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Turkey Quesadillas

29 Nov

We are still working on all the leftover turkey here!  My husband had wanted enchiladas, which I didn’t have enough time to get together, so we had quesadillas instead.  To start, I put 2 cups chopped turkey and 2 cups salsa in a skillet over medium-low heat and cooked about 15 minutes to let the salsa set in to the turkey.  Then, in a different skillet, I put a tortilla (these are the small flour tortillas from Bountiful Baskets), then some of the chicken and salsa mixture, then shredded Mexican blend cheese, and folded the tortilla over.  I cooked for a few minutes on each side until the tortilla browned.  I then served with sour cream and homemade guacamole.  It was a big hit in my house!

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Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes

29 Nov

Recently at Bountiful Baskets, we got some HUGE russet potatoes.  We love baked potatoes in my house, but potatoes that big can take forever to bake.  Well, I discovered there is a pretty easy way to get a baked potato – in the slow cooker!  So, here is what you need to do!

First, wash and completely dry your potatoes.  Poke with a fork around the potatoes.  Wrap them in aluminum foil and place in the slow cooker.

 

Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 5-6 hours.  Remove from foil and serve.

 

Here is how we had ours, fully loaded with shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, sour cream, and chives.  I know, not the healthiest, but so good!

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Lasagna using Egg Roll Wrappers

27 Nov

 

I meant to get a picture of this before we started eating, but forgot!  Anyway, I had gotten a package of egg roll wrappers from a friend who wasn’t going to be using them.  I didn’t have vegetables for egg rolls, so I decided to explore other things I could use the wrappers for.  Turns out there is a lot!  My husband and daughter have been asking for lasagna, and I had cottage cheese in the fridge, so it was an easy decision!  This was quick to put together and didn’t take too long to bake.  This only took 4 wrappers, so I have plenty left to try something new tomorrow night!  Now, my husband could tell a difference in using wrappers over dry noodles from a box.  I couldn’t tell much different, but wrappers are a lot thinner, so it’s not as bulky.  But, something different to try, and if you have a few wrappers left from another meal, this is a great way to use them up.

 

Lasagna using Egg Roll Wrappers

What you need:

2 cups cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup chopped spinach
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
Salt and pepper
2 cups tomato or meat sauce
4 large egg roll wrappers

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together cottage cheese, egg, spinach, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

In an 8×8 baking dish, cover the bottom of the dish with a little of the sauce.  Place egg roll wrapper down on the sauce.

Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture over wrapper.  Spread sauce over the cheese mixture.  Then, place a wrapper.  Continue until cheese mixture is out and you end with a wrapper on top.  Pour remaining sauce over the top.  Sprinkle remaining Parmesan and mozzarella cheese on the top.

Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Remove foil, and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until cheese on top has melted.

 

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

22 Nov

Well, another Thanksgiving meal has come and gone for our household.  Not really gone, because we have plenty of leftovers, but the big task of cooking it all is done.  I had my 2 little helpers this morning while I cooked, and I love that I get to cook and share the joy of making food with them.  I wanted to get a picture of the whole spread, but didn’t get a chance, but here is a plate with all we had:

So, starting top at going clockwise, here is what we had:

Turkey: Fresh, organic 21.5 pound turkey from Grateful Harvest, ordered through the Sierra Vista Food Co-op.  It cost a bit more than what I normally spend, but I think it was worth it.  It tasted amazing!  Although, I did use my “cheat” this year again, using a Reynolds Oven Bag, to cook the turkey.  I added cut up onion, celery, and carrots to the bag, rubbed the turkey in olive oil and poultry seasoning.  Sometimes, I think simpler is better!  The broth the collected in the bottom I kept for gravy.  Now, the turkey carcass is split up between my 2 slow cookers with new onions, celery, and carrots, plus water, to make turkey stock.  I’m going to have a lot of turkey stock, which is good since I haven’t made chicken stock in a while.

