Curried Turkey Burgers

I am so incredibly behind on sharing my meals. I mean, hell, this dish was cooked on the 17th of the month - 2 weeks ago!

School has started and unfortunately (but predictably), homework overwhelms almost every second of my breathing life. If I'm not doing homework I'm in class. If I'm not doing either of those, I'm at work. And such is life. The good news is that even with school in session, I still have found time to cook myself dinner.

This burger was another request from one of my MFP friends. I really love turkey burgers. Because ground turkey can be so bland, I love all the different variations on a burger it can create with just a few shakes of spice jar.

I am sharing this burger with Kahakai Kitchen's Souper Sundays! Yeah, yeah, it's not a soup, but they accept sandwiches and salads as well.

Curried Turkey Burgers

Ingredients

8 oz ground turkey

2 tbsp egg substitute

2 tbsp red onion, minced

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp curry powder

olive oil, for brushing

2 hamburger buns

tomato slices

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine the turkey, egg substitute, red onion, cilantro, ginger, garlic, bell pepper, cumin, and curry powder. Make 2 patties out of the meat mixture.

2. Brush the patties with a little bit of olive oil. Heat a skillet and cook the patties 5-8 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and cooked all the way through.

3. Place each patty on a bun and top with tomato slices (or whatever else goes on your burgers!)

CALORIES: 318 calories

CHOLESTEROL: 127 milligrams
FAT: 11 grams

Honey-Lime Fish Tacos with Tomatillo Salsa

One of the meals I was asked to make by my MFP friends included fish tacos. I'm a big supporter of tilapia, so that's what I decided to go with.

I mean, I like other fish too. But for me, salmon is typically too strong of a flavor (though sometimes I will play around with it and try something out anyway). Tuna is another favorite of my mine, but I'll be honest - I've never actually cooked tuna before. I mean, I've composed dishes that have used canned tuna. But I've never seared a tuna, or grilled tuna, or done whatever else you might do with tuna.

But like I said, I'm a strong supporter of the tilapia. So I decided that because I had some in the refrigerator and because I typically have good luck with it, it's the fish I opted for.

Last time I was in San Francisco my dad shared with me a bag of baby tomatillos. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use them. They were about 1/8 of the size of a normal tomoattilo (or maybe 1/4...) My dad was telling me the lady he bought them from in San Francisco's Mission district told him the baby tomatillos were the way to go. It's been a long time since I've used tomatillo before this dish, so I can't really compare if I like the bigger tomatillos more than the small ones.

I can tell you though, this was SO good.

On a side note: the cookbook has not been sent out yet, but will be on Friday. UGH - I hate being busy during the work days!

After I get that book sent out, start looking out for another giveaway..

Honey-Lime Fish Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce

Ingredients

1 lb tilapia

6 corn tortillas

4 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp olive oil

honey

salt and pepper

garlic powder

2 tomatillos (or 2 handfuls of baby tomatillos)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cilantro

2 cloves garlic

3 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup sweet onion, diced

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Cover each side of fish with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place in a shallow dish and add lime juice and olive oil. Drizzle honey over fish. Place in refrigerator and marinate for 6+ hours.

2. For the salsa combine the tomatillos, sour cream, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, sweet onion, parsley, and red pepper flakes in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.

3. Add a small amount of olive oil to a pan. Once warm cook the fish until flaky and completely white.

4. Place on top of tortilla and cover with the salsa. I added avocado for garnish.

* serves 2

CALORIES: 503 calories

CHOLESTEROL: 106 milligrams
FAT: 22 grams

Spinach, Mushroom, and Goetta Scramble

I've been so busy lately with school starting again, continuing working at my internship, and trying to maintain a social life in the midst of all of that. This of course has greatly limited by free time that I'm on the computer, so I'm kind of behind on my meals. I have a queue going on now. Who knows if I'll ever get caught up.

This dish was at the request of another of my MFP friends, who requested I make a dinner omelet. Unfortunately for me, my cholesterol is high. And unfortunately for me, eggs are jam packed with cholesterol. I opted for this dish to use an egg substitute, as to not have a cholesterol overdose only a week before I'm supposed to go in and get my blood checked again for both my cholesterol and vitamin D levels.

