Turkey Breast (Double-Duty Dinners, Part 1)

Roasted turkey with veggies

We all have those weeks where life is just crazy! There is something that either begins or ends close to dinner time, 3 or 4 days of the week. I really don't like those weeks. But, they happen. And this month seems to be full of those weeks for my family. There are nights where it's pretty much impossible to avoid eating out (example: a swimming lesson that ends at 6:00 and a meeting at church that begins at 7:00), but I've been working hard on feeding us at home whenever possible. The easiest way to do that has been through double-duty (or even triple-duty) meals. These are wonderful meals where you cook one thing, usually in the crock pot, then use the leftovers for different, quick, easy meals.I know that side dishes on busy evening can be hard, so I'll try to include easy side dishes, even if the ones pictured aren't so easy.

Turkey dip with sweet potato fries

The first double-duty meal is actually a triple, or even quadruple-duty dinner. Turkey breast, turkey dips, turkey soup, and even easy lunches of turkey sandwiches, depending on the size of your family. I've been making turkey breast in the slow cooker since I got married. My mom made it for us year-round when I was growing up. I know there are people who see turkey as a Thanksgiving-only food, but I'm not one of them.  A friend of mine came across the recipe for turkey dips and posted it on her blog about a year ago. I quickly made it a few weeks later when I found turkey breasts on sale. The big change I made to this recipe was to have the sandwiches the second day. I did this for two reasons: the first being that I really love turkey as a meal by itself. The second was that I wanted to dip the sandwich in just the broth, and skim some of the fat off the drippings, and that's just easier if you let it sit in the fridge over night. I also changed the cheese on the sandwich to something more kid and budget-friendly.

For the turkey soup, I threw all the turkey bones into the slow cooker with carrots, celery, onions, and 12 cups of water, and cooked on low for 12 hours to get nice broth. The recipe is an old post , and is a favorite at our house. We eat it year-round, even in the summer. The soup can even be thrown together in the slow cooker in the morning and it's ready by dinner time.

As promised, I'll share some easy side dish ideas. If you have an hour to work on sides- including prep-time: roasted potatoes, rainbow veggies, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, or roasted cauliflower. If you have less than 30 minutes: frozen vegetables, fruit salad, frozen french fries, green salad, or even chips with the sandwich (my favorite are BBQ chips).

Hopefully these turkey recipes will help if you have a busy week where just thinking about cooking stresses you out.

Roasted Turkey and Turkey Dips
Adapted from Cooking Channel 

4 tablespoons softened butter (or if you forget to set out the butter, like me, just melt it)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
note: substitute 1 tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning if you don't have the fresh herbs on hand
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 bone-in turkey breast

1) Spread the onions in the bottom of a slow cooker. Pour the chicken chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce over the onions.
2) Sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper and place in the slow cooker.
3) Mix the herbs and butter together in a small glass bowl.
4) Spread the butter over the turkey breast, trying to get some of it under the skin.
5) Cook on high for 4-6 hours, or on low for 8 hours.
6) Slice and serve with sides of your choice. Save the broth and drippings from the slow cooker in a glass jar in the fridge. Use for dips with leftovers.

***If you figure out an easy way to get a turkey breast out of a crockpot without making a total mess, please let me know.

Turkey Dips
Serves 4

2-4 ounces of sliced turkey per person
4 ciabatta rolls, slices of french bread, sandwich rolls, or crusty bread of your choice.
4 slices of your favorite melting cheese- we like Gouda, double Gloucester, and Munster.
softened butter
Turkey broth/drippings from the previous night. Optional: scoop the fat off the top before heating.

1) Heat the leftover broth and drippings in a saucepan over medium heat.
2) Preheat the broiler to high.
3) Split each roll or slice of bread in half. Spread butter on cut side and broil for about 1 minute. Top with turkey and cheese, and broil another 1-2 minutes, until bread is browned, turkey is warm, and cheese is melted.
4) Place the buttery top of the bun on the side with the cheese and turkey. Serve with broth for dipping.

