Turkey Lettuce Wraps

So every once in a while I crave food that I call "city" food.  Food unlike the southern cooking I grew up with.

Do you ever get a craving for a certain food?  Well I do and often it's lettuce wraps.  I love the ones at PF Chang's and set out trying to find a substitute that could be made at home.  I tried all sorts of yucky frozen, so called, "chicken filling for lettuce wraps"...blah - they didn't compare.

So I developed my own recipe that is quick and totally AWESOME!

I thought I had died and gone to heaven last night.
No really, I swear I heard harps when I took a bite out of these babies!

Here's the skinny of it (literally, they're healthy!)

You'll need:  oil, ground turkey, Bibb lettuce, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, hot chili sauce, sesame oil, and water chestnuts.

First, put about 1T of oil in a hot skillet.  Chop a medium onion up and throw it in the skillet with some  minced garlic.

Add the ground turkey and cook until brown, crumbling in to small pieces.

As the turkey is cooking separate and wash your lettuce leaves.  Aren't these pretty!

Once the turkey is brown, make the stir fry sauce by adding the ginger, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce (low sodium if you have it), hoisin sauce, and the chili pepper sauce.  (You could use hot pepper flakes if you don't have this handy).

Mix the meat with the sauce until covered and cook a minute or two.

Chop about 1/2 of an 8oz can of water chestnuts.  You want them more bite size.  Add them to the turkey mixture and stir them to cover with the sauce as well.  Cook about 1 min to heat them through.  Now add the sesame oil.  This is such a great flavor enhancer...don't skip this part!

That's it for the meat.  Spoon a portion right down the middle of each leaf.  Eat it like a taco!

HEAVEN!!!  Please try these...I promise you'll hear harps...well maybe not, but you'll love them!

You can also make a quick dipping sauce by using the same sauce ingredients but changing the proportions.

Here is is.  Just spoon it over the meat once you have it plated. (Be careful this sauce is a little hot!)

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 head of Bibb lettuce separated in to leaves
1 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion -- chopped
2 T. minced garlic
1 T. reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. hoisin sauce
2 t. minced ginger
1 T. rice wine vinegar
2 t. chili pepper sauce
4 oz sliced water chestnuts -- drained, chopped
2 t. sesame oil

Directions:

Add 1 T. oil to a hot skillet.  Add onion and garlic, cook 5 min until tender.  Add ground turkey, stirring often to break up the meat.

Rinse lettuce leaves, keeping them whole. Set aside to drain.

Add soy sauce, ginger, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar and chili sauce. Stir meat to cover with sauce.  Cook another minute.  Chop water chestnuts and add to the skillet.  Cook another minute to heat through. Stir in sesame oil.

Spoon meat mixture down the center of the lettuce leaf.   

Dipping Sauce

2 T soy sauce

1 T rice wine vinegar

2 T hoisin sauce

1 T. hot chili sauce

Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk together.  Spoon over turkey mixture on lettuce leaves.

Ham and Bean Soup

I grew up with my mom making what she called "Bean Soup".  We had pinto bean soup, great northern bean soup, navy bean soup...lots of bean soup.  And we loved it!

So I woke up Sunday to a very cold and wet Southern California day and thought, hmmmm...bean soup!

So MGG was coming over for dinner later that day and he loves soup.  He is a soupaholic...but not quite used to the southern bean soup my mom always made.  So I switched it up a little by making a more brothy bean soup.  Sort of like a Minestrone flavor with beans and ham!  A good southern favorite. 

You'll need to get yourself one of those bags of 15 bean soup mix. An onion, chicken broth, bacon, or a ham hock, a can diced tomatoes, italian seasoning, and a bay leaf.

Here's how you make it:

Put about 1/2 the bag of beans in a colander and sort and rinse, pulling out any broken or ugly looking beans.  Throw the seasoning packet away.
 

In a dutch oven or large soup pot add beans, bacon or ham hock (I used bacon cause that's what I had, but ham hock is really better at flavoring the soup).  Add about 4 cups of chicken broth and enough water to cover the beans by about 2 inches.

Place on the sotve and bring to a boil.  I add pepper at this point, as I layer the seasonings.
(sorry for the steamy photo!)

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 2-3 hours.  You don't want to let the broth all boil away, but if it does, just add more water to keep the bean covered and turn the fire down a little.

Make sure to stir the beans during this time which will allow some starch to deevelop in the broth.

