Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Are you ready for a really strange recipe? It turns out really good, I promise! Maybe it isn’t that strange…

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
2 eggs
1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
1/4 cup quick cook oats
2 TBS wheat germ (that’s the strange part!)
1 TBS garlic salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 TBS ketchup
1 tsp mustard
4 slices cheese OR 1 cup shredded cheese

Combine all ingredients except for the cheese. Split the mix in half (just push the halves against the bowl with a space between) and form 4 patties out of each side –8 patties in all. Place four patties on a plate, put a slice of cheese on each (or if you are using shredded cheese, top the patties with some cheese) and then put the remaining patties on top of the cheese. Crimp the edges together.

Cook either in a pan for 4-6 minutes per side on med-high heat or use a nifty grill for 7 minutes, like this one:

We don’t usually use buns or bread with our burgers (call us weird), but we get our carbs from the oats and potatoes I also use the oats and other ‘fillers’ because turkey does not seem to have the same texture as beef. I use the egg to bind it more but the liquid from the egg requires (in my humble opinion) some fillers to absorb it a little. That is where the potato flakes come in. The oats are to add texture.

I don’t normally use wheat germ but I saw it in the cupboard and being curious and experimental (haha with everyone’s food muahahaha!) I put some in. Why not!

This post has been submitted to The Christian Home, Issue 36, under Hospitality.

Personal Pizzas - Lots of photos!

A few nights ago for dinner we had homemade personal pizzas. I think this is one of my favorite meals (I haven't gotten a unanimous vote on that yet...) and it really doesn't take much time or ingredients. 

Here's a step by step for my pizza:

To start with I use 1/2 lb of ground turkey and add in some yummy spices

This I make a little ahead of the rest so that it can set for a while in the fridge to hopefully absorb the spices.

Then I use 1 can of tomato soup and add spices to it to make the pizza sauce (by using one whole can, I have pizza sauce for at least 3 more times of having pizza). Mix it well and put in fridge to absorb the flavor, along with the turkey.

Then I cube some cheese to shred in my food processor.

I put the cheese in my gallon zip lock bag that I've been reusing for months now, in the fridge, until it is time to put the pizzas together. Oven is set to preheat @ 450*F.

Then I assemble the ingredients for the crust. I use Flax Seed Meal to give it a little extra flavor and texture. That gallon ziplock bag on the left is what is left of my white/red whole wheat flour. I'm mixing flours this time :)

I mix the one cup water with 1 'package' dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp) and one tsp sugar. And let it set for ten minutes.

Then I mix the 2 1/2 cups of flour with maybe 1/2 tsp salt.

By then the yeast is ready.

I add it and 1 TBS of oil to the flour and mix.

After it is mixed, it needs to set for 5 minutes. Then I brown the ground turkey.

I oil my cookie sheets and sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on them. Then I separate the dough into four semi-equal pieces, flatten them into rounds and place on cookie sheets.

Then comes the sauce, browned turkey (which now somewhat tastes like sausage but isn't sausage lol), olives and lots of cheese.

They get baked at 450*F for 15-20 minutes. When they come out I use a brush and oil on the edges to soften them just a bit. And wouldn't you know... I forgot to take an after photo... 

These are sooo good. You can put whatever you want on personal pizzas. Fox wanted Canadian bacon and pineapple but not this time- maybe next go 'round ;)

This post has been submitted to The Christian Home under the category Hospitality. Please stop by The Legacy Home for past issues.

'Quick' Meal Idea- Turkey

Okay, okay...so you probably already know that we have turkey for dinner. A lot. 

Last night I was not sure what to make for dinner. It's not that I didn't have the makings for just about anything but I was cutting it close to dinner. Granted, what I did come up with takes an hour....the fact that I figured out what we were having and prepared it in enough time is pretty amazing for me! If it were up to me...the kids and hubby would eat pb sandwiches way too often. *And I should clarify- hubby will not eat pb sandwiches.* ;)

So what did I come up with? It's super simple. Really. It takes hardly any time at all to prepare. It's the oven time that is the pain...It's base is Cream of Chicken soup (from Campbell's, Family size but you could use any brand and perhaps two condensed soups in place of the one larger) and has rice, vegetables and ..you guessed it.. turkey.

