Sausage with Lentils and Swiss Chard

8 ounces sweet Italian turkey sausage,casings removed
1/2 cup chopped peeled carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/3 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 1/2 cups (or more) water
1 pound Swiss chard (about 1 large bunch), thick stems and ribs cut away and discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

Sauté sausage in large deep nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, about 6 minutes. Drain any excess fat from skillet. Add carrot, onion and garlic to skillet; sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in lentils, bay leaf, fennel seeds and rosemary. Add 2 1/2 cups water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until lentils are almost tender, about 20 minutes.

Place Swiss chard atop lentils; cover and cook until lentils are tender and chard is wilted and tender, adding more water if mixture is dry, about 7 minutes. Stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Discard bay leaf.

Sprouted Grain Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

Last night we tried a new type of pasta (see picture above). It is a sprouted grain pasta that is all whole grains, full of protein, organic and high in fiber. The ingredients are lentils, millet, spelt, soybeans, barley and whole grain wheat. It definitely doesn't taste like pasta but I still thought it had a really good texture and was very tasty. I found it at Wegman's in the organic section.

1 package Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Pasta

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 handful fresh basil, torn into pieces

Cook pasta according to directions and drain. Slice tomatoes in half and set aside. In a small saute pan, heat 1/4 cup olive oil and 3 tbsp butter with minced garlic over medium hight heat until garlic is golden. Once pasta is cooked, place in a large bowl and pour garlic mixture over the pasta. Stir in tomatoes and mix well. Top with basil and serve with parmesan cheese.

Homemade Pizza

My sister and I were talking yesterday about what we were going to have for dinner. My response was "I am making pizza." She said to me, "if I had three kids I would buy pizza... I have one kid and always buy pizza." It is sometimes just more fun to create your own pizza and that is exactly what we did! Here are two different kinds of pizza I have made recently (the second one is what we ate last night) and I did buy the dough, does that count???

Pizza with pesto and chicken

-Layer fresh pesto, diced, cooked chicken and cheese then bake about 15 minutes

Pizza with fresh tomatoes and caramelized sweet onions

-Layer mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and onions then bake about 15 minutes.

Flounder with tomatoes and onions

1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced

cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup white wine

2 fillets of flouder

Bosari seasoning (citrus)

2 tbsp olive oil or safflower oil

Put olive oil or safflower oil in large saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and white wine and cook until wine is evaporated, about 10 minutes over medium heat (tomatoes will start to pop). Remove from pan and keep warm.

Sprinkle fish with Bosari or salt and pepper. Add to same pan and cook about 3 minutes per side or until cooked through. Serve fish topped with tomato-onion mixture.

Tofu Stacks over Bok Choy

Today I got my fresh veggies from the CSA I joined and came up with the following dish for dinner. After celebrating many birthdays in our family (and some more coming up this month.. mine included) and eating lots of cake, I decided we needed a week of super healthy meals.

1 package of extra firm tofu, drained

1 bunch of bok choy, sliced into 1 inch pieces, separating stems and leaves

1 large tomato, sliced crosswise

1 medium eggplant, peeled and sliced crosswise into 1/2 inch rounds

1 garlic cloved, minced

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

Sprinkle eggplant with salt and drain in colander for 20 minutes. Pat dry then brush with olive oil and place on grill pan over medium high heat. Cook about 5 minutes per side or until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. Slice tofu crosswise into 8 1/2 inch pieces. Place on grill pan (if it is not a nonstick pan add a little olive oil to the pan before adding tofu) and grill until grill marks appear on tofu. Meanwhile in a large saute pan, add sesame oil and sesame seeds over medium high heat. Add bok choy steams and garlic and saute until slightly softened. Add leaves and saute until they start to wilt, serve hot.

To serve, place boy choy in dish then layer on top eggplant, tomato and tofu. Drizzle lightly with soy sauce.

Ginger Ale Turkey - 2 meals in 1!

Dinner #1

Dinner #2

Sorry for the lack of blog entries the past couple of weeks... my newborn baby has been keeping me busy! But she is now sleeping through the night so hopefully I will be able to start posting some more dinners.

Here is a recipe I got from my grandmother... very simple and the turkey is so moist and delicious! I made a couple changes to the original recipe and it still turned out perfect so feel free to alter things as well and let me know how it turns out. We ate the turkey with quinoa and carrots the first night and the second night I cut up the turkey and put it in a pita with cheese, tomatoes and sprouts. So if you are going to make it.. might as well make enough for two dinners.

1 can of ginger ale ** I didn't have ginger ale so I used Sprite

7-8 lb turkey breast, bone in and with skin ** I bought turkey drumsticks instead of breasts

season salt

Begin with turkey at room temperature. Place turkey in baking dish and pour can of soda over the turkey. Let sit for one hour and turn once or twice. Pour off most of the soda, season with season salt or whatever seasoning you like. Put a little water in the pan. Bake in oven at 475 for 30 minutes then turn oven off and leave in for about one hour. IMPORTANT NOTE: do not open the oven once the oven is turned off... until the hour is up.