Dinner rolls: Ordered in my Custom FarmBox from Sunizona Family Farms bakery.  We love their sprouted Khorasan bread, and these are made with the same sprouted Khorasan wheat.  Delicious!

Mashed potatoes:  Red potatoes from Sunizona Family Farms, 2 pounds.  Left the skins on, diced, and cooked until soft.  Mashed and mixed in a stick of butter, 1/2 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon fresh chives, also from Sunizona Family Farms.

Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing: Recipe here.  Used Lundberg’s wild rice blend, then celery and onion from Bountiful Basktets and fresh parsley from Sunizona Family Farms.

Bread & Celery Dressing: Recipe here.  This year, I used Special Spelt bread from the Sunizona Family Farms bakery, and celery and onion from Bountiful Baskets.

Green Bean Casserole: Recipe here.  I used fresh green beans from Sunizona Family Farms to make it.  I really like this, but I really want to find an alternative to using cream of mushroom soup in a can.  I’ll be experimenting over the year to see what I can come up with.

Cranberry Sauce:  I used cranberries and oranges from Bountiful Baskets to make this.  This was a lot easier than I thought!  Here is how to make it.

What you need:

12 oz bag of fresh cranberries (about 3 cups)
1/2 – 1 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you want it (I used 1/2 cup)
Juice of 3 oranges, or 1 cup orange juice

How to make it:

Dissolve sugar in orange juice over medium heat.  Add cranberries, and cook until cranberry skins have cracked and a gel starts to form, about 15-20 minutes.  Pour into serving bowl and sauce will set more as it cools.  

 

Sweet Potato Pie (not pictured): Recipe here.  I used sweet potatoes from Sunizona Family Farms.

 

It really turned out to be a great meal that my family and I all really enjoyed!  I hope that everyone else had a great Thanksgiving day as well!

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Spinach, Feta, and Bacon Mini Quiche

20 Nov

 

I got a chance to try out a recipe from the 2012 Taste of Home Cooking School show that I recently attended.  These are delicious!  The original recipe calls for brie, but since I had feta cheese on hand, I used it instead, knowing it is a good combination with spinach and bacon.  It also says to use 2 pie crusts, but I found that 1 pie crust and the filling filled the 12 muffin cups in my pan.  So, since I had both pie crusts ready to go, I doubled the amount of filling and got 24 mini quiches.  Yum!

 

Spinach, Feta, and Bacon Mini Quiche
Original recipe here

What you need:

4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, washed & diced
2 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 refrigerated pie crust

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk eggs together with milk, salt & pepper.  Add spinach, bacon, onion, and feta to egg mixture and blend well.

Roll out pie crust and cut in 3 inch circles (I used a juice glass to cut the circles); line muffin tins with circles.

Spoon egg mixture into each muffin cup, filling 3/4 full; place in oven and cook for 25 minutes or until eggs are set.

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Ham and Pineapple Pizza

19 Nov

We had quite a bit of ham leftover from the Tangy Honey Glazed Ham I had made, plus some pineapple that I had cut for the glaze.  Coincidentally, I also had a pizza crust from the Sunizona Family Farms bakery.  So, what to make???  Ham and pineapple pizza!  It turned out so great!  So great, that I almost forgot to snap a picture!

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Time to thaw those Thanksgiving turkeys!!

19 Nov

Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and if you are cooking a turkey, it’s probably time to start thawing it in the fridge, if that’s the method you choose.  There have been a couple of years where I almost forgot to start thawing it out, or started it too late, so at the end, I had to put it in cold water to thaw it the rest of the way.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has a fact sheet on safely making your turkey for the holiday, including guidelines on thawing and roasting your turkey.

Let’s Talk Turkey – A Consumer Guide to Safely Roasting a Turkey

I ordered a fresh turkey this year, so I get to skip the thawing process!  In addition to turkey, we will also be having mashed potatoes, bread and celery dressing, wild rice and sausage dressing, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and sweet potato pie.  The potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, and sweet potatoes are all from Sunizona Family Farms, the celery and bread from Bountiful Baskets, and the turkey I ordered through the Sierra Vista Food Co-op.  I am so ready to cook and eat it all!