The recipe is on the back of this can but here is what I did (because it is ever so slightly different):

Preheat oven to 375.
Need:

13x9" baking pan

1 1/2 cup rice

Thawed 3/4 pound of ground turkey

3 cups frozen peas

1 can soup

2 cups water

salt

pepper

Italian seasoning

garlic powder

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

Mix the ground turkey with a good amount of Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper (sorry I never measure...if it smells good and looks good, it's probably good!). Set aside (in the fridge is probably the safe place).

Mix rice, water and soup together in the baking pan. I sprinkled some extra garlic in...because we like garlic.

Once mixed well, roll the turkey mix into little balls and plop them on the surface of the chicken soup-rice mix.

Bake for one hour, covered *oops, forgot to cover mine*. When done, top with shredded cheese. Let the cheese melt a bit and serve. This serves at least 8 :)

One of these days I am going to find a recipe to make my own cream of chicken *ahem, it'll be turkey* soup mix.

This recipe post has been submitted to The Christian Home under Hospitality. 

Turkey - It's STILL What's For Dinner!

Thanks to Heidi @ Reviews & Reflections, I've got a new recipe to try with the turkey. The name really describes what they look like but I'm hoping they are good! Their called Uglies! The recipe is at Allrecipes.com.

I'm going to make them with the ground turkey and my homemade biscuits and maybe twice as much cheese ;) Hopefully, I will update this post afterward to let ya'll know how they turned out!

Oh, and while I'm sharing recipes, head over to The Simple Life for a few 'DIY' recipes. That syrup one looks tasty :P Of course, my pancakes are so good (or my kids are so well trained haha!) that they don't need syrup ;)

Turkey - It's What's For Dinner

http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/Shape_Mazes/Turkey-Maze.html

I really wanted a photo of a turkey that hasn't been cooked... but this is probably more acceptable. We aren't having turkey in the traditional sense- like Thanksgiving dinner. Nope. We are having turkey, bean (and rice) and cheese burritos.

Last month, Tristan @ Our Busy Homeschool posted a recipe for crockpot refried beans which I just thought was totally awesome. (That does have something to do with this post, I promise) At the time I had only a 3 quart crockpot, which work fine for the recipe, with a little tweaking. But for Christmas my hubby gave me a 7 quart crockpot! I was itching to use it for something. I'm going to admit that I did not use it for Tristan's crockpot refried beans (I had forgotten about it- yea, my mind goes in and out). I did make beans however. The original plan was to make bean soup. I added the beans and let them cook, then I added some spices and .... some rice. Well, the beans hadn't cooked enough for me to add the rice but I wasn't paying attention. By the time the beans were finally done, the rice was not visible. But it was a very thick soup!

I thought it was a little funny actually. I ate some of the beans with some cheese sprinkled on top and thought it was good. Well, I scooped the remainder (no one else ate any- grrr) into containers to put in the fridge. It was about this time that I realized because of the consistency, this could be used as beans for burritos, in place of refried beans. So I grated up some cheese and made some bean and cheese burritos. 

We had that for dinner one night and then I got the bright idea (oh, yes, I'm so smart hehe) that I would make freezer burritos. I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter, with a piece of saran wrap on top of that. The burritos went together nicely and first rolled in the saran wrap then the aluminum foil (and finally all put into a freezer bag) keeps them 'fresh'. 

Well, at Thanksgiving we were given 4 turkeys. God smiles on us :) We ate the first for Thanksgiving. The second I thawed after the first of the year to cook but silly me I forgot that I don't have a pan for it. So instead it got cut to pieces. What didn't get used (the edible meat) was put in the crockpot with some water, garlic, carrots and onions to make turkey stock. All the meat I cut up and put in freezer bags. But honestly I wasn't sure what to do with it.

I almost forgot about it! Good thing I didn't though- that would have been quite a bit of meat wasted! So today with my awesome food processor, I made ground turkey. I was doing this when Lee asked what would be for dinner and I really had no ideas. But a little later I was dealing with the remainder of the beans and making burritos for the freezer. It dawned on me that we usually use ground turkey for our meals that use meat. Why not make burritos with the ground turkey and the beans? Great idea! :) 

Simple turkey, bean and cheese burritos:
4 tortillas
.71 lbs ground turkey (cooked)
16 oz salsa
about 8-10 oz bean stuff
olives
and a lot of cheese :) 


The only thing really missing was a salad or some type of veggie. Kids are drinking juice so I feel better about that omission. 

Since we still have 2 whole 16 lb turkeys and 3 lbs of ground turkey, I figured it would be good to see what I can make with it. I like new ideas. Here is a blog with 25 Ground Turkey Recipes- some look really good.