turkey

You are currently browsing articles tagged turkey.

Polenta

February 13, 2013 in Food by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Remember that heavenly polenta dinner that I attended in the North End last year? It was on an incredibly cold night, and warm welcomes and hot boards of polenta, along with lots of laughs, good friends by my side, and restaurant family stories made it simply magical.

Polenta is the perfect comfort food, a canvas for all sorts of flavors and ingredients, and my only wish that night was that I could make polenta as creamy and lump-free as the polenta at Lucia.

Well, it’s not quite the same, but I have found a way to make polenta that we love right at home. The secret is Pastene instant polenta. Instant polenta? I kind of assumed it would be lumpy and not great just due to its instant nature. I couldn’t have been more wrong; with boiling water it cooks in minutes and barely requires stirring. It’s the easiest way to start a comforting dinner on a busy weeknight or a slow-cooked sauce and polenta on a Sunday afternoon.

polenta

We’ve been eating a lot of polenta, and it’s been fun to experiment with the toppings. One Sunday night, I made a turkey meat sauce, health factor amped up with red lentils, made creamy with coconut cream and spicy with hot paprika. The coconut cream might sound a bit weird, but it just worked. It’s definitely a new favorite Trader Joe’s product.

lentils.

Another favorite polenta dinner included a spicy chicken sausage and peppers sauce made with caramelized onions, sweet and hot peppers, arrabiata sauce, and some corn thrown in, because while we did a great job snack shopping before Nemo, we kind of forgot groceries for the week. As a result, we’re cleaning out the cupboards and freezer. It’s been kind of fun using things up and getting creative, but I definitely look forward to a fully-stocked fridge and a meal plan again.

sausage and peppers

There doesn’t seem to be an end to dreary weather in sight, so I think polenta is here to stay. I’d like to make a creamy mushroom sauce soon, maybe with some tofu snuck in to add nutrition and protein.

Are you a polenta fan? Any suggestions for what fun toppings to add?

Tags: chicken sausage, coconut milk, Food, healthy, lentils, peppers, polenta, recipe, turkey, versatile meals

Spicy Pasta Sauce

January 25, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 10 comments

Winter comfort food to me is generally hot and spicy. True, I love a good baked mac and cheese as much as the next person, but eating too much hearty, cheesy food bores my palate, leads me to overeat, and just doesn’t excite me.

My husband, on the other hand, grew up in Ireland, where as he says, ketchup is considered spicy. Over the years, he has built up not just an impressive tolerance for spice, but a love for it. Just last Friday, he was calling me weak when our takeaway Vindaloo made me sweat.

image

Marathon training has me craving comfort food in the form of carbs as well as satisfying protein, so I recently whipped up a super simple meat sauce to coat ribbons of fettuccini.

I started with my veggies:

2 cups of small, sweet peppers

1 yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

image

Instead of chopping these by hand, I pureed them. I really wanted them to kind of disappear into the sauce rather than being chunks of veggies. I was all about the meat in this dish, but I know I need my veggies too.

image

For this meat sauce, I used a package of hot Italian turkey sausage, removed from the casing and broken up, cooked in a little bit of olive oil and crushed red pepper to add more heat.

image

It smelled amazing.

image

Once the sausage was cooked, I poured in a can of crushed tomatoes and added a sprinkle of salt, a few pinches of dried basil, a dash of garlic powder and a pinch of oregano. I also added a splash of red wine from an open bottle, stirred it all up, and let it bubble away on the lowest heat while I worked.

image

I checked on the sauce over the course of about two hours, dipping pieces of bread in for a taste. When we were little, if my mom was making her amazing homemade sauce, she would always cut up bread for us and give us little bowls of sauce after school. I can still taste it, and it is still one of my favorite ways to eat sauce.

I couldn’t even wait for my husband to get for dinner to eat. I had one bowl before he got home and another with him. This sauce was easy, incredibly flavorful, and made for a pretty balanced meal.

I am always looking for easy, hearty meals to make for after training runs when I am ravenous and craving comfort. What are your favorites? Feel free to share links!

Tags: dinner, Food, pasta, recipe, sauce, turkey

Greek-Inspired Meatballs with Spiced Yogurt

March 3, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 17 comments

I made an amazing dinner last night, if I do say so myself. My kitchen creativity has been off with my health, somewhere where I can’t seem to catch it, but last night I definitely felt it coming back. Now if only I could feel better and find my energy. Last week the doctor said I could expect to be exhausted for 10-14 days, but honestly I am over looking forward to bedtime at 11 am, coughing, and feeling achy all day long.

But I digress. Dinner last night. My original plan was to make traditional turkey meatball subs with mozzarella cheese, onions, peppers, and red sauce. After a quick survey of things I needed to use up before California, I decided to make a Greek-inspired dinner, starting with half a block of Athenos feta.

feta

I started by chopping and crumbling the feta until it was in small crumbs. I mixed it with a container of ground turkey, an egg, a teaspoon of oregano, and about a cup of panko bread crumbs.

turkey meatballs

Feeling un-well, I was totally grossed out by making the meatballs, but I rolled up my sleeves and got to work, placing them on a baking tray and then putting the meatballs in the oven at 375 until they were starting to brown.

turkey meatballs

At the very end, I turned the oven to broil which was a nice finishing touch.

image

To top the meatballs, I used some of the abundance of Fage 2% yogurt that we have to make a quick sauce. It couldn’t have been easier. I popped four garlic cloves, peeled, a jalapeno, a handful of cilantro, and some ground black pepper in the food processor.

cilantro and garlic

yogurt sauce

Then I added about a cup of Fage, whirled it all around, and had a tangy sauce for the meatballs. Despite the jalapeno, it wasn’t spicy, just really flavorful.

I served up the meatballs in romaine lettuce leaves, topped with the yogurt sauce, with a side of Trader Joe’s naan.

meatballs with yogurt sauce

meatballs with yogurt sauce

I actually added more lettuce and sauce after the photo shoot, but thought this was kind of pretty Smile We do usually eat more than what is in my photos.

And now for a little giveaway for my Boston area readers. You may remember the awesome swag bag I got at the Boston Food Bloggers launch party. Well, it was so chock full of good stuff that I really can’t use it all, especially the items that require a car, so I am putting together a little package of fun for one lucky winner:

1 Free Make Your Own Cupcake at Treat Cupcake Bar

a free bowling pass to King’s in Legacy Place

a $5 gift card to Wicked Restaurant & Wine Bar

$20 toward dinner and $10 toward lunch at Acquitaine

To enter, just leave a comment on this post, and I will pick a winner over the weekend.

After I took the swag bag out to go through it, I was writing this post and heard a rustling noise. Scout was apparently interested in the bag’s contents.

Scout the cat

Tags: cheese, cilantro, cooking, dinner, feta, feta cheese, Food, garlic, giveaway, healthy, healthy recipe, jalapeno, nmeatballs, recipe, romaine lettuce, turkey, yogurt

« Older entries

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera