Happy Labor Day, today I've got a great minimal labor dinner for you Skinny Taste’s Crock Pot 3 Bean Turkey Chili!
This is the perfect “dreaming” of fall recipe from the indispensible Skinny Taste, don’t you just LOVE Gina? My dad loved it so much he ate it for breakfast. Yes really.
For once I actually left the recipe alone and just followed the directions, surprising I know. I topped mine with 2% cheddar cheese, and low fat sour cream.
Get the ingredients and super simple directions over on Skinny Taste.

Inspired by his favorite lunch spot’s sandwich (Taziki’s Mediterranean Café’s The Turkey and Egg Sandwich) he came up with this yummy at home version.

Steps:

1. Toast your wheat
2. Mayo it
3. Sauté your onions, red work well
4. Fry your egg
5. Fry your turkey
6. Assemble with your cheese and lettuce
7. Enjoy
   
   

Andrew went to the cabin a few weekends ago, and I knew just what I was gonna make while he was gone, all the things he doesn't like like meatloaf and spaghetti.

So I decided to give Skinny Kitchen's Ball Park Meatloaf a shot, and I'm so glad I did, I made a few modifications based on my fridge which I'll note below.

What's perfect about this for me since A doesn't like it is meatloaf freezes great for sandwiches later. In fact today at work I pulled a saran wrapped slice out of the freezer, let it hang in the fridge at work until lunch and zapped it for a minute and half to sandwich perfection.

Skinny Kitchen’s Ball Park Turkey Meatloaf
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 60 minutes

Meatloaf Ingredients

• 1-1¼ pounds package ground turkey
• ½ cup sweet pickle relish
• ⅓ cup spicy brown mustard or regular mustard (I used a mix of two deli mustards I had)
• 1 small onion, chopped (I love onion so and didn't have a baby one so I used a fairly big one)
• 1 slice whole wheat or multi-grain bread made into crumbs, (about ½ cup crumbs) - This recipe finally gave me my AHA moment on the whole wheat breadcrumbs I can never find at the store, toast bread and pop them in your rocket! DUH!
• 1 egg white - I put the whole egg in there since I didn't wanna deal with having a random yolk. Plus the added fat of 1 yolk across all the servings makes it not matter so much.
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• I had some shredded cheddar cheese I needed to use up, I added that into mine, but I don't think it really had much effect, I'll leave it out next time.
• Topping - OMG I'm long been a fan of what I call May-up (Mayo and Ketchup mixed together, but ketchup and mustard is amazing too, and far less fatty!)
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard or regular mustard

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking pan or cooking sheet with foil. Set aside.

2. To make bread crumbs: Toast 1 slice bread. Keep the crust on, add to blender or food processor and pulse into crumbs. (WHY did I not think of this!)

3. In a large bowl, add the crumbs and all the meatloaf ingredients and mix well.

4. Place meatloaf mixture in the center of the baking pan and shape into a 12 x 4 inch loaf by hand.  Bake for 60 minutes.

5. Remove meatloaf from oven. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup and mustard.  Spread topping all over top of loaf.  Let sit for at least 5 minutes.  Cut into 12 slices.

Transfer to a platter so you don't have to look at all that gross fat!

Makes 12 slices, 2 slices per serving (I couldn't get that many out of mine, but so it always goes with servings)

Loved this, it will certainly be made again for dinner, and lunches.

Taco Night (Semi Adapted from Cooking Light)

• Ground Turkey
• 3 tablespoons of Salsa
• Spice pack of taco seasoning
• Half a Diced onion
• Pressed garlic (I press all my garlic, anything else is too much work)
• Toppings
• Wholly Guacamole
• Light Sour Cream
• 2% shredded cheese
• Shredded lettuce
• Sautéed Onions
• Sautéed Green Bell Pepper

Andrew and I love our taco nights, and often make them at least twice a month; this is our latest incarnation of our magic combination.
Semi Adapted from:

Sautee the garlic and onion for about 3 minutes. Med-high heat.

Add ground turkey, break up cook about 8 min on med-high heat until fully cooked

Add 3 tablespoons of salsa and stir in.

