Spiced Turkey Burgers

So its been about 6 weeks since my Dad started my garden for me. I have been watering and weeding and watching in amazement as the veggies have grown so quickly. So many of my veggies are doing great and when I made these little burgers, we were able to use some of the green leaf lettuce from our own garden to make little wraps! So fun and exciting to harvest your own produce.

I don't know how I found this recipe, but I had a little feta in the fridge and these little patties can be made ahead, so they were the perfect thing to mix up before church and grill as soon as we walked in the door. I used my indoor grill and we were eating lunch within about 15 minutes.
These burgers were flavorful and juicy. I made them into smaller patties, so that we could have wrap them in lettuce leaves. Fun and delicious!


Here is the recipe for Spiced Turkey Burgers from Pinch My Salt
* I used fresh dill, fresh oregano, and fresh Italian parsley
* I omitted the olives
* I made 12 small patties instead of just 6

Roasted Potatoes& Zucchini topped with a Fried Egg

Recently, I saw a recipe for zucchini-potato hash, topped with a fried egg in a magazine when I was checking out at the grocery store.
It looked really good, so I decided to make my own version, since I couldn't find the recipe online anywhere.

I used little red potatoes because they have a better flavor than other potatoes and they are small, so they are easy to cut and they cook quickly.

I also used zucchini and yellow squash that I got from the Farmer's Market.

I decided to roast all the vegetables in the oven.
I put the potatoes in first and then the squash, since the potatoes took a little longer to roast.
I topped it off with a fried egg and had some sauteed swiss chard on the side.

Roasted Potatoes & Zucchini with Fried Egg
1 pd red potatoes, quartered and sliced
1 pd zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 pd yellow squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
2 Tbls olive oil
oregano
salt and pepper
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 Tbls olive oil. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast in oven for 20-25 minutes or until tender, stirring halfway through.

Place zucchini and yellow squash on another rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 Tbls olive oil. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast in oven for 10-15 minutes, until tender, stirring halfway through.

Meanwhile, heat a tsp of olive oil in a small skillet. Crack open an egg into hot oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until desired doneness, flipping over halfway through cooking. Repeat with other eggs.

When all vegetables are roasted and tender, toss together and top with a fried egg.

I cooked my swiss chard using this recipe/method.

Chili-Stuffed Baked Potatoes

The past couple months, I have had the opportunity to cook and serve dinner at a local homeless shelter. I have been blessed with great people who are willing to help me out in this endeavor and it has been really rewarding for us.
It is a temporary shelter, that operates in the colder months of the year. It has been really great to have the opportunity to help those in need.

This is what we served for dinner a couple of weeks ago at the shelter.

I don't usually use canned pasta sauce when I am cooking. I prefer to make my own.
But I multiplied this recipe by 6 to get a large enough amount to serve and this time, I used a shortcut by using prepared sauce. I had to prepare other things for the dinner too, so using prepared sauce was a time saver for me this time.
I saved a small amount of the chili and a few baked potatoes, so that we could have dinner too.

I had to doctor up the sauce with some extra spices because it needed some flavor, but after adding garlic powder, oregano and some pepper, it turned out being a pretty great topping for the baked potatoes.
When we served these at the shelter we had shredded cheese and sour cream as toppings, but here at home I used greek yogurt and chopped green onions.

I used ground turkey instead of ground beef because that is what I do.
The good thing about this recipe is that you could adapt it anyway you want and could sub in homemade sauce if you wanted to.
It sure worked out for me when we had to feed a lot of people!

Chili-Stuffed Baked Potatoes adapted from myrecipes.com


Preparation Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes minutes

1 pound ground turkey, I used 93% lean
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce
4 large potatoes, baked and split
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 can (19 oz.) red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
garlic powder
pepper
oregano
green onions
greek yogurt

Brown ground turkey with onion in 12-inch skillet, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until onion is tender; drain if desired.

Stir in chili powder and cook 30 seconds. Stir in beans, Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce and other spices. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until heated through.

Evenly top hot potatoes with ground turkey mixture.

Garnish, if desired, with diced avocado, sour cream (I used greek yogurt for mine), chopped green onions, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Greek Meatballs and Greek Roasted Vegetables

I first made this meal last summer. I had clipped the recipe for the roasted vegetables out of Family Circle Magazine and decided to make meatballs to round out the meal.
I had some ground turkey and I just added ingredients that I thought would make a tasty meatball and hoped for the best.

They turned out great and everyone was very excited about this dinner. I quickly wrote down the estimates of what I used for the meatballs, so I could make them again because I didn't take a picture of them that first time we ate them.

I don't like repeating recipes over and over again, because I like to try new things all the time, but I knew that I wanted to make this particular meal again sometime.
I recently made the meatballs and roasted vegetables again, this time using ground turkey breast for the meatballs and the results were great.

The key to keeping the meatballs moist is browning them first in a little bit of oil, then adding liquid- I prefer chicken broth- and then covering them, to let them cook completely.

