add cheese to the inside of the enchiladas... oops again!
*I had a LOT of cheese and "soup mixture" left... I only used about 2/3 of each, but I also only had enough chicken for 6 tortillas... I think if I had more chicken, I would have been able to make enough enchiladas to use the rest(??)
*I topped with homemade salsa.
*I added green chiles to the soup mixture because I love them!

It was very yummy. It was about 500 calories per serving, which is better than you can get at most restaurants, but I think I can get it down a little more... We shall see! I'll let you know how that goes next time I make them. I am going to attempt to freeze a couple of the left overs because I know I don't want to eat (even yummy) enchiladas for the next week straight.  Try them, they're yummy! (did I say that already?)

Scones {take one: the flop}

Well... this weekend, my friend and I tried to make scones. This was a first for both of us... and almost a disaster. I have pictures to prove the sadness of our attempt. However, we have learned a lot and hopefully this experience will have given us the knowledge to not destroy the next batch! We got the recipe from allrecipes.com. It is a pretty simple recipe, but we failed to read all of the reviews first... I'll let you in on our revelations at the end...

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 

 

Cut in butter. 

we did it with our hands because we didn't have the right tools

Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened. 

we used part creamer (one of the suggestions)

 

(this was when we mixed in the yummy stuff)

we made cinnamon scones

and chocolate chip raspberry scones

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. (this is when we realized that everything was going wrong...)

it's supposed to be crumbly, not moist like muffins

it was a mess... she was trying to knead it... but it wasn't working.

Roll dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet.

after adding a LOT of flour, we were able to get it somewhat moldable

ready-to-bake!

I plopped mine on instead... this should be interesting.

I was trying to be optimistic about the outcome...

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

her's actually looked like scones.

mine were giant blobs - they probably would have made a huge mess without the edges on the pan...

 The good news is that they taste very good. On the 'bad news' note, things to know/remember when making scones:
*When getting the milk/egg part, one suggestion was to put the egg in first, then to add the milk (which would give you less overall).
*When adding the milk mixture, you should mix in gradually, and only until the mixture is moist - not until you have mixed it all in. I think that most of the time, there's no need for that much milk. The mixture should be moist, but still crumbly and moldable.
*If you're adding fruit, remember that it includes extra liquid/moisture, so you'll want to mix that in before you're totally done mixing in the milk mixture.

Once I try this again (and hopefully I'll be more successful), I'll share with you what they should *actually* look like. Try it, but read up on it a bit so you're more prepared than me! Good luck!

The Quick List {part 1}

Ok, blog friends. I think I'm back. I hope that I haven't lost you forever! But I totally get how it's hard to keep up with a blog that doesn't keep moving. I'm hoping to post a couple of new recipes this week, but to get started, I thought it might be nice to introduce you to my "quick list."

Said list is the way I survive most of the time as a single lady. I can't possibly keep up with cooking a 20-ingredient meal every day. I like to spend a little more time on those when someone else is going to help me eat it! Shortly after beginning to live on my own, I realized that I was not eating healthfully, and my body was rebelling against me for it. I was eating frozen dinners and pizzas and eat out, and.. yeah. It wasn't pretty. But I also couldn't seem to get myself to cook using my cookbooks every night. And besides the fact that I am in one of the most exhausting fields of work, most cookbooks I owned left me with way too much left over (and you can only eat left over lemon chicken so many days in a row...).

So, I came up with a "quick list" of foods that I could make and eat in almost the same amount of time and energy I was using before, but in a much more healthful way. So, for today, here are some of my most-used stand-by meals. They should be fairly quick and painless to get ready and clean up (I have also found that no matter how tired I am, it's always to clean up right away - not the next day... or the next).

Spaghetti (I always keep boxed spaghetti, "canned" spaghetti sauce (jars, really), and yummy frozen meatballs around)

Prep Time: as long as it takes the water to boil and the noodles to cook.

{I heat the sauce up in a small pan while the noodles are cooking, and throw the meatballs (precooked) in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then just add them to the sauce.} 
Best Part: you can have as much left over as you want. None? One? Two? 
Worst Part: spaghetti sauce on your shirt.

Tacos (I always keep a can of refried beans, frozen ground turkey, taco seasoning, shredded cheese, and chips/taco shells around)

Prep Time: about 20 minutes

{I heat the refried beans in a small pan on low while the meat cooks. Once the meat is done, you can fix it up any way you want, with whatever you want or have in the house. I always make small containers of left overs, one in the fridge and then one or two in the freezer - the meat and beans freeze and reheat very well.} 
Best Part: this is something that is good in a minimalist sort of way (if you don't happen to have everything you usually want), but can be embellished with whatever you do happen to have - avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, etc.)
Worst Part: you have to remember to thaw the meat - this is not the best for a last-minute option just because a frozen thing of turkey (or beef) is as solid as a rock and takes about a day to defrost in the fridge - you can defrost it with water or the microwave, but it takes a while and doesn't seem to turn out as well to me.

Stir Fry (I always keep quick-cooking rice around)

Prep Time: about 15-20 minutes

{The easiest way to make a quick and tasty stir fry is to hit up the salad bar at a grocery store. They always have fresh, pre-cut produce, of which you can choose what you like in your stir fry and how much you'd like. It is also not as expensive (time or money wise) as buying a whole pepper or two, broccoli, etc., cutting it up and wasting half of it. Start the rice, steam the veggies (I use water, but you could use a little oil), add meat if you want (frozen, precooked shrimp does pretty well), and by the time your veggies are ready, your rice is ready as well. I like to use a stir fry sauce at the end to add a little extra flavor} 
Best Part: it's asian food. I love asian food. Does anything else need to be said?
Worst Part: no left overs - it doesn't reheat well (I don't like reheated stir fry... the meat always seems dry and the veggies soggy - but you can decide that for yourself)

This became much longer than I had anticipated, so I'm going to stop now. I'll write more later. Today, you got a VERY short "quick list" ... maybe next time I'll just actually give you a list! ;)
Happy cooking!

I am coming back...

Please don't give up on me... I will be back. Life is so crazy right now that I'm having a hard time finding the time to sit down and write.. and cook. Especially after the Sugar Disaster of 2012...

But I do promise that I'll be back and I'll share some new recipes with you. Yummy ones... I have plans, I just haven't been able to make them happen yet. So, please bear with me through this crazy time of year, and I will start posting regularly again soon. :)