What will you be cooking and/or eating this week?

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Tangy Honey Glazed Ham

16 Nov

 

Oh my, this ham was delicious!  My husband and I had to stop ourselves from eating too much!  I’m glad I finally decided that tonight was the night for some Zaycon Foods ham!  I first cut the ham into 3 sections, which of course I didn’t cut very evenly, so this section was about 4.5 pounds of the 10 pounds that it was.  Oh well.  It was a good size for us, with slices leftover to lunch tomorrow.  This was a fully cooked, boneless ham, so really, I just had to make sure the ham was heated though, then added the glaze and cooked a little longer for added flavor.  Yum!  This glaze was perfect since I received a pineapple and oranges at Bountiful Baskets this past weekend.  The recipe called for pineapple juice, but I just took fresh pineapple chunks and pureed them in the blender.  The honey was from a bucket of honey I bought a while back that I finally divided into smaller jars today.  Everything tastes better fresh!  This does have Dijon mustard, so if you aren’t a fan, I think you could leave it out and still have a nice glaze with the rest of the ingredients.

 

Tangy Honey Glazed Ham
Based on recipe here

What you need:

1 ham (mine was fully cooked, boneless, 4.5 pounds in weight)
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup pureed fresh pineapple (or 1/3 cup pineapple juice)
Juice of 1 orange (or 1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon cloves

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Cook ham according to type and weight, using guidelines on package or here.  For my ham, I lined a roasting pan with foil, set the ham in, added 1/2 cup water to the pan, and covered the ham in foil.  I cooked it for 45 minutes to make sure it was heated through.

Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Once ham has finished cooking, remove the foil cover.  Pour 1/3 of the glaze over the ham, and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.  Repeat until glaze is gone, for a total of 30 minutes of cooking uncovered with the glaze.  Check to make sure the temperature is at 140 F if the ham was in original packaging, or 165 F for re-packaged or leftover ham.  Cook additional time as needed.  Slice and serve!

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup

12 Nov

 

So, I usually make potato soup in the slow cooker, but I didn’t really think far enough ahead of time to get it going.  So, I decided to try a stove top version instead.  I looked up a few recipes, and came up with a mix between my normal recipe and some others I found.

 

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

What you need:

1/2 pound bacon
1/2 onion, finely diced (I used a red onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup flour
1 quart chicken broth
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, diced, peeled or unpeeled (I used a mix of red and white potatoes, and left the peels on)
1 8oz package cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

How to make it:

In a large stockpot, cook bacon until crispy.  Remove from pot and crumble; set aside.

Keeping the bacon grease in the stockpot, add onions and minced garlic.  If there is not enough bacon grease, melt 4 tablespoons  of butter in the stockpot.  Cook onions and garlic until caramelized.  Stir in flour.  Pour in chicken broth while stirring constantly to avoid any lumps.     Add the potatoes, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  Use a potato masher or immersion blender to mas potatoes to desired consistency (I prefer my soup to be a little lumpy).  Stir in bacon, cream cheese, and shredded cheddar cheese, and continue to cook until cheese is melted.

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Guacamole BLT on Sourdough

12 Nov

 

This is one of the best lunches I’ve had at home in a while!  I had a sourdough loaf from Bountiful Baskets in my freezer that I thawed, sliced, and toasted.  Then, I had green leaf lettuce from Sunizona Family Farms and tomatoes from Grammy’s at our Farmer’s Market.  The bacon was from my recent Zaycon Foods bacon event, yum!  The guacamole was made with $.83 avocados and $.20 limes from my Safeway just for U personalized deals (plus a little garlic salt!).  Finally, I added some swiss cheese, which was also a just for U personalized deal at Safeway, $1.68 for an 8oz package of slices.  So, not only delicious, but cheap for me to make too!

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