My Life in Meals

A few years ago when I met my fiance I told him I was going to make him my famous turkey burgers. Expectantly, he made a face. He’s a beef kind of guy - steak, ribs, and of course real beef burgers. I promised him that these would be up his alley and he let me make them. He was expecting a dried out burger with no taste, but what he got was an extremely juicy, tender burger packed with spice. Now, he and his whole family only make turkey burgers in their house!

Of course, the main reason I started to replace ground beef with ground turkey is because it is much leaner and more healthy. You can even make these with ground chicken instead. If you have extra meat, make these into meatballs and freeze them until your next spaghetti dinner like I did!

Ingredients:

• One package lean ground turkey
• 2-3 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 1 medium onion (red or yellow), diced
• 2 teaspoons garlic paste
• 2 teaspoons ginger paste
• 2 teaspoons red chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano (or dried basil or thyme).
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1.5 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• Olive oil

Procedure:

1. Mix turkey, jalapenos, onion, garlic, ginger, red chilli powder, oregano, lemon juice and salt and pepper together in a mixing bowl.
2. Make the burgers into patties of desired size.
   
   
3. Set the oven on broil.
4. Place a small amount of olive oil on your hands and coat the burgers (or meatballs) on both sides.
5. Cook for 8-9 minutes on each side.
   

If you want to cook these on the BBQ, follow all the same instructions and cook patties 5 to 10 minutes per side. I put my burger on a 100 calorie Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

This is an simple, delicious, and healthy Thai dish that you can easily make at home.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 pieces tilapia (or other white fish)
• 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup Holy Thai Basil leaves (or substitute Italian Basil)
• 2 red Thai chilies (or other chilies)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste
• 1 tablespoon garlic paste
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
• 2-3 teaspoons black soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Marinate fish fillets in ginger and garlic pastes, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
2. In a frying pan, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Cook fish approximately 4 minutes on each side. Fish should develop a slight brown crust. Once cooked through, remove fish from frying pan and set aside in a covered serving dish.
3. In the same pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute chopped garlic for approximately one minute.
4. Add in onions, bell peppers, and chillies. Cook for approximately 5-7 minutes until vegetables start to brown.
5. Add soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, basil and water to the vegetable mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low-medium heat for 5-7 minutes.
6. Pour sauce and vegetable mixture over fish and serve with white rice.

I love eating pizza, but hate the calories that are associated with it! Below is my recipe for a healthy, quick and easy homemade pizza that take less then 15 minutes to prepare and cook! You can make this with literally any veggies or protein you have on hand in your fridge. If you don’t have whole wheat pitas, you can also make this on whole wheat english muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat pita
• 2 mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tablespoons chopped red onions
• 4-5 baby spinach leaves
• 1 spicy Italian sausage, removed from casing
• 1/4 cup jar tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Part skim low fat mozzarella cheese, 3 to 4 small slices
• Jalapenos (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. In a small bowl, mix tomato sauce with chili powder, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
2. In a frying pan, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil and place sausage in sizzling pan. Saute for 5-6 minutes on medium heat or until fully cooked.
   
3. Evenly spread tomato sauce on top of the whole wheat pizza. Top with spinach, and then the mushrooms, onions, and sausage. Top everything off with mozzarella cheese.
   
4. In a toaster oven, cook for about 10 minutes or until cheese becomes brown and melted. Add jalapenos if desired.
   

Lasagna has a ton of ingredients and many different steps, so I am going to break this recipe down by component to make it easier. You can also replace the ground turkey with ground beef if you prefer!

For the turkey:

Ingredients:

• 1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 jalapenos diced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, paste
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine turkey, with garlic paste, oregano, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Mix well with hands and set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add chopped garlic, jalapeno, and onion. Saute until light brown, approximately 5 minutes. Then start adding ground meat. Mix well.
4. Cook for approximately 10 minutes on medium heat, breaking down the meat into small chunks with the end of your spatula.

For the sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle store bought tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. On medium heat, saute chopped garlic in olive oil.
2. Add red wine and let reduce, approximately one minute.
3. Add tomato sauce, chili powder, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil.
4. Let simmer on low approximately 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

For the ricotta mixture:

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) container fat-free ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste
  

For the pasta:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 9 packaged lasagna noodles 
• 1 teaspoon salt

Procedure:

1. Add salt, olive oil and lasagna noodles to a pot of boiling water.
2. Cook about 10 minutes on medium heat (or follow package instructions).
3. Drain water from lasagna noodles using a colander, and set aside to cool.