Oh, and then I failed when making the omelet and it became a scramble instead.

Now, for people who aren't from the Cincinnati, Ohio area - I'm not either. But that wasn't my point. My point is, if you aren't from Cincinnati, you probably don't know what goetta is. There's only two things I can say about this:

1. You are utterly deprived and when I go to Ohio in October for a wedding I need to make sure to bring enough home for myself to keep in my freezer for a nice day, and

2. For the sake of this recipe you can replace the goetta with breakfast sausage, bacon, ground beef, or really any protein choice of your desire.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Goetta Scramble

Ingredients

1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1 pinch black pepper

1 pinch dried thyme

1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped

4 oz goetta

1/2 cup egg substitute

3 tbsp Mozzarella cheese

ground paprika

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium heat, add cooking spray. Season the mushrooms and goetta with pepper and thyme, and then cook until the goetta is cooked all the way through and crispy on the outsides and the mushrooms are tender.

2. Add spinach and cook for 30 seconds. Remove the mixture to a small dish and set aside.

3. Respray the skillet with cooking spray. Add the egg substitute and allow to get firm. Scramble the eggs and mix in the spinach mixture.

4. Sprinkle with paprika.

* serves 1

CALORIES: 536 calories

CHOLESTEROL: 69 milligrams
FAT: 29 grams

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I've said in here before, breakfast really isn't typically my thing. But I sometimes I feel like I maybe cereal isn't going to cut it everyday of the week. Really I need to get back into my smoothie-making-frenzy that I participated in last year, where almost every morning I made a smoothie of sorts. I definitely have the time for that now that I don't have to be in the office at 8:30 every morning. Instead I have to be in class, but I have a lot longer in the mornings now to make things for myself, like smoothies. There's been a lot of Kix lately though. Oh well.

Anyway, over the weekend I decided it was necessary for both my boyfriend and myself to enjoy something other than processed grains in milk.

Chocolate chip pancakes remind me of being a little girl. I've never been big on breakfasts. But my mom used to make me chocolate chip pancakes and I could eat them for days. When we didn't have chocolate chips in the house sometimes I'd get M&Ms in them. I am such a chocoholic that it's no surprise that I loved them.

In my adult life my control for eating chocolate has increased greatly. I don't get the cravings for it that I used to. But I could never turn down the pancakes.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

6 tbsp chocolate chips

Directions

1. Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla until combined. Add in the dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips and mix together until well combined and no dry spots remain. Mix in the chocolate chips.

2. Melt a small amount of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Drop 1/4 cup batter into a pan and cook until until golden brown on one side, or until the side facing up begins to bubble. Flip the pancake and cook until golden on the other side.

3. Repeat step 2 until all the batter is cooked.

* serves 3, 2 pancakes per serving

CALORIES: 309 calories

CHOLESTEROL: 56 milligrams
FAT: 12 grams
SODIUM: 555 milligrams

Citrus Shrimp with Vegetable Slaw

One of my MFP friends asked me to make a dish that included both grilled protein and vegetables. Upon some recipe explorations I found this recipe, a shrimp dish that included a cold vegetable slaw.

Here's the thing. I really really am not fond of raw vegetables. I hate the crunch so much. I initially was going to just eat the slaw cold and try to change my taste buds into loving the raw veggies, but when I was standing there cutting up the onion and the squash I couldn't bear to think that my teeth were going to be tearing into the hard flesh of the raw vegetables. So I changed it up a little and put the vegetables over heat long enough to soften a bit.

And then it didn't gross me out anymore.

Citrus Shrimp with Vegetable Slaw

Ingredients

1/4 cup lemon juice + 1/2 tbsp

1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 sprig of rosemary
a pinch of cinnamon
1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 carrot, cut into circles
1/2 yellow squash, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp ground black pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup uncooked rice

Directions
1. In a rice cooker combine the rice and 2 cups of water. Cook.

2. In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup of lime juice, the orange juice, pineapple juice, sugar, rosemary, cinnamon, and sugar. Stir to combine and then toss the shrimp in the liquid. Set in the refrigerator.

