Mexican Turkey Burgers

Oh, Daylight Savings. How I am not a fan of thee. I've been going to sleep an hour earlier than usual to make sure I'm not losing any sleep this week. I can't afford to be cranky when I'm teaching. Waking up at 6:30 a.m. when it's still dark outside is hard enough. But I've also got to pack lunch, pack for Weight Training, clean my dishes, eat breakfast, pick out an outfit, and be out the door by 7:40. That's why I've been loving burgers this semester. I can just put one in the oven and let it bake while I go do my thing. Flip, let it bake and do my thing again.



I adapted a bit from the original recipe because I didn't like how it was made. The original had you make a "corn salsa" by mixing salsa and corn together and then spreading that over the patties as they bake. But I'm going to freeze all but one of the burgers, so I didn't want to deal with making an individual serving of corn salsa every time I make these at 6:30 in the morning, still half asleep. So, instead, I added the corn into the patty mixture. I'd probably spread a bit of salsa on top after flipping them in the oven since that would take but 2 seconds.



Mexican Turkey Burgers
From Allrecipes

- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped [I replaced this with celery]
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup corn
- 1 1/3 pound ground turkey
- 1 (1.25 oz) package taco seasoning mix

1. Preheat oven to 450F (230C). Coat a medium baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and saute the onion, green pepper, and garlic 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl, mix the onion mixture with the turkey, taco seasoning, and corn. Divide into 6 patties. Arrange patties in the prepared baking dish.
4. Bake the patties 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Drain any liquid from the dish, turn patties, and spread with the remaining salsa mixture. Continue baking 10 minutes, to an internal temperature of 165F (75C).

Feta and Olive Turkey Burgers

Normally, I would be at the high school right now working with students in Algebra. But we got quite a bit of snow on Wednesday and it started snowing this morning. The snow has melted off the main roads, but since the high school is a county school, there are students who live way out in the county on farms and whatnot where roads are still bad for buses to travel so I haven't had school after Tuesday.

I did a bit of food shopping before the snow started on Wednesday so I would have things to eat while home all day. I was going to make these turkey burgers this weekend, but with the time off, I thought why not make them earlier. Best decision I've made this week. Whatever you had planned for your next meal, put them off until tomorrow because you need to make these now! Cheese in burgers is possibly the best idea ever, especially when they get melty and gooey, like the feta in this recipe!



Not only does the cheese add deliciousness to the burgers, but the herbs and spices are perfect. I thought the Mushroom Blue Cheese Burgers tasted good, but as soon as I took a bite of this Feta and Olive Turkey Burger, I changed my mind. This tastes better! I don't have Italian seasoning so I left that out and added the optional basil. Otherwise, I followed everything as is and cooked it on the skillet instead of grilling.



Feta and Olive Turkey Burgers [Makes 5 servings]
From Food.com

- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup olive, chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried basil (optional)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- Ground black pepper, to taste

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Form into 5 patties, then grill or cook in skillet on medium heat.

Mushroom Blue Cheese Burgers

I love how one ingredient can spark so many recipe ideas in my head. Last week, I bought an excess of mushrooms and wanted to use them in a recipe to get rid of them quickly. I haven't ever made stuffed mushrooms before so I wanted to make those, but I definitely was not going to be able to eat up so many stuffed mushrooms by myself, so I made only a fraction of the recipe. (Expect a recipe for those soon!) I decided to make burgers with the remaining 8 oz mushrooms. It's been a while since I've made some burgers and since I've had beef, actually! These are originally made with ground turkey, but I've been eating turkey sausages for breakfast so I thought I'd go for the beef instead.

I discovered, while in Paris, that I'm not a fan of stinky cheeses eaten as a block. I ordered a Roquefort crepe and it had just a huge chunk of the cheese inside. The smell was so intense that I could not bear to finish the whole thing. Then, this summer I got Panera's Chicken Cobb Salad for lunch every day and that had blue cheese crumbles. Crumbles worked better for me because I could taste just a bit of the strong blue cheese in every bite.



