It’s Still Pumpkin Time

“MOM! Don’t they know it’s not Christmas yet?!”

I’ve trained my kids well.  The Wreaths and Big Red Bows that don every shopping center in suburbia are perplexing to them.  At this house, Christmas celebrations start AFTER Thanksgiving.   Admittedly, RIGHT after Thanksgiving since I usually drag the Christmas boxes out the minute the last turkey sandwich is gobbled up.  

Let me be the first to confess, I was actually not that annoyed to see Red Christmas cups at Starbucks before Halloween.  I mean, I really really do love Christmas and everything about it.  But there is something sad about the way we, as a society, are always chomping at the bit for the next big event.  Can’t I just enjoy my family, and my turkey, and this very moment before the media starts stressing me out about that packed December calendar, the fact that I still have pumpkins out front, the financial stress of the holidays, the fact that I have “25 days 20 hours and 16 minutes” to finish my holiday shopping, and quite frankly everything else that distracts me from the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  

I’ve felt the same stresses lately related to running.  It’s time to decide what I want to do about a Spring marathon, and I just feel torn about my decision.  While I appreciate looking forward and planning for what’s next to come, I don’t want to be always so focused on what’s ahead that I miss what’s current.  I want to enjoy November for what it is… a time to pause, reflect, and be thankful for the here and now.

Today I’m thankful for a 70 degree morning and short sleeves on my run.

I’m thankful that I get to write this post with a cute little 18 month old on my lap feeding me crackers.

I’m thankful that it is November, and I don’t feel guilty about still having my pumpkins out front and Pumpkin Chili for dinner.

This recipe is super easy and healthy too.  You can easily adapt it to stovetop and have it ready in 30 minutes but I prefer the crockpot so I can make it a convenient time and basically just keep it warm until dinner.

Oh and, the cute 18 month old found the delete button on the computer so use your imagination for the first few pictures.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili
(also… super easy to double but this easily feeds 4)

1 pound lean Ground Turkey

1 yellow pepper

1/2 an onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes 

1 14 oz can Chicken Broth (or more depending on how soupy or thick you like your chili)

1 14 oz Can Canellini Beans (drained)
1 14 oz can Pumpkin Puree (pure pumpkin, NOT the pumpkin pie puree)

3 tablespoons chili powder

Whatever chili toppings you like… I went with cheese, scallions and greek yogurt

In a skillet, brown the ground turkey.  About 3/4 of the way through add peppers, onion and garlic.  I like to saute the veggies a bit before I throw it in the crock-pot because I feel like it helps to bring out the flavors a bit more, especially if I have less than 4 hours of crock-pot time.

Move to the crock-pot

Then start the dumping… dump tomatoes

dump the pumpkin… the pumpkin makes this creamy and awesome!!

Drain and wash the canellini beans

annnnd dump

Now the chili powder

The chicken broth

Then cover the top and let her go.

The longer you let this go in the crockpot the thicker it gets.  I only had about 3 hours before dinner but it was still awesome.

Annnd you caught me… that’s totally not greek yogurt but a big dollop of sour cream.  :)

My Heart is Stuffed

Yesterday I celebrated my 26th birthday.  The past few days have left me feeling so loved, so blessed and so FULL.  It’s an interesting conundrum to be 26, married for 6 years, and a mom of three kids 5 and under.  Some days when I get in a funk, I feel like I don’t fit anywhere.  I feel too young to be “old” and to old to be “young,” so to speak. 

More often than not though, I am blissfully aware of how the unique path that God set out for me resulted in so much more than I could have crafted if I was to design my own life.  I get to dabble in a little bit of everything.  I get to have meaningful relationships with women who are 25 and with women who are 45.  Time has taught me age is much less about your chronological number and much more about the life stage you are at.  Case and point:  The lifeguard who saw me schlepping my three kids, cooler, towels and sunblock into the pool guessed I was turning 32.  The waiter who served my husband and I and some friends a few hours later while we were kid-free, care-free, and dressed like actual 20 year olds guessed I was 23.  Or maybe he wanted a bigger tip.  Anyway, I’ll take the average!