3. In another small bowl combine the olive oil and cilantro. Mix with the vegetables.

4. In a small skillet cook the vegetables until they begin to soften. Place in a bowl and set aside.

5. Remove the shrimp from the marinade. Pour the marinade in the skillet and cook until it is reduced to about 1/3 cup, about 8 minutes. Let boil briefly. Pour into a clean bowl.

6. In the same skillet cook the shrimp 3 minutes on each side. Put the shrimp into the cooked marinade and toss well.

7. Fill the bottom of a bowl with rice. Top with shrimp and then with the veggies.

CALORIES: 355 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 204 milligrams
FAT: 6 grams
SODIUM: 275 milligrams

Sweet Potato Tacos

I promise, this is my last sweet potato/spinach combo in the near future.

Once again, I was unsure about this combination (sweet potatoes and SALSA?!) But it really ended up being delicious. For being a meat-free meal it was more filling than had I made a wrap with ham on it and some vegetables.

The sweet taste of the sweet potato was not overpowering, which could have been weird given the nature of this meal. The salsa and sweet potato at first thought made me squeamish, but when I put it in my mouth I realized there was no reason to worry.

Sweet Potato Tacos

Ingredients

1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1/2 cup kidney beans

1 tortilla

small handful of spinach

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tbsp Brummel&Brown yogurt spread

Directions

1. In a small pot boil the sweet potato. When soft mash with salt, pepper, and Brummel&Brown. Mix in the beans.

2. In a skillet heat up the tortilla.

3. Place a handful of spinach on the tortilla and top with the sweet potato.

* garnish with salsa and sour cream if you desire (I suggest it!!), though I did not include those in the calorie calculations

* serves 1

CALORIES: 356 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 0 milligrams
FAT: 10 grams
SODIUM: 942 milligrams

Sweet Potato Smoothie

I wasn't lying when I said that sweet potatoes and spinach have been a huge part of my diet as of late. I think there's still a sweet potato sitting in there waiting for me to use it. I know for sure that there's a bag of spinach in there too. I could probably do a week of sweet potato/spinach recipes and not get sick of it.

I said recently that I used to make smoothies for breakfast almost everyday. I need to get back into that again, especially since school starts for me on Monday. It's an easy breakfast that sustains me until lunchtime.

This absolutely was not a normal smoothie for me. Despite my current love of sweet potatoes, I have never used a sweet potato in a smoothie. And I have used spinach in my smoothies before, but in the past I was also using strawberries or something equally colorful, so my smoothies have never come out this interesting color of green that the sweet potato/spinach smoothie created.

Despite the bizarre pigment, it was absolutely delicious and I ended up making it two days in a row.

You can thank my MFP friends for this recipe being here. I was asked to make a smoothie, and a smoothie I did make!

Sweet Potato Smoothie

Ingredients

1 cup almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 cup peeled, cubed, and boiled (until soft) sweet potato

1/2 banana

handful spinach

ice cubes

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the blender. BLEND!

* serves about 1 and a half

CALORIES: 150 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 0 milligrams
FAT: 3 grams
SODIUM: 153 milligrams

WINNER

The winner of the cookbook challenge is nybor101! Congratulations and be on the look out for another giveaway once I have something else to share.. :D

Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Shrimp Salad

One of my MFP friends this week asked that I make a high protein salad. Not really knowing what that meant, I decided to make a sweet potato and black bean salad. Unfortunately this combo only resulted in being 8 grams of protein. Clearly I have no idea on protein or something.

But this salad did magically become a high protein salad.

The night before I had made coconut shrimp for dinner. Thing is.. I didn't end up eating it, because I had forgotten I had dinner plans. But I didn't want the shrimp to go bad, so since they were thawed out I cooked them up and decided I could find a use for them later. Their use became apparent the next morning when I was throwing this salad together. In the shrimp went and up the protein increased to 23 grams!

I've really started to love sweet potato, so this is also a plus. I think the next two recipes you'll see after this one involve the sweet potato. It seems like sweet potato and spinach are the two staples as of late in my recipes.

