Honestly, not many people can get excited over a turkey burger. Typically, they lack much taste and are fairly bland, even if you add salt and pepper. However, I have spiced these turkey burgers up with pizza type ingredients so that they will be loved by people of all ages! Items like, pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, etc. would be amazing in this recipe.

I am going to give you the basic formula, and then you could eat it just like this, or make it a bit more personal by adding your own favorite pizza ingredients. There is one key trick to the best burgers (of any type of meat): don’t over handle the meat! Over-handling of the meat causes it to bind up and get tough, and if your like me, there is nothing worse than a tough burger.

Ingredients:

 1 lb ground turkey (I usually use anywhere from 85-95% lean)

¼ cup tomato sauce

1 egg, beaten

¼ - ½ cup bread crumbs (I like Italian style)

A hefty sprinkle of your choice of cheese (mozzarella, parmesan etc. )

1 clove garlic

Any other ingredient for pizza (pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, onions)

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Using your hands, work the meat until just combined. The technique that I use is one hand in the bowl, grab the meat and twist.

Once the meat is just combined, make patties the size that you would like by grabbing the amount of meat that you prefer, roll it for a second into a bowl and then press flat.

You are then ready to either freeze these in freezer bags, or place them right in a skillet or grill. Cook until the center is cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side on a grill. 

Stew....it's so wonderful for so many reasons. First, you can make it with pretty much any type of meat and/or veggie that you like. Second, it's healthy! And third, you can throw it all in a slow cooker and it takes no effort, you definitely can't beat having dinner ready after a long (possibly cold) day at work! 

The stew recipe that I use is a family recipe that my dad created. Now, I know that a lot of our family recipes are either incomplete, because as I have said many times before, Italians leave ingredients out, or I am not at liberty to share the recipes because I have been sworn to secrecy. With that said, I have made this recipe many, many times, so I know that nothing is left out....and my family hasn't said anything about not sharing the recipe, so I am going to do it before they realize and stop me :) 

As I have said, you can change up this recipe any way you want to, by adding different meat, omitting the meat, or adding your favorite recipes. There are only 3 things that NEED to be done to get this recipe to turn out right, and they are pretty simply. The key to a good stew is adding a little bit of flour to thicken the sauce, Italian style stewed tomatoes, and Balsamic Vinegar. Don't try to add anymore liquid, because it is completely unnecessary, and in my 'professional' opinion, you may ruin my family recipe. :)

Ingredients:

Stew meat.... I have used both beef or deer. You can buy stew meat from your butcher so that its already in good size chunks, or you can buy a steak and do it yourself.

1/4 cup flour

About 3 oz Balsamic Vinegar

1 14 oz can of Italian Style Stewed Tomatoes

Mixed frozen Veggies 

1 Celery rib, finely chopped

1/2 of a small yellow onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 potato, peeled and chopped

1 bay leaf

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

Vegetable spray for coating the slow cooker  

Spray slow cooker with vegetable spray to coat and then add your meat. Sprinkle flour over meat and toss to coat. Then add in the rest of your ingredients. Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours. You can then serve this over egg noodles, rice or some nice crusty bread.

 I am not sure if I have said it or not, but you may have noticed the lack of seafood recipes here. Not only am I allergic to seafood, but I am also not a fan of it for many, many reasons! However, sometimes I do cook it (careful not to actually touch it) because my husband enjoys it, and so does his family. I don't think I have made anything seafood since probably last Christmas, so when the hubby asked if I would make a pasta dish with shrimp and peas, I just had to say yes.

This was a fairly easy recipe, and I bought frozen, pre cooked, devained and shelled shrimp (just had the tails on), so that I wouldn't actually need to touch them. I am super paranoid that I will touch the fish and then forget and touch my face, or worse yet, touch food that I then eat....ugh, the thought of it gives me the willies!

I had to make some alterations to this recipe because I am pretty sure that it was meant to have fresh shrimp. I started off with some butter in the pan and sauteed the shrimp...but because the shrimp then defrosted, I was left with tons of water in the pan...not to worry, I just drained most of the water, through in 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of flour and created a little rue! This recipe is so simple...just adding cream, a little wine, angel hair pasta, after its cooked, salt, pepper, dried basil, and its good to go!

