Turkey pot pie

Well, I still needed to use up that turkey so I decided to make turkey pot pies. You can use your favorite crust recipe or used a packaged crust mix, or even some nice flaky biscuits from a can. I finally discovered that making crust is really a lot easier than I thought, and I don't think I'll ever go back. I'll post that recipe later though. Let's get started!
First, brown up whatever meat you're using, I used my ground turkey of course. Once it started to brown up, I added 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and half a red onion finely chopped, Pappy's seasoning (I love this stuff!), and about 2 tbsp of fresh ground black pepper. Once that browned up I made some gravy in another pan. How lazy are you? You can use the stuff from a jar, or you can use a packet, you can add some corn starch to some canned broth, or you can make your gravy the way I do. I make my self a little rue in another pan (flour & some type of fat), stir it until it's nicely browned and add a box of broth. I just don't like how gravy turns to Jello when you use corn starch. Add your meat to the gravy, and throw in some veggies, I like to use frozen mixed veggies, but I didn't have any, so I used canned sweet corn, chopped carrots & canned green beans. You end up with something like this:

Then I divide it into individual size pans, I used some Corningware, and mini cast iron pans. Then I baked it at 350 until the crust was nice & brown about 10-15 minutes or one chapter in the book I'm reading. I ended up with this:

You can also make it into one big pie like this:

This took about 15 minutes to put together, and another 15 minutes to bake. It took about 30 minutes to eat, because gravy maintains the temperature of lava forever!

Chinese Dumplings

So this week my freezer was mysteriously unplugged. Luckily I discovered it when I went out to pull something to defrost for dinner. Guess what I didn't have to do? You guessed it! But what I had to do was scramble to figure out new creative ways to eat a ton of ground turkey. My fried brain = your gain! I was going to make won ton soup, until I pulled out my wrappers and discovered they were way too thick to make won tons, so I enhanced my recipe and decided to make dumplings. I experimented with a few ways to cook them too. Trust me, just follow my directions. The experiments were ugly!
First gather up the ingredients you think you would like in your dumpling. I used 1 lb ground turkey, 1 egg, 2 cloves of smashed garlic, 2 scallions or green onions, 1tbsp fresh cracked black pepper, and a can of shrimp. Mix it all together in a bowl, and set aside. I then set up my little wrapping station, which consisted of a mini cutting board, a bowl with 1 beaten egg, a fork, and a plate.
Then I laid down a wrapper:

Put about a teaspoon of meat in them:

Brush one edge with the beaten egg:

Fold over & crimp with a fork:

Spray your frying pan with some olive oil or spread about a teaspoon of olive oil around. I like to put a drizzle of sesame oil in there for added flavor. Turn your pan on medium heat, I find a nicely seasoned cast iron pan works awesome for this. Then lay all your dumplings down:

After they've browned (about 1-2 minutes) flip them over & cook them for another 1-2 minutes:

Then add a spot of water, I think I used about 1/4 cup. Cover & let cook for another 2 minutes:

Pull the lid off, let the water evaporate away, and serve them up!

You probably want the sauce recipe too, FINE! HERE!
I used Maggi seasoning, but usually use Golden Mountain Soy sauce (about 4 tbsp), rice wine vinegar (about 3 tbsp), sesame oil (about 1 tbsp), stone ground mustard (about 1 tbsp), a touch of hoisin sauce (about 1 tsp), and hot chili oil to taste.

Italian feast

So I was wandering through the Asian market one day getting supplies to make Won Tons, egg rolls, and lumpia. I saw with the Won Ton wrappers they had a spinach wrapper. My itty bitty brain started wondering what the heck I could do with these, I threw them in the basket anyway and took them home. I had a middle of the night epiphany and decided to make raviolis. Then my mother-in-law had some car issues. While we were waiting for resolution, we decided to go shopping. I ended up at Trader Joe's and I decided I needed to make a fresh pizza. I got 3 different flavors of pizza dough, some mozzarella, a meat trio packet containing salami, prosciutto, and culatello-but you can get anything you want. I also bought some mozzarella, and cottage cheese. Total cost for this meal was $30 and I fed 12 people. Yeah, I'm cheap! But before we begin, let me tell warn you this is not a work night meal.
So my package told me I had to plop the dough out & let it rest for 20 minutes. So while my lazy dough was relaxing I mixed up the filling for my raviolis. I mixed the cottage cheese with some drained & squeezed canned spinach (hey it's all I had!), and tossed in some Parmesan & chopped garlic. It was delicious, but you can add whatever you want. So slap a dollop of your filling mixture in the middle, fold it over and put a little egg wash on the edge. Clamp it down with a fork around the edge. I then passed this job off to my 10 year old niece. She did pretty good ya think?