Now putting it all together………..

1. In a aluminum foil or oven safe glass pan, coat the bottom with a light layer of sauce.
2. Add 3 lasagna noodles on top of the sauce.
   
3. Spread ricotta cheese mixture across the noodles.
   
4. Top off the ricotta mixture with the ground turkey.
   
5. Repeat steps 1-4 two more times.
6. Top off with one last layer of sauce and one package shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese.
   
7. Bake on 350 degrees for 1 hour covered with aluminum foil. For a little additional browning and crispness, broil on high for 5 minutes uncovered (keep an eye on it however so it does not burn).
   

Very ironically, when I’m at the gym working out I usually watch and drool over the Food Network. Most of the time, I end up catching Paula Deen’s Kitchen (obviously perfect for working out!). The episode I watched last night featured Chris Rock’s mom, Rose Rock, cooking her son’s favorite childhood meal, Smothered Chicken and Biscuits. It looked so good I wanted to jump through the TV. Now, I wasn’t about to mess up my hard work out by eating biscuits, but the chicken part was healthy enough. I didn’t have all the ingredients from the original recipe that she used so I kinda of concocted up my own version below:

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 7-8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks & thighs)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1/2 pack mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1/2 cup water
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

Heat the oil in skillet over medium heat.

1. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and chili powder (to taste).
2. Combine the flour with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Mix well.
   
3. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and add to the hot oil. On high heat, brown the chicken on each side for about 4 minutes and remove from skillet.
   
4. Splash baby carrots with water and microwave, covered for 2 minutes.
5. In the same pan, on medium heat add the garlic, onions and jalapeno and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, and saute additional 3 minutes.
   
6. Add the frozen green beans and carrots to the skillet and quickly saute. Return the chicken to the pan and add a 1/2 cup of water.
7.  Cover and cook until tender, approximately 35 minutes.
   

My favorite recipe website is allrecipes.com, because they have a great search feature that lets you enter in the ingredients you have on hand at home and pulls dozens of recipes that match your search criteria. For example, to get some inspiration on what to cook, I entered three ingredients I had in the fridge and knew I wanted to use: chicken, mushrooms, and wine. One of the recipes it returned was this one. You can even search for what ingredient’s you don’t want, i.e. if you are a vegetarian you can enter that you don’t want recipes with meat in them or if you are allergic to something you can choose to exclude that ingredient in your searches.

I almost never fully use the recipes, but look at them more for inspiration on what to make. My version below (with broccoli, extra spices, and a little less complicated then the one featured).

Click here for the Ingredient Search tool.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts (pounded thin)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Set up three shallow bowls, one with a whisked egg, salt and pepper, another with flour, and a third with bread crumbs.
2. Dredge chicken breasts in flour, then dip in egg mixture, then coat the chicken in bread crumbs.
3. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add chicken and saute until both sides are lightly browned and chicken is cooked through (juices run clear). Remove chicken from skillet and set aside, keeping warm.
   
4. Place broccoli florets in a microwave safe bowl, splash with water and microwave one minute.
   
5. In the same skillet add mushrooms and broccoli and saute. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon flour and stir quickly to mix together. Add broth, wine, oregano, crushed chili peppers, salt, and pepper. Let simmer, stirring, until thickened (about 3 minutes).
   
6. Return reserved chicken to skillet. Top with cheese. Cover and cook until cheese is melted.
7. Serve with salad, pasta, or rice and ENJOY!
   

I was recently watching Foodography on the Cooking Channel, a show that takes a look at different cultural food themes around the country and their origins. This particular episode was about good ole’ southern cooking! Of course after a few minutes of watching, it made me instantly crave mac and cheese. Mac and cheese has been one of my favorite foods since childhood, nothing like a box of Kraft mac and cheese with hot dogs as a kid (ok I still like to eat it now!).

So I decided on a whim to whip up an “adult” mac and cheese for dinner (a semi-healthy version as well!).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb whole wheat penne (or rigatoni)
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 plum tomato, de-seeded and chopped
• 4-5 mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup low fat cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 3-4 whole wheat crackers, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and keep aside in a baking dish.
2. Microwave broccoli florets one minute covered, then set a side.
3. In a small frying pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and saute garlic one minute.
4. Add onion and jalapeno, and saute 4-5 minutes.
5. Add mushrooms and saute an additional 3-4 minutes. Add in broccoli and tomato and season with salt and pepper. Stir fry for additional 1-2 minutes.
   