Combine taco seasoning with the amount of water recommended on packet.

Add to turkey and stir.
Reduce heat per packet and cover for ten minutes.

That’s it.
We do it with 1 pound of turkey which is enough for two tacos each, with some left over for quesadillas the next night.

For the sides I 'soup up' the wholly guacamole with some raw diced onion and chopped tomato

Andrew's family has a cabin on the Tennessee River, we love to visit and I like to make it into a fun cooking experiment weekend since it's quite a drive to venture out.  Cabin food always equals indulgence, since Andrew, his Dad, and his Uncle are the normal crew up here, I try and stay clear of the chips and hoho diet of the cabin.
The other great thing about menu planning the cabin is I grocery shop at home and pack all we need so we get here stay here until Sunday.

Our Friday night meal pick was Macaroni and Cheese from this month's Better Homes and Gardens (it needed less stuff than the one in Cooking Light this month =) Find it here (BHG Recipe). 

The Kirsti Recipe commentary:
This supposedly serves 6, I guess as a side dish. This was just enough for Andrew and I as our dinner, with a snack for lunch leftover. As a side dish I'd say this is good for 4 or 5 people.

Ingredients

• 7  oz. dried multigrain or whole grain rotini pasta (about 1-1/2 cups) 
• Since they don't make whole grain macaroni, I used normal macaroni since I really wanted the elbows, rotini would work though
•   Nonstick cooking spray
• 1-1/2  cups broccoli florets, finely chopped carrots, or green beans, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 
• I used frozen broccolli and couliflower by microwaving it a bit, worked great
• 1/4  cup finely chopped onion
• 4  tsp. olive oil
• 1  6.5-oz. pkg. light semisoft cheese with garlic and herb 
• I used the Garlic and Herb laughing cow
• 1-2/3  cups fat-free milk
• 1  Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2  cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz.)
• 2  oz. Asiago, Gruyére, or Manchego cheese, shredded (1/2 cup)
• I skipped this and some slices of provolone since we had it (it all just gets melted in anyway)
  
• 1/2  cup crumbled whole wheat baguette or panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs) 
• Panko all the way, so easy and tasty (The directions kinda leave you hanging on the panko, so I just mixed them with the olive oil so they'd brown up)
•   Flat-leaf parsley or oregano 
• (Sprinkled some oregano on top when it was done which was a nice addition)  

• Kirsti & Andrew Bonus
• since this was our entree we added some turkey bacon into the brocolli couliflower macaroni mix, it worked great

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. In a medium saucepan cook the pasta according to package directions. Add broccoli, carrots, or beans during last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain pasta mixture. Return to pan; keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in large saucepan cook onion in 2 tsp. of the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove pan from heat. Add semisoft cheese; stir until cheese is melted and combined.

• This step leaves you wondering as you empty out all the laughing cow in, but just go with it, even if it seems so wrong.

3. In a medium bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth. Add all at once to onion mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cheddar and Asiago cheeses until cheeses are melted. Add cooked pasta mixture; stir to coat. 

• Since I was working with a limited 'cabin kitchen' I mixed the cheesey goop into the macaroni in the baking dish, which worked fine 

4. Transfer pasta mixture to 2-quart casserole. In small bowl combine baguette crumbles and remaining 2 tsp. oil; sprinkle on pasta mixture. Bake, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes or until top is browned. Sprinkle with parsley. Makes 6 servings.

Ready for the oven

After

I love taking restaurant favorites and making them lighter at home. This is my and my Mom's version of California Pizza Kitchen's BLT pizza

 

What you need

• Wheat Crust
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese (normally do mozzarella but didn't have any but the sharp worked out great)
• Grape Tomatoes (Roma would prob work better)
• Turkey Bacon
• Red & Green peppers (since we needed to use them up CPK version doesn't have them, but they added some good crunch)
• Romaine tossed in light mayo (Duke's is the best =)
• Mayo lettuce is best when it's had some time to meld in the fridge, just pull out and put on top when the pizza is done