I'm Back! Popover Pizza Casserole

Hi guys! It's been 4 years! A lot has happened, hence the time off. I certainly didn't imagine that it had been that long, though.

So, I've decided to bring it all back. Trying a little harder this time. And not doing it at holiday time! I'm going to revamp some things as I see them. If I can find them, I'm going to add nutritional information, and possible diabetic exchange information. This won't ONLY be diabetic cooking, but for the most part it will be. I will also try to do some experimentation to make things (especially baking) that are from regular recipes, and working with them to make them more diabetic friendly. We'll see how that works.

I am totally willing to take feedback, suggestions, ideas and things that you have tried that have worked. I'm hoping to do this all as inexpensively as possible, so those of you (and us) on limited budgets can work them out at home. If you think it's a good idea for me to do pricing on here, let me know that. Thanks for waiting! Shall we begin then?

This here, is next to the stove - it's my little buddy, who must be with me... at all times, while cooking. You can see a bit of his butt peeking out from underneath the white blanket on the left. :-) 

Last night, I made this Popover Pizza Casserole. I got the recipe from Diabetic Living Online - they have fantastic recipes. This turned out really good. I liked that I could add a lot of different vegetables (and probably more than I did). For this particular time, I followed the recipe pretty perfectly - just because I had never made it before. Next time, I'll try a few different things. The egg part really needed some flavor, so I may add some roasted garlic or garlic salt to it next time. I used Italian Seasoned Ground Turkey, instead of regular ground turkey. I also left out the fennel seeds (I do not like them).

A hint, if you haven't thought of it - get all your stuff cut up and measured before you start cooking. I couldn't believe how much easier and quicker it was.

Here is the recipe:

Popover Pizza Casserole
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/4# ground turkey breast or extra lean ground beef
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 1/.2 cups chopped yellow squash
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green sweet pepper
1 14-15 1/2 oz can (I used a jarred pasta sauce) of pizza sauce
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed, or 2 eggs
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup flour (you can substitute a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup white flour)
1 cup shredded, reduced fat mozzarella cheese (4 oz) - I accidentally shredded too much, but I used it all
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In an oven-going large skillet, cook turkey, mushrooms, onions, squash and green pepper over medium heat until meat is brown and vegetables are tender, stirring to break up meat as it cooks.

Drain off fat.

Stir in pizza sauce, Italian seasoning and fennel into the meat mixture.

Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spread into an even layer.

Meanwhile, for popover topping: In a medium bowl, combine milk, eggs and oil.

Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed or whisk for one minute.

Add flour and beat or whisk about 1 minute more or until smooth.

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over meat mixture in skillet.

Pour popover topping evenly over mixture in skillet, covering completely. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until topping is puffed and golden brown. (Casserole may look a but gooey on top of the meat mixture from the melted cheese.)

Serve immediately.

Nutritional Facts:
Per serving: 327 calories,  7 g total fat (2 g sat),  58 mg chol., 611 mg sodium, 31 g carb (3 g fiber, 7 g sugars), 34 g protein

Diabetic exchanges:
Vegetables: 1, Lean Meat: 4, Starch: 1.5

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Brown Rice and Turkey Casserole

This will be the last turkey post for a while. I did make a turkey pot pie, it's the Pioneer Woman's recipe, but I messed it up, so I decided not to post it here. If you want the recipe, here is the link. Pioneer Woman's Turkey Pot Pie.  If you haven't checked out her blog before, I highly suggest you do. It's not great for us diabetics, but she takes beautiful pictures and tells really fun stories.

I wanted to make s comfort food-like casserole. My dad made a wild rice and turkey casserole when I was a kid that was awesome. But I couldn't find the recipe for that. So, I did what every good cook does - Googled it. :-) I found one that sounded really yummy, and decided to try it. I wasn't disappointed. This one is from Kalyn's Kitchen. She seems to follow the South Beach diet, which works with the glycemic index.

We forgot to take pictures until the very end (actually, my husband made it, so I can't take credit for anything). But it was really good. Hope you enjoy it (and it can be made with chicken, too).