6. In a separate pan, heat 1 tablespoon butter and cream cheese, stirring often until melted.
7. Slowly add in shredded cheddar cheese, stirring rapidly as you add a small amount at a time.
8. Season with salt, pepper, and fresh parsley.
   
9. Pour cheese sauce and vegetable mixture in the baking dish with the cooked pasta, and mix thoroughly.
10. In a small pan, heat one tablespoon butter and saute crushed crackers, 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle on top of the pasta mixture.
11. Set oven to broil, and let cook for about 5 minutes or until a golden brown crust is formed.
    

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I had a personal chef come cook for us (hooray for groupon!). It turned out our chef, Jackie Lee, was a winner from the first season of Food Network’s show Chopped. Of course, I nearly had a conniption when she told us! A real food network star in our kitchen, cooking for us….every foodie’s dream come true!

I pre-picked the menu of pork tenderloin, stuffed with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese, and a side of thyme infused rice pilaf and sauteed mushrooms. I choose this because tenderloin is a cut of meat I wouldn’t usually buy or prepare at home, and was interested to see how it was done by a pro. Needless to say- the meal she prepared (pictured below) was out of this world! Last night, I thought I would do a little “recipe remix” with the ingredients that I had on hand at home. Although I have never made pork tenderloin before, I often do make pork chops so I had a few in the freezer. I whipped them up with sides of the thyme rice and sauteed spinach and mushrooms.

Herb Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 2 pork chops
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

Procedure:

1. In a medium-sized dish, mix pork chops with all of the above ingredients. Let marinate for one hour (or longer).
2. On medium-high heat, heat olive oil in frying pan and then place both pork chops in the  pan to sear.
3. Cook on the first side for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip using tongs, and let the other side cook 2-3 minutes.
4. Flip once more, turn pan on low and cover for 5-7 more minutes. To make sure the meat is cooked, cut a small slit to make sure it is cooked through.
5. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Thyme Rice Pilaf

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cups canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
• Salt and pepper

Procedure:

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium. Add onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, and bring to a boil.
   
3. Stir in rice and thyme. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until rice is just tender, 15 to 17 minutes.
   
4. Let stand 5 minutes; fluff with a fork.

Sauteed Spinach and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1 pound bunch spinach, stemmed and rinsed (but not dried), chopped
• 6-8 mushroom wiped clean, sliced in half
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium sized skillet, and add the mushrooms.
2. Cook, stirring, until seared and beginning to sweat, about five minutes. Turn the heat to medium, and add the garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir together for another minute or two until the mushrooms are tender.
3. Add the spinach, and stir until wilted, about five minutes.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.

I never can seem to find enough time to eat breakfast in the mornings, like many of you reading this I’m sure! I’m not a fan of cold cereals or yogurts, and hot breakfasts just take to much time.

There is one way however in which you can make an egg in under ONE MINUTE. That’s right, under one minute AND not an ounce of butter or olive oil needed. My mom has been making this for me since my childhood and it’s cooked in the microwave. You must be thinking “gross, that’s going to be weird and rubbery”. Not at all! Just follow my directions step by step and you’ll have a perfectly cooked and delicious egg in less then a minute.

Procedure:

1.  Crack one egg in a small microwave-safe glass bowl.

2.  Cover bowl (with a microwave cover or tupperware cover, or whatever you have on hand!)

3.  Microwave for 30 seconds.

4.  Pause 10 seconds, then microwave for an additional 10 seconds.

VOILA, your egg is ready! Just garnish with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. I personally like to add a little srircha to mine!

This is a great and easy scramble recipe to make on a lazy weekend morning! You can really make this with whatever ingredients you have in your fridge at the time. I just happened to have some fresh spinach and mushrooms that needed to be used, and always keep some spicy sausage on hand in the freezer. I noticed that the thyme really makes this dish, so if you have some on your spice rack do make sure to include it (you can also substitute it with oregano or Italian seasoning).

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 spicy Italian sausage links
• 1 cup spinach, frozen or fresh
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1/4 cup onion, diced (red or white)
• 4-5 mushrooms, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Whisk together eggs, milk, veggies, chili powder, thyme and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
2. Remove the casing from the sausage, crumble with your hands, and saute in a pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil for about 5 minutes on high. Remove from pan and mix into the egg mixture.
   
3. In the same pan, heat the remainder of the olive oil and saute garlic for one minute. Add the egg mixture to the pan, and cook approximately 5 minutes on medium heat, scrambling the egg every minute or so.
4. Serve with whole wheat toast or english muffins and ENJOY!