Tortilla Soup

My mom and I came across this recipe when I was 12 or 13.  She has a cookbook called "Creme de Colorado," that had a recipe for Chili Verde in it. I made the Chili Verde for a chili cook-off at church and noticed the recipe next to it, called Sopa de Tortilla. My mom and I thought it looked like a great recipe and decided to make it for Christmas Eve.  We all loved it and it turned into our Christmas Eve tradition.  With the exception of a few years when I've been on the road for Christmas Eve, I've made this soup every year. My husband always looks forward to it.  His favorite part is when I roast the poblano pepper.  He loves the smell! I've made a few changes to the recipe over the years and have started making it in a crock pot.  The first time I made this for my in-laws, I also made some black beans.  My father in law ended up putting the beans in his soup, so now we add a can of beans to the soup.  One year, I had a ton of bell peppers, so I diced one and put it in the soup...now an extra bell pepper is a must. I make my soup pretty mild because of the kids. If you like spicier things, go ahead and make it with the full amount of chili powder and poblano (or even jalapeno). I set out extra roasted poblano peppers so people can add some spice if they need it.
I usually go ahead and toast the corn tortilla strips...but this year there was just too much to do. I ended up buying some salad toppers that were multi-colored tortilla strips. They work just fine in a pinch.

For the Kids: Some of the broth with alphabet pasta

Merry Christmas!!

Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Creme de Colorado
makes 6 - 8 servings

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups beef broth
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 poblano pepper, roasted, seeded and diced (I only use 1/2 in the soup)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
4 corn tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch strips
Soup toppers:  monterey jack cheese, diced tomato, avocado, green onions, additional hot peppers, and black olives

1) In a large pot, saute onion, bell pepper and garlic in oil for about 5 minutes.
2) Add beef broth, chicken broth, tomato juice, cumin, chili powder, poblano pepper, salt, and worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 1 hour.
3) Add chicken and black beans and cook for 15 minutes longer.
4) Heat oven to 350. Place tortilla strips on a baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes.
5) To serve soup: place a few tortilla strips in the bottom of a bowl. Ladle soup on top. Top with desired toppings.

Crockpot instructions: Saute onion, bell pepper and garlic in a skillet. Combine with  beef broth, chicken broth, tomato juice, cumin, chili powder, poblano pepper, salt, and worcestershire sauce in a crock pot. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Add chicken and beans for last 30 minutes.

Crockpot

September Menu

Yellow Rice and Chicken

A few weeks ago, I promised to post my menu from September. Quite a bit of the month was spent trying to clear out space in the freezer so that we would have room for our share of some yummy grass-fed beef that will be arriving soon. I only ended up with one meatless meal this month :(  Between cookouts and dinners with friends, clearing the freezer, and some extra hot dogs in the fridge, it wasn't a great month to be a vegetable.  There are a few meals that say "meal co-op" next to them.  Meal co-ops are a great time saver.  For one co-op, I made 4 baked zitis, kept one for myself, and gave the rest to friends. I came home with chicken pie, enchilada casserole, and lasagna rolls.  As long as you have the freezer space for the meals, these co-ops are wonderful! Not all of the recipes have links.  If you want any of those recipes, just let me know and I'll share them. Some of them will be posted soon, so I'll be sure to update the links.

September Menu (Can you tell I don't like to cook on Fridays?)
1: Calico Beans with baked sweet potatoes on the side
2: Out
3: Bean Dip (football game)
4: Grilled London broil, pork chops, and veggies.
5: BBQ with friends
6: Pulled pork tacos (pork cooked in the crock pot and shredded, with taco seasoning added after shredding)
7: Chicken Pie from meal co-op
8: Out
9: Hot dogs with pasta and sauce (I was celebrating a friend's birthday, so daddy cooked)
10: Red beans and rice with grilled cheese
11: Thai chicken burgers with fries
12: Out- original plan was sausage and apple stuffing in the slow cooker, but it burned...
13: Enchiladas from meal co-op
14: Baked delicata squash with hot dogs and cheddar brats
15: Slow cooker stroganoff
16: Out
17: Football game- lasagna made by a friend
18: Out (family trip to Sea World).
19: Slow cooker Asian short ribs with mashed potatoes
20: Cranberry bean and sausage soup
21: Bacon and egg pizza
22: Zatarain's frozen blackened chicken alfredo pasta
23: Out
24: BLT with buffalo blue cheese aioli
25: Birthday party for a friend
26: Welsh rarebit
27: Yellow rice and chicken
28: Chicken parm. from meal co-op
29: Apple cider stew
30: Out