I really love the combination of eggplant, green pepper, and red potatoes, that the recipe uses in the roasted vegetables. Chickpeas are added to these veggies, near the end of the roasting time and really enhance the whole dish. Top it off with fresh lemon juice, fresh herbs and a little feta, and you have got a real winner.

Both times that I have made this meal, I have prepared the veggies first, and started roasting them, then made the meatballs while the veggies are in the oven. That way everything is ready at about the same time.


Greek Meatballs by Mary Ann
20 oz ground turkey, 93% lean or ground turkey breast
1 egg
2-3 oz feta cheese crumbles, flavored with basil and tomato
1 1/2 Tbls chopped fresh oregano
3 Tbls chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
garlic powder
salt
black pepper
2 Tbls skim milk

Mix all meatball ingredients with a fork.
Form meat mixture into balls about the size of golf balls.
Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a saute pan over med-high heat. Add 1/2 of the meatballs and brown on all sides. Add 1/3 cup chicken broth or water. cover with a lid and cook until meat is no longer pink in the middle, about 6-8 minutes.
Repeat with remaining meatballs.

Greek-style Roasted Vegetables adapted from Family Circle magazine

• 1 pound small red potatoes, quartered
• 2 small eggplants, cut into 1/2-inch half-moons
• 1 medium-size sweet onion, sliced
• 1 medium-size green bell pepper, sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 lemon
• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
• 1 tablespoon chopped mint
• 2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425 degree F. In a large roasting pan, toss together the potatoes, eggplants, onion, green pepper, 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the garlic salt and pepper. Peel off the lemon zest with a peeler and add to mixture. Reserve lemon. Roast vegetables at 425 degree F for 30 minutes, stirring twice.

2. Add chickpeas and roast an additional 15 minutes.

3. Stir in juice from lemon, oregano and mint. Top with feta crumbles.

Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnips, and Turnips

A couple of days before we left for DisneyWorld, I tried to use up the veggies that I had in my fridge and decided it was the perfect day for risotto.
The thing about risotto is that everyone thinks it is complicated for some reason. I used to think that and I don't even know why.
When I actually tried it and made it at home, I realized that it is easy.
You don't even have to stir it the entire time. You can walk away and do something else, come back, add more broth, stir, and do something else again.
It's easy; once you have tried it and once you make it at home, you will want to try it again.

I wanted to top my risotto with some roasted veggies and I had a butternut squash, turnips, and parsnips, so I decided that is what I would use.
I also used up the rest of my fresh herbs that I had on hand, which happened to be-sage, rosemary, and oregano. Thyme would also be tasty here or whatever herbs you like to use to flavor your veggies.
You could also use whatever combination of vegetables that you like- roasting them in the oven is the key.

I got my veggies in the oven and then started on my risotto. The veggies ended up being done just a few minutes before the risotto, so they were ready to serve at the same time.

I have also heard that risotto doesn't taste good warmed up or as leftovers. This is absolutely false, in my opinion. These leftovers were good cold, straight out of the fridge and tasted great warmed up too.


Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash, Parsnips, and Turnips by Mary Ann
Risotto:
1 Tbls olive oil
1/2 large white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 3/4 cup arborio rice
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 t 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Roasted Veggies:
1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 parsnips, peeled and cubed
2 turnips, peeled and cubed
1 Tbls fresh rosemary
1 Tbls fresh oregano
1 tsp fresh sage
1 Tbls olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. On a large baking sheet combine your squash, parsnips, turnips and chopped herbs. Drizzle with olive oil and toss.
Roast for 25 minutes or until tender.

In a large, heavy saucepan, or dutch oven type pan, over medium high heat, warm 1 Tbls olive oil.
Add onion and saute until soft and translucent, abt 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Add rice and stir, for about 2 minutes, making sure that the rice is mixed with the onion and coated with oil.
Add 1 cup of chicken broth and stir.
At this point you can stir continuously, or make sure you stir every few minutes.
Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup chicken broth, once the rice has absorbed the broth that is already in the pan. Continue to stir and add broth, until the rice is creamy and all the broth has been absorbed.
This process should take about 25-30 minutes.
Grate fresh Parmesan into your risotto until it melts and is combined evenly.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Scoop the risotto into bowls and top with the roasted veggies.

Butternut Squash Soup

or maybe it should be called Butternut Squash Puree. I don't know exactly.
Did you hear about the hugest butternut squash ever?
Well, if you didn't, I will just tell you that this soup/puree is the last food item that I made with my gigantic squash.
I cut my squash into cubes and roasted it in the oven with a chopped onion, fresh chopped thyme, rosemary, and oregano. Of course, it was tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper.
I roasted it for about 25-30 minutes at 425 degrees and when the squash was tender, I put the oven roasted mixture in the food processor.

I added some chicken broth, just to thin it out a little bit and, there you go- soup or puree or whatever you want to call it.
Healthier than some recipes because it doesn't contain any cream or half and half and so easy.

So if you happen to have a butternut squash on your hands and have no idea what to do with it, roast it in the oven. There are so many possibilities once you have all those tender little cubes of roasted squash!