Brown Rice Casserole with Leftover Turkey (or chicken), Mushrooms, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Thyme
(Makes about 6 generous servings, recipe created by Kalyn)

2 cups cooked brown rice (long grain brown rice is best)
16 oz. mushrooms, washed, thickly sliced, slices cut in half
2 tsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil (or more, depending on your pan)
1 onion, finely diced
2 tsp. ground thyme
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups diced leftover turkey  cut in 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup turkey stock (We used the leftover broth from the soup I made)
1/2 cup sour cream (I used low-fat sour cream, but don't use fat-free)
1/2 cup coarsely grated parmesan cheese
1 cup + 1 cup grated low-fat cheese

Cook brown rice following package directions or using a rice cooker and let cool. Preheat oven to 375F.

Wash mushrooms and spin dry or dry with paper towels. Cut mushrooms into thick slices, then cut slices in half. Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in heavy non-stick pan and saute mushrooms until they're starting to brown and all liquid has evaporated. Remove onions to a dish.

In same frying pan, add 1 tsp. more olive oil and heat, then add onions and saute 3-4 minutes until onions are softened. Add thyme, ground poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, and saute about 2 minutes more.

While onions cook, dice leftover turkey or chicken into 1/2 inch pieces. Add mushrooms and diced turkey into pan with the onion-herb mixture, and stir to combine. Add rice and gently stir until all the meat and vegetables are evenly distributed in the rice.

In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and stock, then stir in coarsely grated parmesan cheese and 1 cup grated low-fat cheese. Gently stir the sour cream mixture into the rice mixture.

Spray a 2 quart casserole dish with non-stick spray or olive oil. (I'd use a relatively flat dish without a lid for this casserole - we used a lasagna pan.) Spoon rice mixture into the casserole dish and press down to evenly distribute. Bake for 25 minutes, or until casserole is slightly bubbling and barely starting to brown. Sprinkle with second cup of grated low-fat cheese and bake about 15 minutes more, or until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Now, doesn't that look yummy? 

Turkey Vegetable Soup

There is no wrong time of year to make soup. At least that's what I think. I love soup. I could eat it every day. Seriously. My dad told me once, that when I was a kid, I used to try to order soup with every meal when we'd go out. Of course, I also tried to order the most expensive on the menu, but that's another story (and really, who could blame me? It always sounded good).

I started making my own broth from chicken and turkey bones only a few years ago, and I've never gone any other way. It's so wonderful. And the beauty of it is, you can make it with any spices you want, or none at all. You can what you want, you can take away what you don't want. This particular version, I went with the less is more method. By the time I started working on this broth, I was pretty tired, but I made it, and just added what I had on hand, or what I wanted. It's nice and warming during the winter and the broth is great to keep handy for future recipes (which I did). You can do this with leftover chicken or turkey carcasses (I haven't made any beef or pork broth yet, so I'm not really clear on how to pull that off).

Turkey Vegetable Soup

For the Broth:
1 Turkey carcass with a little meat left on it
2 celery stalks, cut in halves or thirds
2 carrots, cut in halves or thirds
1 onion, quartered
about 3-4 garlic cloves, quartered
Any spices you like (I use Poultry Seasoning, Thyme, Oregano, Parsley and Celery Seed)
Sea Salt
Pepper
2 bay leaves

Heat the oven to 375 degrees ( I sometimes will go higher, but I like mine to get almost burned before I use it, it also depends on how much meat you have on there). Spray a pan that will fit your turkey carcass with non-stick coating. Place turkey carcass in the pan and put in the over for 1-2 hours. I do really like my bones to be crispy. But make sure they are roasted well.

Boil water in a large pot - for as much broth as you want. I use a couple gallons at least. You can do this one of two ways - put the carcass directly in the pot of water, or wrap it in some cheesecloth. I put mine directly into the water. add the vegetables, and spices, salt, pepper and bay leaves.

Turn down to simmer. I leave mine for a couple of hours to get maximum flavor. Sometimes, after I do that, I will add some water to the broth so there is even more for other cooking projects. Not too much water, but maybe a few cups or so. It doesn't dilute it too much.

Remove the carcass and vegetables from the pot. Put them on a plate and let them cool before tossing them out. At this time, you should have a beautiful golden broth, somewhat like this:

Now, is when you get to be creative. I do not make measurements, because it's up to you. But here are some options to add.