This recipe is definitely going to be entered into Kahakai Kitchen's Souper Sundays!

Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean, and Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups panko

1 tsp ground cumin

3/4 cup flaked coconut

24 large shrimp, shelled and deveined

3 large sweet potatoes

1 large onion, chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 14-oz can black beans

1 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 500.

2. Beat egg whites in a small dish. Combine the bread crumbs, coconut, and 1/2 tsp of cumin in a ziplock bag.

3. Dip the shrimp in the egg whites and then shake in the dry mixture. Add to a baking sheet.

4. Bake for 6 minutes. Flip over. Bake for 6 more minutes. Set the shrimp aside.

5. Reduce the oven temperature to 400. Place the sweet potato and onion in a baking dish. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and mix with the shrimp. Add the black beans as well.

6. In a small bowl mix together 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt, garlic, lime juice, cilantro, and 1/2 tsp of cumin.

7. Pour the dressing over the sweet potato and shrimp mixture. Toss well.

* serves 4

CALORIES: 566 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 71 milligrams
FAT: 18 grams
SODIUM: 851 milligrams

Cottage Cheese Fruit Bowl

I was doing breakfast really well until the summer started. Once it hit summer, I had to wake up a lot earlier than I was having to during the school year in order to get to work on time. When school was in session I had a smoothie or oatmeal every single day. Since the summer has started I force down either a bowl of cereal or a Carnation instant breakfast drink. Neither of these choices are substantial and both have far too much sugar in them then any reasonable human needs at 6:30 in the morning.

One of my MFP friends asked me to make something for breakfast when I asked for requests of what people wanted to see. I decided to make this.

I never have liked cottage cheese. Actually, just scooping it out made me feel sick. The smell.. blah. The texture.. blah. And really, the taste doesn't help the scenario. The good thing about this breakfast is the cheese is blended with honey. Because of that, it kills all of the issues I have with cottage cheese. It killed the smell issues, the texture issues, and the taste issues. Therefore, this is good.

Of course I normally don't eat my breakfasts out of wine glasses, but basically I was just ready for my close up.

Cottage Cheese Fruit Bowl

Ingredients

1/2 cup non-fat cottage cheese

1/2 tbsp honey

1/4 nectarine, chunked

1/4 mango, chunked

1/4 banana, chunked

2 tbsp Honey Bunches of Oats cereal (or other cereal or granola)

Directions

1. In a blender combine the cottage cheese and honey. Blend until smooth.

2. Pour the cottage cheese into a dish. Top with cereal and then layer with fruit.

* serves 1

CALORIES: 202 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 5 milligrams
FAT: 1 grams
SODIUM: 445 milligrams

Hoisin Noodles with Turkey and Green Beans

If I had actually followed the recipe for tonight's dinner, the calories in this meal would have been significantly lower. Also, if I had followed the recipe, this dinner would have qualified as a dish requested by one of my MFP pals: a meal involving pasta and chicken.

Here is where the problem lay.. My grocery store didn't have ground chicken and I really wasn't in the mood to travel around to different stores to find a place that did. I decided to settle for turkey, because I figured it would be closer in calories to chicken than like.. beef. I mean, that's still probably right, but holy shoot did it rocket my initial estimate really high.

I use the website myfitnesspal and I asked my friends over there to tell me what they wanted to see me cook. Every suggestion I got has been worked into my meal plans for the next two weeks. Every day I'll be posting at least one dish. At least one dish will be something I made per the request of an MFP friend.

Today's dish.. well, just pretend there's chicken in it instead. If you can find ground chicken that is. It's obviously not the easiest thing to find in the whole world. The flavor was really yummy, kind of spicy, but generally just good.

Today's dish is going to be entered to Presto Pasta hosted by Simona of Briciole.

Hoisin Noodles with Turkey and Green Beans

Ingredients

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut in half

3 packages ramen noodles, with the spice pack discarded

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

juice from 1 small lime

3 tbsp garlic chili paste

1 tsp olive oil

1 lb ground turkey (or chicken)

4 cloves garlic, minced

8 stalks green onion, chopped

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the green beans for 6 minutes. Add the ramen and boil for 4 more minutes. Drain.