That was how it was with this burger. I increased the amount of cheese from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, which was a good decision... It was just enough. I could still taste the mushrooms and the beef without getting an overpowering taste of the cheese. I love it! I also baked the burger instead of cooking it on the skillet. I wanted to cook it in the morning so it would still be somewhat warm by lunchtime. Since I'm the only one up at 6:30, I didn't want to make too much noise. Baking was the quietest and easiest way for me to get my burger cooked. I did 28 minutes in the oven, flipping once, and it came out medium well. I can't wait to try this again but with different kinds of cheese!



Mushroom Blue Cheese Burgers
Adapted from Allrecipes

- 1 lb ground beef
- 8 oz fresh mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground turkey, mushrooms, onion, soy sauce, and blue cheese. Season with kosher salt and pepper. Form into 4 burger patties.
2. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes, turning once. If cooking on the stove top, heat skillet to medium heat. Add patty and cook for 7 to 8 minutes on each side, or until meat is cooked through.

Roasted Brined Turkey

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! It's always nice to have the whole family home and eating together at the dinner table. The last few years, my family always bought a frozen Jennie-O turkey, roasted it, and ate it with a salad on the side. As a family of four, we never finished even the leftovers within the next week, so this year we decided to buy just a breast and two legs (and we still have leftovers!). I spent all day preparing the dinner. My mom kept saying that I must be tired, but I love cooking, especially for other people, so I don't notice whether I'm tired or not. And if it gives my mom a break from the kitchen, then all the better.

Thanksgiving dinner was really a success because the picky eaters that are my dad and my sister enjoyed it very much. There was nothing that didn't fit my dad's tastes, as he's not a fan of any overpowering flavors, since I went easy on the herbs. He even liked the Pumpkin Pie! I thought he wouldn't because of all the spices, but the spices weren't as overpowering as I thought they would be and he also loves pumpkin, so it was fine.

I don't have pictures of my dinner to share just yet. I used my sister's camera and she didn't have the USB cord with her so I'll have to wait until I see her next time near Christmas. For now, I will share the recipe I used for the turkey. I decided to brine it because many people said that it always ends in a moist turkey. Since we were going to be eating mostly breast meat, the driest part, I thought brining seemed necessary. It turned out great! It also helped that we used fresh meat from Whole Foods and not frozen meat. Our turkey breast was about 4.5 lb so I just halved the recipe.

I can't wait for next Thanksgiving. I'm already looking at recipes for next year before I've even set the Christmas dinner menu for this year!

Roasted Brined Turkey
From Soup Belly

- 8 to 12 lb. fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 5 bay leaves
- 45 black peppercorns (about 1 tsp.)
- 1 1/2 cups kosher salt [or 3/4 cup table salt]
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 quarts hot water

1. Combine all ingredients in pot for brine until salt is dissolved. Then add 3 quarts ice water, let stand until brine has cooled to at least colder than lukewarm.
2. Rinse turkey and pat dry; reserve neck and gizzards for Pan Gravy. Submerge turkey in cold brine. Press and weight down turkey with a clean plate or two. Refrigerate 8 to 12 hours.
3. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Remove turkey from brine, discard brine and drain turkey well. Pat turkey dry with paper towels.
4. Place turkey, bone side down, on rack in shallow roasting pan. Tuck drumsticks under band of skin across the tail, or tie drumsticks to tail. Twist wing tips under back. Push meat thermometer into center of inside thigh muscle.
5. Roast turkey, uncovered, for 2 3/4 to 3 hours, or until meat thermometer registers 165 to 180 degrees, cutting the band of skin or string holding drumsticks and rotating pan halfway through roasting. If necessary, tent turkey breast with foil during last 30 minutes to prevent overbrowning (covering whole turkey will slow down cooking).
6. Remove turkey from oven. Let stand, covered, for 20 minutes. Makes 8 servings and leftovers.