Add onions, Italian seasoning, bay leaf, and more pepper (salt if needed).  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for another hour.

Fish out the bacon and/or ham hock, bay leaf and toss.  Add tomatoes and simmer another 1/2 hr. then add chopped ham (I used left over ham from a baked ham I made the other night) and simmer until heated through.

Enjoy!

Ham and Bean Soup

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

½  (20-ounce) bag 15 bean soup

1 (32-ounce) cartons chicken broth

Water

3-4 bacon slices or 1 ham hock
½ medium onion chopped
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf

salt

black pepper
1 14.5-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 cup chopped cooked ham
 

Directions

1. Sort and rinse dried beans pulling out any broken or ugly looking beans.  Through seasoning packet away.   In a dutch oven or stock pot add beans, bacon/ham hock, broth and water to cover 2 inches above beans.
2. Add black pepper.  Bring pot to a boil.  Turn down to a slow simmer and cook for about 2 -3 hours.
3. Make sure not to boil away all the water/broth mixture.  If you do lose some add more water to keep bean well covered.  
4. Add onions, Italian seasoning, bay leaf, and more pepper.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for another hour.  Fish out the bacon and/or ham hock, bay leaf and toss.  Add tomatoes and simmer another ½ hour then add chopped ham simmer until heated through.   

Sausage Mushroom Quiche Appetizers

Happy New Year!

The coming of the New Year always makes me think of a "fresh start", a "new beginning", and trying...I said trying to eat healthier!

So I thought I would start the new year off running.  My boyfriend, I call him MGG (My Greek God) for reasons I'll not say, loves eggs.  So I thought I would try a variation of a recipe I saw recently from EatingWell (told you I was trying to eat healthy!)  So this is my variation of Mini Mushroom and Sausage Quiches.  They made theirs in regular muffin cups but I wanted to make tiny bite-sized appetizers and vary the ingredients just a little.  They are crustless, so carbs are down, and they are light and savory.

They are great for a New Year's party or New Year's brunch.  They can also be frozen and pulled out to enjoy later. Hope you enjoy them.


To make this you will need bulk sausage, mushrooms, onion, butter, eggs, milk, swiss cheese, and pepper. Also you will need a mini muffin tin that is non-stick...this is very important. (the non-stick part) Otherwise they will not come out easily and we want things to be easy don't we?

First crumble some sausage and brown it in a skillet.  Make sure to crumble it really fine so they fit in the mini muffin cups. Add onions along with the sausage.  I ran out so I used onion flakes which worked fine, but real onion might be better. Remove sausage to a plate (or in my case a Marie Calendar's pie pan!)

Add a tablespoon of butter (there went the healthy part!) to the hot skillet and saute the mushrooms until golden brown. Add these to the plate as well.

Allow sausage and mushrooms to cool for about 5 min.  Add cheese and pepper and mix it all together.

Whisk eggs and milk in a bowl. 

Pore mixture in each muffin cup about 1/2 way full.  Add a heaping teaspoon of sausage mixture to each one.  Make sure to spread it all evenly amongst all the cups.  It should look like this.

Looks tasty!

Pop them in the oven at 325 degrees and cook until just starting to brown.  About 30 min.

Remove and allow to cool in pan about 5 min.  Then place a cooling rack on top of them and flip them over to release.  Plop! See how pretty!

Allow to cool and then eat 'em up!  Soooo good!  MGG ate about 6 - 7 of these in a matter of minutes...really I lost count cause they seemed to disappear rapidly so I think it was more...but he won't fess up!  Sneaky!

Enjoy these wonderful treats!

Sausage Mushroom Quiche Appetizers

Variation of Mini Mushroom and Sausage Quiches - Source: EatingWell 

INGREDIENTS

8 oz bulk sausage, crumbled into small pieces

1 Tbl butter

8 oz mushrooms, chopped into small pieces

1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

 8 eggs

 1 cup 2% milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat to 325 degrees. Coat a nonstick mini-muffin tin generously with cooking spray.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes crumbling pieces as you cook so you have tiny crumbles. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Add butter to the pan. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer mushrooms to the bowl with the sausage. Let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in cheese and pepper.

Whisk eggs and milk in a bowl. Divide the egg mixture evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of the sausage mixture into each cup.

Bake until the tops are just beginning to brown, 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Place a rack on top of the pan, flip it over and turn the quiches out onto the rack. Turn upright and let cool completely.