For the Soup:
Celery
Carrots
Onion
Garlic
Turnips
Potatoes
Mushrooms
Green Beans
Snow peas
Kidney Beans
Corn
Tomatoes
Fresh noodles
Wild rice

The list is really endless (and yes, I have put all this stuff in my soup at one time before, and it was fantastic)

Also add some turkey meat to it. Usually about two cups or so will do you just fine. Cook it until just heated through. Then, you'll have a very good soup, and it freezes extremely well.

This particular batch, I ended up using the leftover veggies and turkey from the Pasties I made the night before. And it turned out just fine. I hope you enjoy yours.

Turkey Salad Sandwich

Now that I was done with Christmas dinner, and I had taken apart the turkey and put it in a big Tupperware for later use. So then began the long process of figuring out which recipes sounded good enough and good enough for me to use. I settled on turkey salad sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey pasties, turkey and brown rice casserole, and turkey pot pie. Yeah, that's a lot of nights (and lunches) of turkey.

The first night after Christmas, I had to work, so I thought the turkey salad sandwiches would be the quickest and easiest to make and eat.I was right. This recipe is so good, that I have started making it to take in my lunches, with chicken instead of turkey (because really, who has time to make a turkey every week?) I got this recipe from Closet Cooking, which is an awesome cooking site with all kinds of experimental (but not always good for diabetics) ingredients that I never would have thought of using in my food. Plus, his blog writing is really fun, his story about he started cooking is interesting, too.

Also, when looking for bread to have with this sandwich, I came across this stuff by Orowheat, called Double Fiber bread. It's awesome. It's light, fluffy, soft, and has a good flavor. I can have two pieces for the carbs of one. So instead of having the requisite one piece of bread for my sandwich with 20 carbs, I can have 2. (this is with fiber included in the count). It works great for keeping this sandwich healthy, and it actually makes good toast (which is something I crave a lot of, but never have). I added a picture of the bag so you can find it too.

Turkey Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked turkey (shredded)
1/2 apple (cored and diced)
1 stalk celery (chopped)
1 green onion (chopped, or red)
1 tablespoon pecans (toasted and coarsely chopped)
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 splash lemon juice
2 leaves sage (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste
2 leaves lettuce
2 slices bread

Directions:
1. Mix everything but the lettuce and bread in a bowl.
2. Assemble sandwich.

 

Yummy sandwich

Great Bread

 

More yummy sandwich

 

And now... it looks at you and says..."EAT ME!"

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Mom's Stuffing

Warning: This is NOT diabetic friendly, unless you eat it in very small amounts (like 1/2 cup).

This is my favorite stuffing ever. It's my mom's recipe, and it's fabulous. I hated stuffing when I was a kid, but grew to love it. Especially once it was not cooked in the bird anymore (yuck!) My mom told me that if you plan on putting this stuffing into the turkey, to make it a little dryer, but if you want to leave it out, add a little more chicken broth. I found that I actually didn't need to add any, it was perfect for me.

So, here is the recipe:

Mom's Stuffing

2 cubes butter
1 whole box Mrs. Cubbison's cubed stuffing (not corn bread and not torn bread), this comes seasoned
2 cans chicken broth*
2 cups chopped celery
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning

Melt one cube of butter in large skillet or deep pan, add onions and celery.

Cook until opaque.

Stir in 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning.
Add 1 can chicken broth and the other cube of butter. Stir, heat, melt.

 In a large bowl put bread crumbs and pour mix over it, stirring until mixed well. If it's dry add some more chicken broth, until you reach the desired consistency that you want.

Bake @ 325 degrees for 25 min covered
Cook for another 20 min uncovered.

*If you do not used canned chicken broth (I don't, I use Better Than Bullion), each can is 10 1/2 oz. 

Brined Turkey

Ok, we're gonna start this recipe extravaganza here with the recipe I used for my brined turkey. i didn't stray too far from this recipe, since it was the first time that I had ever made anything like it, so I was a little worried that I would mess it up somehow and lose all that time, money and defrosting time (this has happened to me with other things before).

The only thing I may have done differently from the recipe, was to brine it for 24 hours, I forgot sage, and the turkey was only 10 pounds instead of the 14-16#. i don't know how much of a difference the sage would have made, as it was awesome without it. And I would still brine it for 24 hours (because the taste was SOOO good). But next time, I would buy a bigger turkey. The result of ours being smaller, was that it was done within almost 2 hours and it was still somewhat dry. The flavor was excellent, but who wants a too dry turkey?

