Kitchen Time

This afternoon I spent some time in the kitchen making some things for our  lunches this week and dinner tonight and I thought I'd share the recipes...

First up, lunch on Monday and Tuesday of this week will be "grown-up" turkey sloppy joes on wheat buns and cream & vinegar cucumbers.

"Grown-Up" Turkey Sloppy Joes

1. Saute 1 chopped onion with a little vegetable oil
2. When onions are translucent, add 1 lb ground turkey and cook until turkey is no longer pink
3. Drain turkey and onions, then return to pan
4. Add 1 cup ketchup, couple dashes of garlic powder, couple dashes of worcestershire, couple dashes of red pepper flakes, 2 tbsp. brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, pinch of salt and pepper
5. Mix and let simmer for a couple minutes
6. Serve hot on wheat buns

Cream & Vinegar Cucumbers

My mom made these growing up and I always loved them. Very refreshing side dish for the Summer!

1. Peel 4 cucumbers and slice into thin rounds
2. Combine the cucumbers with 1 cup cream (sour cream, half and half or heavy cream will work), 1 cup vinegar (red wine or apple cider), 1 cup white sugar, pinch of salt and 2 tsp. dill
3. You can eat immediately, but they're far better when left to sit. 

I had a hard time menu planning this morning for dinners this week.  For some reason, I wasn't feeling anything. I was looking through the refridgerater and saw that I had about a half pack of corn tortillas left over from the other weekend and suddenly it came to me - that Mexican chicken casserole thing my mom used to make with tortillas. I called my mom and she gave me the recipe, which happened to actually be a recipe she got years ago from my Grandma Heintzelman. I'll call it...

Mexican Chicken Tortilla Casserole

1. Combine 4 cups shredded cooked chicken, 8 oz. sour cream, 9 oz. diced green chiles (I doubled the original recipe because I love green chiles), 1 can low-fat cream of chicken soup and 1 can low-fat cream of mushroom soup
2. Add to this bitesize pieces of tortillas. My grandma's recipe says to use 12 flour tortillas, but I had the little corn ones, I think I used maybe 15 of them?!?
3. I also opted to add to this mixture about a tsp. of cumin and a tsp. of Emeril's Southwest Essence
4. Add chicken and tortilla mixture to a greased 9x13 baking dish and top with 1 cup of low-fat milk and 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
5. Bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 1 hour