Apple Cider Beef Stew

I've been learning to do more with stew meat lately.  Partly because it's not too expensive, and also because we order grass-fed beef in bulk, so I'm learning to cook all sorts of cuts of meat I normally wouldn't know what to do with. I came across this recipe in a slow cooker cookbook and thought it looked delicious.  I ended up tweaking it a little bit based on ingredients I had on hand. I also add more liquid when I use grass-fed beef since I still have a fear of the meat turning out tough (especially stew meat).  I was expecting the apples in this recipe to cook like the potatoes, but they didn't stay firm. They just kind of dissolved in the broth. I will still add them because I enjoyed the flavor they added, even if I couldn't see the big pieces of apple.  I always add more carrots to recipes because my husband and son love carrots cooked in "meat juice." My husband really enjoyed this recipe (so did the kids). It was a nice mix of sweet and savory.  I will definitely be making this again, especially if this 90 degree weather ever changes!

Apple Cider Beef Stew

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 carrots, cut into large pieces

4 red potatoes, quartered

2 onions, quartered

2 apples, cored and quartered

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cups apple cider

2 cups beef broth

1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon pepper

salt and pepper, to taste

1) In a large skillet, brown meat in hot oil Drain off fat.

2) In a slow cooker, combine carrots, potatoes, beef, apples, and celery.  

3) Mix cider beef broth, thyme, and pepper in a large bowl. Pour over beef and vegetables.

4) Cook on low for 8 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Simple Cooking Part 4: Crock Pots

Slow Cooker Goulash

I love my crock pot.  I also switch back and forth between the terms "slow cooker" and "crock pot" quite a bit, so I apologize for any inconsistencies in this post.  Thanks to my mom, who gave me one of her old crock pots, I am the owner of 2 large crock pots.  Her crock pot is at least 10 years older than mine, which is a good thing. The newer crock pots tend to cook things a little too fast, which sometimes leads to a mess and an overcooked dinner (which is supposed to be impossible with a slow cooker).  I haven't posted many of my crock pot recipes because most of them don't photograph well.  Slow Cooker Goulash is probably the pretties thing I make in the crock pot, so I decided to make that my picture for this post. I do have a few recipes posted under the slow cooker tag. Today I am going to post two of my family's favorite recipes that definitely do not photograph well!  I am not even going to pretend that they are healthy. Both recipes are simple comfort foods. Yes, I know that one of them has a can of cream of mushroom soup in it...and yes, I know you can make your own.  But I only cook with this stuff once a month at the most, so it's not a big deal to me to open up a can and dump it in the crock pot.   I hope you enjoy the recipes below as much as my family does!

Many thanks to my friend Krista, who tried a lot of recipes in "Fix-It and Forget-It," and gave me a list of the recipes that were good (and more importantly, the ones to avoid).

Ethel's Calico Beans
Adapted from "Fix-It and Forget-It"

1/2 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
16-ounce can small red beans, drained
14.5-ounce can baked beans, undrained
15-ounce can butter beans, drained

1) Brown ground beef, onion, and bacon in skillet. Drain.
2) Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
3) Cover. Cook on low 8 hours.

 I like to serve this with corn bread, french fries, or baked sweet potatoes.


Bean Tator Tot Casserole
From "Fix-It and Forget-It"

1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 pound bag frozen green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup shredded cheese
21-ounce bag frozen tator tots

1) Crumble raw ground beef in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2) Layer remaining ingredients on beef in order listed.
3) Cover. Cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 3 hours.