So, without further ado, here is the recipe that I used for my turkey.

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

Click here to see how it's done.

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.

Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.*

Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting.

Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

* We don't own a microwave, so I just boiled this concoction on the stove for about 3-4 minutes.

Holiday Dinners

I don't know about you, but holiday dinners always kind of pose a problem with me: how much do you eat, how about carb heavy meals, what do you do if there is nothing appropriate to eat? I have these issues every year. I try to eat what I can, and just take small amounts of the carb-y food. As much as I love it, I do have to limit my intake. I still haven't figured out what to do if there is nothing appropriate to eat, I usually just have bites of a few things, and then wait until later to eat like a normal PWD. Check with your doctor, and try to let the people who are cooking of any dietary restrictions. I had to do this recently, and everyone was really understanding.

This year, I decided to experiment a little on my own and make my own Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I had to work on Thanksgiving, so we just put a ham in the crockpot and cooked it that way. Just plain, wrapped in foil and about a cup or two of water. Once we got home, we put it in the over for about 20 minutes to get the outside crispy. It didn't lose any of the flavor, and it wasn't overdone at all. And of course, the leftovers were great for sandwiches and split pea soup (my mom's recipe).

I had Christmas off this year, so I spent two days cooking for my husband who had to work. I also received a brand new camera for my birthday a week before, so now I have awesome pictures to post on here.

Here is the menu that I had for Christmas day:
Breakfast:
eggs with cheese, green onions and pepper
maple bacon
Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar triangle (homemade, not bought at the 'Bucks.)

Yes, breakfast was much of a cheat. The cranberry bar, probably had WAY too much sugar and the rest of the meal had salt and cholesterol. But for something that I never make or eat, it was tasty. And well worth it.

Now, for dinner:
Turkey - in brine
Mom's stuffing
mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower
steamed broccoli with cheddar and bacon
cranberry chutney

Dessert:
Low carb Pumpkin cheesecake

The turkey. I've only made two turkeys in my life. One, I barely remember, and one was a few years ago and I had lots of help. This year, I was doing something totally different, even for me. I was determined to brine this turkey. Problem is? I have No clue how to begin. I knew there was salt and water involved. So, I jumped on facebook while doing a google search and asked for advice. The recipe that I liked and that came the most recommended was Alton Brown's from Good Eats. It was a little more complicated, but it sounded tasty and interesting. The only thing I would have done differently, was bought a bigger turkey. It was fabulous, but a tiny bit dry.

The stuffing is my favorite holiday food. Not because it's carb heavy, but because it tastes fantastic. I hated it when I was a kid, but now, it's not a holiday without it. It's my mom's recipe and I always forget to ask for it. This year, I remembered, and it was just as fantastic as I remember and I am going to pass it on to you. It's simple, yet delicious.

Mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower, no holiday is complete without mashed potatoes, don't you agree? Well, I can't have very much of them. So... for my low carb replacement - I make Mashed Cauliflower. I love it. But then, I love love love cauliflower.

I just wanted a fairly plain veggie for dinner, but we had some leftover bacon and cheese from breakfast. I don't like to waste anything, especially food, so I just threw the leftovers in there with it.

Cranberry Chutney. I've been looking for a really good recipe for this for years. Always cranberry sauce I can find, but I can do that on my own. This last year, I found a fabulous recipe. I had planned on making a Turkey around May, (which never happened) and so I made this stuff, and I made it Diabetic friendly. It was wonderful. I froze it and just defrosted it a couple weeks ago and it's STILL awesome.

Obviously, If I was going to make a dessert, it was going to have to be a diabetic/low carb recipe. I got this pumpkin cheesecake recipe from a Low-Carb cookbook that I have had for a couple of years.

So for the next couple of days, I'm going to post the recipes to this holiday dinner, and then I will post recipes for the dinners that I am making with the turkey leftovers. As well as my traditional New Years dinner. Complete with awesome pictures because me husband is the very best.

One footnote about gravy: My husband and I do not really care for gravy, so none was made. For me, there is really nothing good for me in traditional gravy, so there was no loss there.