I digress - what made the past few days so incredibly special is how many of my dearest friends took the time out of their VERY busy lives to spend time with me.  As we get older, the gift of time becomes more and more valuable.  Its the only thing that as adults, we seem to have less of.  I’m so grateful for all of you and our special relationships, my heart is truly STUFFED!

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers with Cous Cous

*My beautiful Aunt made these at the beach for 35 people!  Her’s were much better but I tried to replicate as well as I could guess!  I loved how easy they were, thanks Aunt Patty!!**

1 pound of lean ground turkey or beef

4 peppers (I’m loving getting these at the farmers market, they are a STEAL compared to the grocery store.  79 cents a pepper!!)

1 jar of Corn and Black Bean Salsa (here’s where I screwed up, I needed twice this amount pictured)

1 cup of cous cous

shredded cheese for the top

First off slice the tops off the peppers.  Don’t throw those away!  I chopped the top part, sans stem, and saved for dinner for tonight.

Stab holes on the bottom to release steam.  You can boil them here first if you don’t want your peppers to be crunchy but I like mine with a little fresh crunch.  And let’s be real, it’s easier.

Bring a cup of water to a boil in a saucepan.  When its boiling, add cous cous

Remove from heat and let it fluff up

While the water was heating up I browned the ground turkey in a skillet

When it was about cooked through I added the jar of Corn and Black bean salsa.  Since this wasn’t enough liquid and ground turkey is very dry I SHOULD have added a can of Rotel or diced tomatoes or more salsa.  I would suggest that you have about 4 cups of salsa.  I know my Aunt swears by Walmart’s Black Bean Salsa, and says it is the best for this recipe!

I added more corn because I could get the kids to eat it

Add in the cooked cous cous

Toss it around!  How pretty

Stuff those peppers to the brim

Arrange in a baking dish, if I had more salsa I’d probably pour more on top of each one!

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  At the 20 minute mark, take it out and add cheese to the top.

I added a little hot sauce to the finished product because as I’ve mentioned before, I just can’t leave well enough alone.  These were even better the next day!

When Vacation Gives you Lemons...

Reentry is hard. This week I am trying my darndest to get back in the groove of the grind after a full seven days of family time in the sun, surf and sand. 100+ degree weather just isn’t as fun on the steamy blacktops of suburbia as it is in a beach chair with my feet in the cool ocean water and the beach breeze in my hair.

As it goes with vacation, I came home to a fridge of random ingredients. I had feta, some frozen ground turkey, greek yogurt, spinach, rotten milk, frozen hamburger buns, some cucumbers from a neighbor, and a million lemons. Not a bad lot, but definitely not a whole lot of options for Superman, sorry buddy :)

My neighbor and chef extraordinaire, Tawnya, had recently told me about some tasty Spanikopita burgers she made that I knew I wanted to try out. And when vacation leaves you with a million lemons, make Tzatziki? After I scrounged up some tomatoes I got to work. For a fridge full of random ingredients, this turned out pretty dang good.

Spanakopita Burgers

(adopted from Rachael Ray’s recipe)

1 pound of ground turkey or chicken

1 bag of spinach

half an onion and a couple cloves of garlic (I always always have onion and garlic)

oregano

1/2 cup of crumbled feta

Hamburger buns (optional)

For the tzatziki topping:

1 cup of Greek Yogurt

1 cucumber

half a small red onion

2 cloves garlic

cherry tomatoes

1 lemon

2 tsp Dill

Olive Oil

First thing’s first, heat a saute pan over medium high heat and add a turn of the pan of olive oil. Chop the garlic and onions.
Add to the saute pan and let them go for about 2 minutes.
Then add the spinach. I did use the whole bag. The original recipe called for frozen spinach but I just really have something against frozen spinach. Fresh spinach is so pretty! I added about half (enough to fit in the pan), let it cook down, and then added the other half
Like so

While that spinach is doing it’s thing, get started on the Tzatziki. Add the greek yogurt to the mixing bowl. (P.S. I got to use my new Bamboo fiber mixing bowls from Pampered Chef’s not yet released fall collection, I love them). Then add the 2 tsp of Dill. Fresh dill is so much more flavorful but dry will do.
Add two cloves of garlic.