2. In small bowl combine the hoisin sauce, lime juice, and chili paste.

3. In a skillet heat the olive oil. Add the turkey and cook until no longer pink. Add the garlic and cook until tender. Add the green beans and ramen and stir to combine. Add the green onions and combine more.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake w/Carmalized Bananas

My brother's birthday was on the 4th of this month. Sadly I wasn't able to celebrate on Thursday with my family and go out to a fancy steak dinner, because it was my last week of work and I needed to be in the office on Friday. And my family lives about 2 hours away.

I did go home though on Saturday morning, so I could at least make my brother a cake.

Every year my brother asks me for some variation of a banana cake or a cheesecake. This year his request was for me to make a banana peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. I plotted and planned and finally found the perfect recipe.

Ingredients

CRUST
18 chocolate graham crackers
10 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
6 tbsp packed brown sugar

FILLING
24 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream

TOPPING
1/2 cup unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
7 ripe bananas, cut in half and then into 1-inch pieces

Directions
1. Position rack in the center of the oven. Preheat to 350.

2. Combine the ingredients for the crust in a food processor. Blend the crumbs until they stick together. Press the crumb mixture in the bottom of a springform pan. Bake for about 12 minutes and then set aside and let cool. Maintain the oven temperature.

3. Rinse out the food processor. In the processor place the cream cheese and peanut butter. Pulse until smooth. Add the sugars and pulse until fluffy.

4. Pulse in each egg, one at a time followed by the vanilla. Scrape the cheesecake batter on top of the crust.

5. Wrap the sides of the springform pan with three sheets of aluminum foil. Place a springform pan in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with enough water, to reach about half way up the sides of the springform.

6. Bake in the water bath in the oven for 1 hour and 25 minutes. Place the hot cheesecake directly in the refrigerator and chill for approximately 6 hours.

7. After the cheesecake is thoroughly chilled, heat the butter for the topping in a skillet and mix with the brown sugar. Stir over medium-low heat until the mixture is bubbly, for about 4 minutes. Add the banana pieces to the skillet and coat with the caramel sauce.

8. Carefully transfer the bananas to the top of the cheesecake. Let sit at room temperature for an hour before serving.

I'm not even going to try to figure out the calories. This is one of those things you just have to indulge yourself in. I can't always be perfect.

White Chili with Hot Dog Crescent Rolls

First for an announcement:

before my giveaway ends I need 6 more followers! if you want a chance to win the cookbook, COOK YOURSELF THIN, help me get more followers by promoting my journal and the giveaway. you can gain more entries by doing so; check it out here.

This white chili dish was not my own creation. I cannot claim the genius behind this dish. Actually, this chili comes from one of my favorite food bloggers: The Pioneer

Woman, Ree Drummond.

This white chili from The Pioneer Woman was incredibly tasty and incredibly filling. I really enjoyed the consistency of it, the ease in making it, and the flavors that exploded on my tongue.

I also made these hot dog crescent roll things, which I'm not going to share the recipe for... just wrap hot dogs in crescent rolls and bake, if you want to replicate them. My actual intention for the night was to make corn muffins with hot dog chunks in the middle. But unfortunately, when I opened my corn flour there were bugs all up in there. I've never had bugs in my food before, so I was less than pleased (luckily I had a tiny bit in another container for what was needed in the chili that didn't have the added protein.) I then opted to use a boxed mix for corn muffins that I so conveniently had in my pantry. But.. those little weevils made it into the factory sealed mix also. So I threw it all away, sat there confused for a minute on what else to cook, and then remembered I've had some crescent rolls in my refrigerator for awhile. I wrapped them around the hot dogs I had chopped up, baked them for about 12 minutes, and then served them with the chili. It was definitely a nice side.

Now, with that being said I'm not sharing Ms. Drummond's recipe. But if you want it, click that link above. I will however share my calorie calculation for the dish.

Chili Breakdown

CALORIES: 206 calories
CHOLESTEROL: 50 milligrams
FAT: 7 grams