Ingredients

8 ozs Uncooked angel hair pasta, broken into pieces

2 tbs Butter, plus 2 tbs for rue if using frozen shrimp

2 tbsp flour, if using frozen shrimp

1 lb. Peeled and deveined shrimp

2 Garlic clove crushed

1/2 cup Fat free half-and-half

1/4 cup white wine

1/3 cup Chopped fresh basil, divided or you can use 1tbsp dried basil

3/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Fresh ground black pepper

1/3 cup Preshredded fresh Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups Frozen green peas

Cook pasta according to the package instructions. In the mean time, melt butter into a large skillet and sautee shrimp...about 4 minutes. If you used frozen shrimp, drain excess water and then create a rue with extra butter and flour. Add half and half, wine, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 4 minutes, uncovered. Add cheese and peas. Cook about 2 mins. Then add the angel hair and toss to coat!

I have to admit, these aren't the healthiest choices for dinner that I could have eaten...but they were delicious, and they are semi healthified versions, so they could have been worse! We couldn't really decide what we wanted for dinner, so I decided to make some homemade mozzarella sticks, and mini 'healthy' pizzas. 

Who knew that mozzarella sticks could be so easy to make from home? Or that I always have all of the ingredients to make them? And also, why is it that I always have all of the ingredients on hand for things that I shouldn't be eating often?

Homemade mozzarella sticks are super easy to make and take a minimal effort.  

Ingredients:

• String cheese, unwrapped and cut in half
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil

Make 3 stations, 1 with flour on a plate, 1 with bread crumbs on a plate, and one bowl with the eggs and milk whisked together. Take the string cheese and roll it into the flour, then the egg mixture and then the bread crumbs. After the whole piece of string cheese if fully breaded, place onto a clean plate. When this process has been completed for all of your pieces of string cheese, place the plate with the breaded cheeses into the freezer for at least, AT LEAST, 30 mins. This will do a quick freeze so that when you cook them, the cheese won't melt before the coating is golden.

After they are chilled, remove from freezer and place into a frying pan with enough oil to coat the bottom. The heat should be medium high, and the oil should be preheated before the mozzarella sticks are placed in it. Turn the mozzarella sticks until all sides are golden. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil. Serve with tomato sauce. 

The other recipe that I made was for mini, healthier pizzas. I took a Whole Wheat English Muffin, and forked it open. I then put about 1 tbsp of my canned tomato sauce on eat slice and topped it with Mozzarella Cheese, salt, pepper, and a pizza seasoning. My hubby likes a little meat on his pizza's, so I took some pulled chicken (that had been cooking in the slow cooker) and placed it on top. I then put the pizzas into a 375 degree toaster oven and cooked for about 5 mins, or until the cheese was melted! 

 
Friday nights dinner was specially made with my hubby in mind. There are foods that he loves, which I hardly ever make for him because they take a bit of time, (or because I am not a fan of them). I know it sounds horrible to say, but there are certain things that I don't like all that much which I just leave off of the nightly meal rotation. 

I think he and I both are a little tired of the same old food, so I decided to make a pork tenderloin, my homemade mac n' cheese, and a squash and zucchini sauté. He was so happy that not only was I making food that he LOVES, but it was a week night meal. I rushed home from work and got straight into the kitchen to get to work on this comfort food dinner for my love. 

The first thing that I did was preheat the oven to 350. I wanted to make sure that everything finished at the same time (or about the same time) so I was happy that I had thought about a recipe in which everything cooked for approximately the same time in the same degree oven! How perfect! 

The tenderloin was probably the easiest thing to make because I bought it already marinated with a peppercorn rub. I just let it sit out on a sheet pan and come up to room temp. while I made the mac n' cheese. The only thing that I added to the tenderloin was a little drizzle of hubby's favorite bbq sauce. 

Mac N' Cheese

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 flour
• 2 cups warmed milk
• 2 cups cheddar cheese
• 1/2 lb cavatappi pasta 
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• bacon
• 1 small can of peas
• 1/2 onion, caramelized
• 1 small bag of potato chips, crushed  
• salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to the instructions on the back.

In a large skillet, melt butter. Once the butter has melted, whisk in the flour, continually whisking for about 1 minute. This will create a rue to help thicken the milk. After all of the flour has cooked, whisk in the warmed milk. Whisk continually until the milk thickens. While the milk thickens, add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and nutmeg. Once the milk is a thick consistency add in the shredded cheese. Once the cheese has melted add in the pasta, caramelized onion, peas and chopped bacon, stirring until everything is combined. Then, pour mixture into a casserole dish and top with potato chips. Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 35 mins.