Simple Cooking Part 1

BLT with Malabar Spinach from the Garden

I really have been cooking quite a bit the last month.  I just haven't had much time to blog about it.  My son started Kindergarten at the beginning of August.  I've also been busy with things at church, swimming lessons, spending time in the garden, trying to keep up with laundry, and a little girl who misses her big brother during the day.  We are actually eating at home more than we were this summer, I am just doing much simpler cooking.  Sometimes this means using more convenience foods than I would like (Knoor pasta and sauce sides, Kraft cooking creme, Velveeta shells and cheese, frozen pizza), but I'm at peace with that because we are all adjusting to a new schedule.  As long as we are eating dinner together as a family I am happy.  Most of the time, though, simpler cooking for me, is doing less labor-intensive main dishes with cut up fruits and veggies on the side.  I've been doing quite a bit of crock pot cooking.  Most crock pot meals don't photograph well, so I'm bad about blogging them.  I promise, I will eventually share them, even if there is no picture. I am planning on (slowly) doing a "Simple Cooking" series on this blog.  Most people know how to heat up a frozen pizza or cooking mac and cheese from a box, but I talk with so many people who want to know more about simple meals that use fresh ingredients.  My hope is to share some of our favorite simple recipes with you.
For now, I will post links to some things on my blog that are simple, fresh, and big hits around my house.  Two simple meatless meals are sweet potato black bean burritos and egg and beans.  My slow-cooker tag has a growing list of recipes.  Two simple recipes that we enjoy are Goulash and turkey soup.  To make the soup in the crock pot, just throw everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.  It is up to you if you want to soak the beans overnight or not.  A quick meal with fish that seems gourmet, but is actually very simple is parmesan crusted talapia. To make this meal even simpler, use already grated parmesan cheese.  A final simple recipe is the Pioneer Woman's steak sandwich. I've made this with cube steak and sandwich steak.  It is always good!

I hope that this helps all of you who are adjusting to a new school year, new baby, or any big changes in life.  I will post some more easy, quick meals...and possibly my menu for the month of September :)

BBQ Pork

This is the first weekend of college football! For the next few months, my husband and I will be eating a lot of fun foods on Saturday evenings while we watch Gator football.  One really easy (and a favorite) "football food" is pulled pork. This BBQ pork recipe is from my mom and my Grandma.  It is delicious and the leftovers freeze really well.  Don't worry about buying expensive buns for this pork...cheap store-brand buns are the best, in my opinion!

BBQ Pork

For the Pork:

2 onions, sliced

4 to 5 lb pork roast or fresh picnic ham 

5 or 6 cloves

2 cups water

For the Sauce:

3 cups ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup brown sugar (I use molasses)

2t prepared mustard

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup water

1) Put half the onions in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the meat, cloves, and water. Place remaining onions on top.

2) Cook in crock pot on low for 8 - 12 hours, or overnight.  

3) After it has cooked, remove it the pork from the crock pot and drain all of the cooking liquid. 

4) Shred the meat.

5) Mix all of the BBQ sauce ingredients.

6) Combine shredded pork and BBQ sauce in crock pot. Cook on low 2 to 3 hours. 

Asian Chicken Soup with Noodles

I tried pho for the first time this summer when I was in San Diego.  It was amazing.  It made me really want to try and make my own.  I was looking through a slow cooker cookbook I borrowed from a friend (almost a year ago) and came across a recipe called "Asian Chicken Soup with Noodles." It isn't traditional pho, but it was a simple recipe that looked tasty.  I almost had a disaster on my hands a few hours into cooking, so I'm posting the recipe with the changes I will make next time.  The recipe told me to use raw chicken.  I ended up with some foamy, gunky stuff floating in the broth.  I ran everything through a strainer and got the nasty stuff out...but it was a lot of work.  I forgot that boiling raw chicken gives off that yucky stuff. A much easier way to make this is to use shredded or cubed cooked chicken. You could even cook the chicken the night before and just dump everything into the crock pot the next morning.
The recipe turned out great! My husband and I loved everything and the kids like the chicken and carrots. The recipe called for Swiss chard or spinach. I had some chard growing in the garden, so I used that.  I think bok choi would also be really good in this recipe. I added the optional chili oil to my bowl of noodle soup. I was having some sinus troubles and it really helped clear things out.  It's pretty spicy, so don't use too much.