Next I pulled out the dough to the size I wanted and spread my sauce. I make my own at the end of summer when I harvest my garden, but you can use a jar sauce, Alfredo or marinara. I dumped my mozzarella on that and then some Colby blend, I chopped up that meat trio and spread it over the cheese, on top of that I dumped some Parmesan cheese that I freshly shredded. I hate having my meat on the top so it singes. I didn't know what any of the kids that were over would eat in the way of veggies, so I left them off. But this pizza would have been awesome with some Kalamata olives on it. I then boiled my ravioli and made some weird white sauce, it was really supposed to be a browned butter sauce. I took half a stick of butter and browned it with some garlic and added a half cup of cream, and some pepper and whipped it until all blended. It was different, but really tasty.

I did impress quite a few teenagers, I have no idea if that's a good thing. We shall see!

Lazy turnovers

So last night I decided we would have dessert. I have no idea why, but I felt like making it and this turned me into "mom is great" status.
I took some puff pastry dough and let it thaw for 40 minutes. Then I opened each square & cut it in fourths:

Next I spooned in some fruit filling, you can use some of the pie filling in a can. I personally simmered down some of the fruit I canned this summer.

Then you fold over the top and smash the edges down with a fork. (I like to imagine I'm smashing by bosses face with a fork).I've discovered I really like smashing things with a fork.

You can either brush it with an egg wash, or melted butter. I did melted butter & sprinkled sugar on top. I cooked it for 22 minutes at 400, and got this.

My neighbor stole some this morning & now I'm the queen of the court again.

Mini Pizzas

So we were watching football, and I was hungry, but didn't feel like cooking. I checked the freezer, and those blasted kids ate all the chicken nuggets. During my search I found some salami in the freezer, so I decided I would make something with that. Here's what I came up with:


Ready? Let's begin:
You will need some type of bread product-I have found that bagels, English muffins, or sourdough bread work best. Whole wheat seems to fall apart.
Some type of cheese-depending on my mood, and what's in the fridge. I used Sargento's Italian low fat 4 cheese blend. Why? Because it was on sale, duh. Did I mention how many people I feed?
Some type of sauce-this time I used marinara, but feel free to use pesto, alfredo, or BBQ.
Some stuff you like to eat on top!
For my pizzas I used Bagels, marinara, the Sargento cheese, salami, Kalamata olives, and sun dried tomatoes.
Take your bread and toast it, once that's done put it on your baking pan (I lined mine with foil because I'm really lazy). Spread your sauce on the bread, then top with cheese. Now I put the smaller toppings on like my chopped olives and sun dried tomatoes, then I put the salami on top. That way my delicate toppings don't dry out and burn, plus when you're eating them the toppings don't fall off. Stick them in a 350 oven for 10 minutes and you are ready to eat!

Stuffed pork chops

This was a deliciously easy dish that impressed my family, and people used to pay me to cook this for them. Go figure!
First you need some thick pork chops-I get the boneless ones from Costco, oh so tender and lean.
Boxes of stuffing mix-I told you this was easy right?
Cream of whatever soup-I use mushroom or celery
Chicken broth
Corn starch
Seasoning-I used granulated garlic & Pappys. Pappys can be found in many places and  many varieties. I just use the original. http://www.pappyschoice.com/
Start with making your stuffing according to package directions, you can add cranberries, apples, pears or raisins to this if you want.
While that is happening you want to butterfly all your chops. Don't know what that means? To butterfly pork, slice down length of chop without cutting all the way through; spread and flatten out to form a butterfly shape. Sprinkle your seasoning all over it, and fold it back together. Stick it in a frying pan drizzled with olive oil over medium high heat. Cook it until it's a little browned on the outside, at this point you're not cooking it all the way through. Pull them out and put them in a baking dish. Open the pork chop & stuff it with about a heaping tablespoon of stuffing. Throw them in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes uncovered.
While that's happening, toss the soup, broth, & corn starch into a pot and let it boil for about 2 minutes. At the 20 minute mark spoon it over the chops, let bake another 10 minutes. Pull it out and you're done!

I paired mine with some sauteed green beans. I took fresh green beans, salt, pepper, garlic, red onions, and a couple slices of chopped smoked turkey, put them in a pan with some olive oil and cooked them to the texture I liked.

Let me know what you think!

About me

Does cooking a home made meal every night sound difficult? Well it's not. This is basically how you can be lazy at cooking, but still make some impressive dishes. I'm a mom of basically 6 'kids' ranging from a 10 year old girl to 3 boys ages 14, 17, & 19, a nephew who is 21, and a husband. Plus every other night I cook for my ex & his family (they live across the street), yeah I know it's weird, but it works for us. Every time I make something people are 'oh so impressed'. Whatever, it took 5-10 minutes of prep time. I'm tired, my house is a zoo, I work every day, and take care of everything in my house. If I can do it, you can too, but I'll still do it better.