National Pie Day

Well actually it was yesterday, January 23th. 

To celebrate, I made these tasty savory pies. Mini Italian potpies to be exact. 

The recipe below comes from Martha and serves 4 (my ramekins are 7 ounces so I actually got 5 servings).  I stumbled upon this recipe on my Martha Stewart Every Day Food app on my iPhone. (Yes, Martha is everywhere I go.) Overall, this meal was a hit! I swapped out the ground beef sirloin for extra lean ground turkey and used skim milk to help make this meal a little lighter...Hey, it's still January and people still have their resolutions to follow!

Italian Potpies:  

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 pound ground beef sirloin, thawed if frozen

2 cups homemade or best-quality store-bought tomato sauce

1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 ounce)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup whole milk  

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in lowest position. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion and carrots; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add beef, and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce; bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until meat mixture has thickened, 8 to 10 minutes; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, Parmesan, baking powder, rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; make a well in center, and add butter and milk. Stir just until dough comes together.

Spoon meat mixture into four 8-ounce ramekins; mound dough on top. Place on a large rimmed baking sheet; bake until topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in topping comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes.

Jerk Turkey Chili

This isn't my first time making this chili. I actually made it a couple times before just never blogged about it. This is a product of watching "The Rachael Ray Show" on a day off about a year or two ago.

She has so many chili recipes and I'm always excited to try them. This one has a very unique flavor. The cinnamon and honey really provide a sweet taste to the chili that I think really completes this dish. The sweet taste with the combination of the spice really makes this chili an over all winner! It's really easy too!

Ingredients:
•2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

•2 pounds ground turkey breast
•2 medium onions, chopped
•4 garlic cloves, chopped or grated
•2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped
•2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
•3 tablespoons chili powder
•1 tablespoon cumin
•1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
•1 teaspoon allspice
•1/4 cup tomato paste
•Salt and ground black pepper
•1 bottle beer, preferably an India Pale Ale (if you don’t want to use beer, use more stock or water)
•2 cups chicken stock
•3 tablespoons honey

In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add two turns of the pan of EVOO. Cook the ground turkey until brown, about 5 minutes. Add in the onions, garlic and peppers, and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, tomato paste, salt and ground black pepper, and cook about 1 minute. Add in the beer, chicken stock and honey and bring up to a bubble. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

Turkey & Bean Chili

As you know or can probably tell from this blog, I'm a fan of chili. I usually turn to Rachael Ray for chili recipes but wanted to try this recipe out for a while. There are a lot of flavors that I was surprised for a chili recipe (i.e., cocoa powder) but I was very pleased with the hearty meal.

The chili simmers for a while allowing the cocoa powder and spices to really give the meat flavor. I was pleased with this recipe and will turn to it in the future. The only thing I did differently from the recipe is substituting the bacon for turkey bacon and the pinto beans for black beans.

You can find the recipe here

Turkey Panini with Cheddar Cheese & Cranberry Chutney

(photo by Nadya L Popil)

This recipe was inspired by my one and only trip to Mansour's in Scranton. Mrs. Mesko made me a delcious panini. I enjoyed that panini so much I've been thinking about replicating it for quite some time now. Well I finally got around to it tonight!

It's so simple and easy to do even with out a panini press. I have an indoor grill pan that I used to make these. The George Forman grill works just as well.

This is a great recipe since Thanksgiving is around the corner and there will most likely be a lot of left over turkey.

Prepare panini with the follow ingredients on Ciabatta bread:

• Cranberry chutney (find recipe here)


• Fresh craved turkey breast


• Cheddar cheese

Put on panini press or grill (and press) until thinned out and crispy. Enjoy!

End of the Summer Chili

Yummy! I got this recipe from the August 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray. I made it with ground turkey but you can use beef, pork, or ground chicken. The recipe calls for summer vegetables- zucchini & corn. There's no beans in this chili but I think they'd make a great addition.

You can find the recipe here

Turkey Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

I'm so happy I found this recipe for turkey burgers. It's much better and more flavorful than the old recipe I had. I plan on trying some of Rachel Ray's fun burger recipes this summer too. I'll keep you posted.

This turkey burger is so yummy even Liz the typical "beef only girl" loves it!

You can make them as sliders and serve at a party or make them big like I do. Whatever you prefer. You can find the turkey burger recipe here.

I made some sweet potato fries for the side. It was a very satisfying meal. You can serve the sweet potato fries with brown sugar/butter, honey, ketchup, or just eat them plain. You can find the sweet potato fries recipe here. (To keep the kitchen cool this summer you can grill up the sweet potato fries)

Turkey Chili

Tasty chili for a nice winter day/night. Although it ended up being 60 degrees today it was still delish! I added in more beans than the recipe called for just because I like lots of beans.

*You can find the recipe here