Turkey Apple Sausage Patties

A few weeks ago, I made some sausage patties to eat for breakfast. I noticed I was running low so I went looking for a new recipe to try. It was actually pretty difficult to find one that had different flavors from the last recipe I used. After browsing and browsing and more browsing, I found one by Rachael Ray in which she has an apple as an ingredient. I thought to myself, "Hey, I love apples, so why not," and kept searching for similar ones and found this very simple recipe.

These patties have a totally different flavor from the last one I made. The recipe calls for dried apples, but I used a whole fresh one instead. A new kind of apple, actually, that I had never tasted before. It's called Jonagold. It's a tart and crispy apple and I love it! I love all apples and I hope I run into more different types so I can try them all. My everyday apple is Gala, but my all-time favorites have to be Honeycrisp and Fuji. I grew up eating Fuji every night as dessert. It's very refreshing to eat, especially if dinner that night was spicy or a bit on the heavy side.

The recipe also calls for honey or maple syrup, but I used agave nectar. I could tell just from adding and mixing the agave into the meat mixture that it would be a bit softer than the previous patties I made and it certainly was. A couple other changes I made were adding more veggies and replacing sage with parsley because I am not a big fan of sage and I couldn't even find it at the market. I really love these patties and I would definitely make these again!



Turkey Apple Sausage Patties [Makes 33 small patties]
Adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet

- 1.3 lb ground turkey
- 1 small apple, diced
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 1/2 bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup diced zucchini
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1 tbsp agave nectar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp dried parsley flakes

1. Pulse the apple, onion, bell pepper, and zucchini in a food processor until finely chopped and squeeze out excess juice. Add to bowl.
2. Add turkey, allspice, sea salt, black pepper, parsley, and agave into the bowl with veggies. Mix well.
3. Take a little less than 2 tbsp of meat mixture. Form into a ball and then flatten with palms. Cook each patty for about 3 minutes or until center is cooked through.

Turkey Sausage Patties

For the past 2 years, I've been eating the same breakfast almost every day: oatmeal. And 2 years ago was when I discovered oatmeal. When I had a meal plan at my school, I ate the Quaker's instant oatmeal. They had the usual suspects: apple cinnamon, maple and brown sugar, and cinnamon and spice. I never touched the original. I looked forward to waking up in the morning to have my oatmeal on toast with cream cheese (or to mix it up, peanut butter). Now I live off campus at a house and am able to cook old-fashioned oatmeal. Not the healthiest I could be, but still a step up from instant and super quick to cook up. But then I got lazy and gave up on the toast and the cream cheese a while ago and now I eat just plain oatmeal so of course I'm not as excited about breakfast as I used to be. So I thought I should try to incorporate more variety, such as fruits, into my breakfast and also more protein. Eggs? Too much time for me in the morning (I know, lazy). How about sausage patties? It can't get any easier than just popping one in the microwave. Instead of buying sausage patties that I would be really suspicious of, I was determined to make my own with flavors and vegetables that I wanted. And I know what's in it! Nothing to be suspicious of. I mixed all the ingredients together and refrigerated it overnight so that all I had to do in the morning was cook them. I was so hungry when I woke up this morning, but I had to cook the patties first! An hour later, I was ready to eat my new and somewhat improved breakfast.



Turkey Sausage Patties [Makes about 22 flat 2-inch wide patties]
Adapted from Itsy Bitsy Foodies

- 1/2 small onion
- 1/4 yellow bell pepper
- 1/4 green bell pepper
- 5 baby carrots
- 1.3 pound ground turkey
- 1 1/2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1. Place onion, bell peppers, and carrots in food processor. Pulse until finely diced. Squeeze out excess juice from veggies.
2. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
3. Shape into balls and flatten with hands. Place in pan on medium heat and cook the first side for 30 seconds. Flip and cook for 1 minute. Flip again and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, flipping in between.






So easy to make and really flavorful. I reduced the amount of fennel seeds only because I had never tasted it before and did not want to ruin the food if I ended up not liking it, but I think it's the perfect amount for me. I would definitely make this again, maybe even with chicken next time. As for now, the rest of the patties are wrapped in wax paper and in the freezer, awaiting their doom :)