turkey, two ways

My friend Madaline introduced me to the most delicious thing, Picadillo. It's ground beef, black beans, peas sauteed in mojo sauce and yellow rice. You're supposed to make a humongous pan of it and eat it for days afterward, and it gets more and more delicious with every passing day. I was thinking about picadillo tonight on my way home from class. But, for the very first time in my entire life, I am sort of... counting calories. So I decided to make a healthier version of this dish. Truth be told, I've been wanting to do this since the nutrition episode of The Biggest Loser, about a month or so ago. But I literally have not cooked anything that would constitute "health food" since then so...

I started with ground turkey. I put aside enough to make one patty, for another dish, which I'll tell you about shortly, and threw the rest into a lightly sprayed pan. No butter, no oil. Also, I decided to forgo the mojo sauce. First of all, I haven't seen any since I moved to Massachusetts. Secondly, I thought I could season it in a more health-conscious way. So I used lemon juice, chopped cilantro, garlic, a little chili powder, and pepper (no salt!). I didn't have any onion, otherwise I would have thrown a little of that in. But it still turned out awesome.

accidental effects

I decided to save my picadillo for lunch the following day. For dinner, I mixed a little of my chopped garlic, cilantro, pepper and balsalmic vinegar into a small turkey patty. I sprayed my pan again and cooked the patty until medium. When it looked almost finished, I sprinkled a little cheddar cheese on top. I served it sans bun (just like Bob Harper likes it) on a bed of arugula and tomato slice, with a little dab of whole grain mustard and a side of red wine (for the heart).

I'm really happy with the way my turkey dinner (and lunch) turned out, and even happier that I saved myself like, 700 calories by skipping the butter, oil, salt, beef, bun, rice, etc. Here are some more healthy substitutions for you. Are there any missing from this list that you use?

m

Rollin' with my Comees

Tuesday night, our friends the Comees came over for dinner, on their way home from their vacation. As mentioned before, Les is a self-professed Burger Man. So we knew that he wouldn't be super impressed with anything too fancy. However, Marilyn would, so finding a happy medium was a challenge. And nothing gets our blood pumping like a good cooking challenge. What could be more impressive than bacon or cheese? That's right, bacon and cheese! Blue Cheese bacon burgers on homemade rolls, to be exact. For burgers this awesome, we also needed a few understated sides. I only had about a bajillion pounds of potatoes left over from this weekend, so I whipped up my southern-style potato salad. We also had some roasted corn, so we made up a quick salad using that as well. It might be my new favorite thing. Next time, I might add some red onion or cilantro. Or both, plus black beans.
Sanne's kaiser rolls from scratch turned out beautifully. And Les just so happened to have a bottle of champagne in the car.

Blue Cheese Bacon Burgers
Mix together:
1lb ground beef
some bleu cheese, crumbled
6 slices of bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
a few T chives, chopped
worceshire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
salt + pepper to taste

I decided to caramelize some onions for the burgers. I got a little distracted and they got a little burnt... or so I thought. Turns out, what I did was a pretty advanced cooking technique, which Les calls "darkening". Darkening is like burning, but with purpose.

Like so.

I tried it with the bacon too...

:/

Fresh Corn Salsa
Mix together:
1 ear of corn
1 avocado, finely chopped
1c cherry tomatoes, quartered
juice from half a lime
salt & pepper, to taste

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I  got of the corn salsa. I couldn't stop eating it, this stuff was so good!

Dinner was amazing, but the company was even better. I'm telling you, come visit, and we will try our best to impress you with a beautiful meal. That is my solemn vow to you.

What do you do to make your burgers extra-special?

m