Healthy Turkey Moussaka

What you’ll need:

·         2 eggplants, about 2 lbs. total, sliced to about 1/3” thick·         1 lb. red potatoes, also sliced about ¼” thick·         2 lbs. ground turkey·         2 large sweet yellow onions, finely diced·         4 cloves garlic, minced·         3 tsp. apple pie spice·         1 cup chopped tomato (I like them thicker for a little crunch)·         Salt and pepper ·         1 cup shredded veggie mozzarella·         ½ cup grated parmesan·         1 BIG tub of ricotta- fat free skim would be a conscientious choice

         Bechamel Sauce:·         1 cup salted butter (2 sticks)·         1 cup flour·         4 cups milk, warmed (skim works fine but whole gets creamier)·         8 egg yolks, lightly beaten·         Pinch of ground nutmeg (or more apple pie spice works fine too)

How it’s done:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan
Whisk in the flower & simmer for about 5 minutes until you have a thick roux
Stir in the milk
Combine the rest of the suace ingredients in sauce pan and simmer & stir for about 15 minutes until thick & creamy.

While sauce simmers, grease an 11 x 14 baking pan
Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of sliced potatoes
Add a layer of ricotta
Add a layer of béchamel (1/3 of the sauce)
Drizzle the garlic cloves over the ricotta layer
Line the ricotta with the sliced eggplant
Top the eggplant with the diced onion and then coat with the ground turkey
Coat with another layer of béchamel (1/3 of the sauce)
season with salt & pepper, and the apple pie spice
Top the turkey layer with a tomato layer
Coat with the veggie mozzerella & parmesian and then pour the remaining béchamel over everything.
Cook at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours or until the top is golden

quick protein wrap

What you'll need:
baked chicken, sliced diagonally (bake at 350 for 20-25 min)
mushed avocado
2-4 strips of bacon/ turkey bacon (fried or microwaved)
black bean hummus (combine chick pea & black bean (1/4 cup) in food processor)
cranberry jam
romaine lettuce
sliced tomato
spinach wrap

How it's done:
layer the jam on one half and the black bean hummus on the other half of the spinach wrap
put down a bed of romaine
cover Romain with avocado
layer bacon and chicken
top with 1/3 of a tomato, sliced.

Roll and LOVE IT!

Strawberry salad

What you'll need:

• sliced Strawberries
• 1 Haas Avocado, sliced
• I like romaine, but 2 cups of whatever lettuce you like is fine.
• Raspberry vinaigrette
• chick-peas
• edemame
• blue cheese
• almonds

 
How to do it:

I wont insult your intelligence by telling you how to mix a salad. However, I will tell you that I whipped this up with what was in my ridge yesterday, and it was amazing with the edemame and chickpeas. The avocado supplied just the right amount of protein.

 
 

Turkey Bacon Avocado –Bravo!

Stuff you’ll need:

• Turkey breasts
• cherry wood smoked gluten free bacon
• two avocados
• Blackberry jelly
• cooking string
• two cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• mozzarella cheese

 

How you make it:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Start with two turkey breasts (not tenderloin, breasts!). Put them in a medium ziplock back or between two sheets of wax paper, and pound the breasts out until about ½ inch think. Try not to put hoiles in the turley, and don’t pound it too hard. It will take a while, but is worth it. This is fairly standard for a variety of meals, including Kiev’s and other stuffed meats.

One the turkey is pounder out, coated with flour, dip in an egg wash, and coat with Italian panko bread crumbs.

Season with salt & pepper, and then smear one side of the turkey with blackberry jelly.
Place two or three pieces of uncooked bacon, a clove of chopped garlic, and two or three big chunks of mozzarella in the turkey.

Roll the turkey up, so the jelly, mozzarella, bacon and garlic are on the inside. Tie the turkey breast closed with string.

Heat up your olive oil in a frying pan and then fry all sides of the turkey until the panko is golden. Place in the oven for another 30-40 minutes, or until thermometer placed in turkey reads 160 degrees.

Cut open the avacados, combine in a bowl and smoosh until guacamole-ish. Add a bit of salt if you find the taste too bland, although clean fresh avacado is so delicious. (FUN FACT: Avocados got their name from the Spanish explorers. They couldn't pronounce the Aztec word for the fruit, know as ahuacatl, "testicle," because of its shape. The Spanish called the aguacate, leading to the guacamole we know today.)


I ate this for dinner last night with spicy Spanish rice and sautéed mushrooms in shallots for my side dishes. Awesomely good.