Oh hey, spinach is done. Put that in a separate bowl to cool while you finish the Tzatziki. You will inadvertently cook the ground turkey if you try and mix it all while it’s hot!

Focus Karen, back to the tzatziki. Add the lemon juice.

Peel the cucumber

I really wanted the cucumber pulverized so I used the food chopper and got the pieces nice and teeny.
Add it in the sauce.
Chop tomatoes. I love the colors of these.
Score and cut the red onion (I would leave this out if I wanted the tzatziki to be more of a dip and less of a burger topping)
Then toss it allllll together.
To the spinach bowl, add the 1/2 cup feta and about a tablepsoon of oregano.
Then the ground turkey and mix it well. I just really think you can’t mix a burger well unless you get in there with your hands, so don’t be shy just do it.
Form into patties and refrigerate until you are ready to go.

When you’re ready, heat some olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. I would recommend pan frying these versus grilling because they are a bit juicy and might fall apart on the grill.
Cook through on both sides until they are golden brown and cooked through. I think this took me about 10 to 15 minutes.

I actually ate these open faced but I thought for the picture they looked cuter with a hat. Next time I would definitely throw some Hot Pepper Rings or Pepperoncini on there because I’m insane and have to have something spicy in every meal I eat. Might try pita instead of Hamburger Rolls too!

Hungry Mother

WARNING: If you're looking for super-healthy recipes, ignore my next two posts. The next two posts are ones for those nights you want to indulge! Couple the fact that I've finally been getting back on track with my morning runs with nursing over 30 ounces a day, means I am the definition of a Hungry Mom these days.

But really, what one considers "healthy" is a relative term if you ask me. Sure this may be all meat and bread, but its ground turkey! And there's only one slice of cheese! And its so incredibly tasty you'll stop caring about the nutritious value after one bite!!

Two additional facts about these:

1. There are a lot of "steps" to this, which I actually don't mind because that allowed me to stop, break up a fight, resume. Stop, put together a track on the train table, resume. Stop, clean marker off of kid's arms, resume. Or maybe you need to walk your dog, or take a shower, whatever. Its hard to get 45 uninterrupted minutes no matter who you are.
2. If you grow herbs, this time of year your basil plants are beginning to be absurdly huge. Unfortunately mine aren't, because an army of caterpillars invaded the soil of my herb pot. I know, gross. But anyway here's a fantastic way to use bunches and bunches of that basil.

Turkey Parm Burgers

(compliments of Leslie Moffitt and You've Got Supper)

1 lb ground turkey

Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs

Jarred Marinara

Rolls (I used Trader Joe's Take and Bake Ciabatta... yummmm)

slices of mozzarella

Lots and Lots of BASIL

And because I just couldn't stop there... a little aoili of basil, lemon juice, mayo and a tiny bit of olive oil for the buns.

Mix a few tablespoons of marinara into your ground turkey in a bowl with some additional dried Italian Spices... oregano, basil etc. Doesn't this look appetizing????

Shape into patties and stick it in the freezer for 15 min to let them get a little more consolidated. Otherwise they will be too gooey to work with. Yes, my freezer is this small.

During this 15 min little break I threw together the aioli real quick. Definitely not necessary! But a really tasty addition if you feel up to breaking out your blender.

Simply mix a few tablespoons of mayo, a touch of olive oil, a handful of basil and the juice from one lemon in the blender.

Should actually be thicker than this but I added too much EVOO. Whatever no big deal. Precisely why I like to cook and hate to bake!

Take out the burgers and put bread crumbs on both sides. Pat the bread crumbs down well so they don't shake off when you have to put them back in the freezer (for me, tipped on an angle) for another 10 minutes or so.

Use this time to give your cute baby a bath in the sink :)

Then heat your skillet to medium high heat with a thin layer of olive oil.

Sear burgers on both sides and pan fry until cooked through - about 5 min per side or so.

Stick your buns in the oven :)

Put one slice of mozzarella cheese on top of your turkey burger

Then to assemble... basil aoili on the buns, then the burger, then some marinara sauce straight out of the jar, then some fresh basil.

This is not just my camera, it really looks and tastes this amazing and delicious!

Then my sister suggested we pile tons of basil on top like lettuce. There's the genius in the background!