Asian Chicken Soup with Noodles
serves 4
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (I used a mix of oyster, shitake, and portabella from Publix)
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pound cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cups shredded Swiss chard or spinach leaves
8 ounces rice sticks or Chinese egg noodles.
cilantro leaves (optional)
green onions (optional)
chili oil (optional)

1) Place chicken, mushrooms, carrots, and onion in the bottom of a slow cooker.
2) Combine garlic, ginger, chicken broth, and soy sauce in a large bowl. Pour over vegetables and chicken.
3) Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours. Stir in Swiss chard or spinach 5 minutes before serving.
4) Cook rice sticks or noodles according to package directions.
5) Divide noodles among bowls. Ladle soup over noodles. Top with optional toppings of cilantro, green onions, and chili oil. Add more soy sauce if desired.

Chicken Broth

My mom taught me how to make chicken broth when I was 13 years old.  Now I can't throw away perfectly good chicken bones!  I generally do not buy a chicken just to make broth. Instead, I try to save bones from cut chicken pieces, or use the carcass when I make a roasted chicken.  Because of the gelatin in the chicken bones, the broth will seem like jell-o when it cools. That is a good thing! It is full of all kinds of good-for-you stuff you won't find in a can or box of broth.  I am posting the directions using a slow cooker.  If you don't have one, cook on the stove top for a minimum of 4 hours. Feel free to add more veggies or herbs to your broth.  This is the combination that my family likes best.

Chicken Broth

Makes about 6 cups

1 whole chicken carcass from a roasted or grilled chicken (or several breast, leg, back, and neck bones)

2 carrots, scrubbed and cut in half

2 stalks celery, cut in half

Celery leaves from the center of the celery

1 onion, cut into 4 large pieces

1 turnip, cut in half

5 whole peppercorns

1 bay leaf

8 - 10 cups of water

2 teaspoons seasoned salt 

1) Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 8 - 12 hours. 

2) Pour the broth through a strainer to get any large pieces of  chicken or peppercorns out of the broth. Add any additional salt and pepper to taste.

3) Store covered in fridge over night. If you want to skim off the fat, just remove with a spoon. It will rise to the top.

4) Freeze any unused broth in the freezer. 

Slow Cooker Goulash

As my kiddos get older, my afternoons are getting busier and it's time to learn more about my slow cooker.  Right now I have 5 slow cooker recipes:  barbecue pulled pork, taco pulled pork, pot roast, calico beans,  and Italian beef.  I have one slow cooker cookbook, but it has so many recipes that it can be overwhelming (there are pages and pages of pot roast recipes). I borrowed a slow cooker cookbook from a friend a few months ago and finally had a chance to really look through it the other day.  I came across this recipe while I was meal planning and noticed that she'd tried it and written that it was "very good."  I trust her judgement, so I decided to try the recipe.  When I went to the store, lamb stew meat was cheaper than beef, so I bought the lamb.  It was my first time cooking or eating lamb.  It tasted a lot like beef.  My son didn't know the difference.  He still thinks I was joking when I said it was lamb. I used Hungarian half-sharp paprika in this recipe and it was pretty spicy.  My son had to dip his meat and carrots in quite a bit of sour cream.  If you don't like things too spicy, consider using sweet paprika or a mix of the Hungarian and sweet.

Slow Cooker Goulash
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

1 pound stew meat (beef or lamb)
4 medium carrots, sliced into 1 inch pieces
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups beef broth
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
3 cups cooked egg noodles
Sour cream

1) Combine meat, carrots, onions, and garlic in slow cooker.
2) In a medium bowl, combine beef broth, tomato paste, paprika, lemon zest, salt, caraway seed, black pepper, and bay leaf. Stir into vegetable and meat mixture.
3) Cover and cook on low 8 hours (4 hours if you have a newer slow cooker that overcooks things).
4) 30 minutes before you eat, add the red pepper.  Turn heat to high.
5) Serve over warm egg noodles. Top with sour cream.