Eggplant Pontchartrain

This is one of my all time favorite meals. My Mom's boyfriend made it for me one day as a peace offering, and I swear No one does it quite like him. However, I try and it turns out pretty great :-)

What you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup light white wine
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• Small shrimp  (frozen in a bag is fine)- already peeled & deveined.
• 1/4 lb. crab meat- real or faux tastes the same.
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 julienned red pepper
• 1 julienned green bell pepper
• 1 medium yellow onion chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp. minced fresh garlic
• 1/4 lb. butter
• 1/2 tsp. Nunu’s spice, or any other Cajun seasoning your into.
• Salt and pepper.
• one or two eggplants, skinned and cut into about 1/2 “ thick slices.
• ½ cub breadcrumbs ( I found gluten free ones, but they arent as good as the store-brand Italian seasoned ones...)
• ¼ cub flour (wheat works the same and is better for ya)
• frying oil- pick your favorite. I’ve been trying to use coconut oil but it’s so expensive. Sometimes the best you can afford is vegetable oil…

How its done:

Salt the eggplant and place on top of paper towel. Put another paper towel on top of the eggplant and then weigh it down with something heavy (like a book) to get all of the moisture out of the eggplant.

Once it feel light and barely moist, commence standard breading procedure 9coat in flour), dredge through whipped up ugg, and then roll in breading.

Fry ‘em up! I would just brown the outside of the breadcrumbs and then bake the rest of the way through, about 20 minutes at 350 degrees in the oven.

The sauce is the easy part; simmer cream, butter and wine over medium heat until cream is reduced and begins to thicken. Add everything else. It doesn’t matter what order- just put it all in there. Return to simmer and salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon over your eggplant and ENJOY

 

Fried Ice Cream

This is easiest to make with a blast freezer, however if you don’t have one, then a regular freezer (set to the coldest setting)  will work fine. I’m going to give directions for a regular freezer.
 
 Because of the amount of oil needed for the fryer, I would suggest making the investment worth it and making this recipe with a whole box of ice cream for a party or something- say the up and coming holiday of 4^th of July- perfect occasion…

OK, Here’s what you’’ll need:

• Fryer (if you don’t have one, K-Mart sells them for under $20 bucks!)
• 2-4 gallons of peanut oil (depending on the fryer size)
• Tub/ Bucket/ Big container of Ice cream- whatever flavor you like. Lately I’ve been a huge fan of making this with the heath bar flavor, but to each his own. If it’s for a holiday, try using an ice cream that goes with the color (like blueberry or strawberry for the 4^th.)
• Macadamia nuts- crushed
• 12 eggs (cage free is always nice. If you aren’t aware of the conditions chickens are kept in, I won’t preach, but they cost the same- Just a thought.).
• Panko Crumbs (Lots and Lots- probably two tubes. Be careful to get regular seasoned & not Italian...)
• Coconut (shredded, unless you want to break open the thing and shred it yourself)
• Vanilla extract (THIS DOES NOT TASTE GOOD ON ITS OWN. Believe me; that was a hard lesson to learn)

 Here's how it’s done:

Pre scoop the ice cream servings and put back in the freezer on the coldest lever for 6 hours.

Remove two eggs at a time, crack and beat with a tablespoon of vanilla.

Mix Macadamia, coconut and panko in bowl.

Remove, cover in egg mixture, and coat with crushed macadamia, panko and coconut.

Put the ice cream back in the freezer for another two hours.

Take out and coat again.

From here, use your judgment. If you think the ice cream coat is thick enough, then pour the oil in your fryer and start to heat it up. Drop each ice cream ball in there for about a minute or until the coating is brown. If your coating is still pretty thin, keep adding layers until it feels crusty and heavy when you take it out of the freezer. Otherwise when you fry the ice cream, it will just goop and melt everywhere.

 

 

Gluten Free Turkey Lasagna

This is one of those rare times when the healthy version is sincerely so much better, both nutritionally and tasting, then the unhealthy version. Here's what you'll need:

• Ground turkey (5 or 6 lbs)
• veggie brand gluten/ dairy free mozzarella (don't try to eat this by itself; it tastes gross. But mixed with everything else, its delicious).
• shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 onion, either yellow or white, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup good olive oil
• white mushroom- minced
• rosemary
  
• thyme
• salt
• pepper
• gluten free lasagna pasta
• oregano
• ricotta cheese- LOTS of it

Here's how its done:
Brown turkey meat in skillet. Drain & set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium, Add the minced mushroom, garlic and onion.
Let that simmer awhile, maybe 10-15 minutes, so that the flavors marinate together.
When your house starts to smell amazing, add the turkey meat to the oil and generously douse with rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.
Boil the pasta until al dente. Make sure you ass salt so the pasta doesn't stick. (If it does stick together later on, just run some cold water over it- it will be fine).
Grease a baking pan and layer the pasta along the bottom, with no spaces in between.
Spread the ricotta across the pasta, then add the meat portions in a layer, heavily sprinkle with oregano, and finally a layer of veggie cheese.
Repeat these layers until you are out of ingredients and then put a ton of Parmesan top.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes
Let it sit for 15 minutes when it comes out of the oven so the meat can settle, otherwise it wont look very pretty on the plate.