Turkey Biscuit Turnovers

I've lost another pound on this diet!

Last night, I made another hearty, yet healthy, meal.  These were like tasty turkey meat pies.

Here's what you'll need!

• 3 tbsp light cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp fat free Cream of Mushroom soup
• 2 tbsp evaporated skim milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 lb ground turkey, cooked and broken up
• 1 tbsp minced onion
• 1 can mini biscuits (6 ct)
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp bread crumbs

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, soup, milk, salt, and pepper until smooth.  Add the turkey and onion.  Mix well.
3. Separate the dough into 6 biscuits.  Roll two biscuits together to form a ball. Use your hands or a rolling pin to press the dough into a 6" circle.  Repeat with the remaining biscuits.
4. Spoon about 3/4 cup of the turkey mixture onto half of each biscuit circle.  Fold the other half of the biscuit over the filling to form a turnover.  Seal with the tines of a fork.
5. Brush the tops with the egg white and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
6. Transfer turnovers to the cookie sheet.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Here's the important info!

Calories:  431
Total Fat:  18g
Cholesterol:  108mg
Sodium:  1041mg
Potassium:  71mg
Total Carbohydrate:  29g
Protein:  36g

All in all, not too bad for you!  And tasty, too!

Creamy Seafood Linguine

I've lost my first pound on this diet!  Woo!

Last night, the weather was dreary, and comfort food was in order.  What better comfort than to snuggle down with your hunny and a big bowl of creamy pasta?  This recipe was surprisingly delicious and filling.

Here's what you'll need!

• 8 oz linguine
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp white wine
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 cup evaporated skim milk
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 8 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Keep warm.
2. Lightly spray a large skillet with non-stick spray.  Add the olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.  Add the onions and garlic.  Cook and stir about 5 minutes, until the onions are golden brown.
3. In a small cup, mix the wine and flour until smooth.  Stir into the onion mixture.  Add the milk.
4. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat.  Stir in the coriander and cook for 1 minute.  Add the shrimp.  Return to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes, until the shrimp turn pink.
5. Stir in the parsley, salt, and pepper.  Serve over the hot pasta.

 Serves 3.

This is a little higher on calories than my usual offerings, but it's wonderful!

Calories:  583
Total Fat:  7g
Cholesterol:  115mg
Sodium:  518mg
Potassium:  216mg
Total Carbohydrate:  79g
Protein:  26g

Chicken Sloppy Joes

This week, as part of my whole "Finally Catching Up to My New Year's Resolutions" thing, I started the Special K Challenge.  You know, lose 6 pounds in 2 weeks eating cereal!  I also picked up a new-to-me cookbook at the thrift shop - Healthy Homestyle Cooking.  I'm not crazy about all the recipes...that is, I still think some of them have room for improvement, but I think it's going to give me a good baseline on healthier, tastier cooking.  Soooo....the first recipe out of the bag is as follows!

You'll need:

• 8 oz ground chicken
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 1 medium carrot, shredded
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 4 oz tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Lightly spray a large, unheated skillet with no-stick spray.  Add the chicken.  Cook until no longer pink, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the pepper, onion, tomato, carrot, and garlic.  Cook over medium heat until tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, flour, and Worcestershire sauce.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, again, stirring occasionally.
4. Serve on bread or buns.

This makes up about 3 servings, 4 if you're not feeling very generous! The following nutrition data is based on the above recipe being split 3 ways!

Calories:  179
Total Fat:  8.3g
Cholesterol:  63.3mg
Sodium:  387.5mg
Potassium:  330.6mg
Total Carbohydrate:  12.1g
Protein:  15.7g

As you can see, it's quite healthy!  And sooooo tasty!I was skeptical that it would come as well as it did, but it surprised me pleasantly.

Pastitsio!

So, last night, we had this "Greek lasagna."  It was quite tasty, very filling, and not too hard on the pocketbook!

• 1 pound ground lamb (beef works, as well!)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• .5 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• 3 cups milk
• 12 oz penne pasta
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• .5 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish.
3. Cook pasta.  Drain.
4. While pasta is cooking, brown meat in a heavy skillet.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft.  Mix in cinnamon and tomato sauce.
5. In a saucepan, melt butter.  Whisk in flour and cook one minute.  Whisk in milk and let simmer 20 minutes, stirring often.
6. Add beaten eggs and .25 cup parmesan to the white sauce.
7. Add half the pasta to the casserole dish.  Top with all the meat mixture.  Add the rest of the pasta.
8. Pour the white sauce over the top.
9. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese on top of the white sauce.
10. Bake for 45 minutes.

If I were to change anything about this, I would salt everything, use about half the pasta, and perhaps leave the eggs out of the white sauce.  Otherwise, it was very, very tasty.  Hubby loved it, too, so that's always a plus!

For the diet-conscious, here's the deets:


Calories          476
Total Fat         26.4g
Cholesterol     111mg
Carbs               41.5g
Protein             21.7g

All in all, not too shabby! 

Things have settled back to normal!

It's nice to feel like things are on track!
I got some writing done, played with my son, hung out with my husband, had a pleasant work day...
And! In World of Warcraft (from here, WoW!), we got our first new boss kill of the year!  Looks like our second "new kill" will be on Sunday!  :)  Very proud of my team!
Not a lot of other news to report.  Took the easy way out for dinner & let hubby order pizza...
Tomorrow, however, there will be lamb lasagna....and it will be documented here....and it will be glorious!
Hump Day is over - it's almost Friday!  Hooray!  :)

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone...
And I'm really (no, seriously!) going to keep up with a blog this time.
More like an online diary/recipe book/art space, etc.  But who's counting, right?
We've recovered from our Disney World Christmas Vacation Extraordinaire, and things have been kinda quiet.  (If you're looking into taking a trip of your own, I wholeheartedly suggest checking out this book! Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 2012 By Birnbaum Travel Guides  Tons of great info and coupons!)
Jared got me Skyrim for Christmas during the Epic Christmas Steam Sale (not the actual title!), and I've been hacking away at it, so to speak.  LOVE it.
Made a Spaghetti Frittata tonight...but it was not very good...so I will not be passing that recipe along!  Perhaps there will be a new one in the works tomorrow!  (Recipe, that is!)
Not much else of value to report at this time...
I'll be back here tomorrow, with fancy important new things!