Turkey and Bacon Meatloaf

Emily loves meatloaf.  The last time I made regular meatloaf I think she ate most of it.  I'm not complaining, mind you.  Meatloaf is easy, has lots of options and is a good way to stretch out a pound or two of ground meat.  I've shredded carrots & zucchini into the mix to sneak a few extra vegetables into my kids' diets and I hear meatloaf sandwiches are a thing. (I'm not a sandwich eater, but I hear tell it works.) Needless to say when I can across a turkey meatloaf recipe Emily was excited to try it.  We had lost the page by the time it was time for her to cook though, so we had to track down another.  Bacon, of course, just makes everything even better.
I did have to stop and pick up a second package of ground turkey (we actually used chicken for the recipe, ground turkey wasn't available that day.) and some "real" bacon.  Peter has been trying to convert me to turkey bacon for breakfast....and I am balking, but certainly willing to give it a fair go.  I still think it tastes like fried bologna, but with eggs over easy & hot sauce it's not awful.  It's not bacon either though.  Maybe it just needs another name.  But I digress.
Emily diced an onion & I helped her dice some of the bacon to fry with the diced onion. Kitchen shears actually work better on bacon than a knife, unless your bacon is partly frozen.  While this was sauteing she soaked a couple of slices of bread in some milk and began mixing the ground chicken with the other seasonings before stirring in the bacon & onions & the milk soaked bread.  Trying to emulate a more seasond cook she was trying to add seasonings without measuring.  This was fine until she opened the wrong side of the container of chili flakes and instead of shaking out a discrete 1/2 teaspoon dumped in what looked like more than a tablesppon.  I like heat a lot, but this would have probably been overwhelming and unpalatable.  She scooped most of them out and moved on. She missed the direction about draining the excess milk off the bread before adding it to the meat.  Ground poultry is rather wet & sticky anyway, so she had a very soup mess that was not going to make a nice loaf.  I had her stir in some quick oats and all was well again.
Emily tried to make the mixture into several small loaves, almost like patties, so I showed her how to form the mixture into 2 loafs on a baking sheet.  She topped these with strips of bacon and a glaze of ketchup, mustard & brown sugar.
As always dinner was good.  We cheated and served instant mashed potatoes; I thought having to peel and boil potatoes would have been more than enough for a beginner who still needs to work on timing.  The recipe made two good sized loaves; I would halve it next time, or freeze the second for another meal, but there were only 3 of us for dinner.

(I forgot to take a picture of the plated dinner....I was hungry, and it was delicious!)

Turkey & Bacon Meatloaf

2 slices bread, torn into pieces               3 Tablespoons ketchup
1 cup milk                                              2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 large onion, diced                               1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 clove garlic, minced                           1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup diced raw bacon                           3 strips raw bacon, cut in half

2 pounds ground turkey breast              1 large egg, beaten

Glaze: 

1/2 cup ketchup

3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 lightly packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with foil.

  In a small bowl combine bread & milk.  Set aside.

In a medium skillet stir together onions, garlic & diced bacon.  Cook down until mixture is well browned, about 10 minutes,  Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl combine ground turkey, egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt & red pepper flakes.  Add the milk soaked bread, discard any remaining milk.  Add the cooked onion/bacon mixture; stir together until thoroughly combined.  Divide mixture in half and form each portion into a loaf shape on the prepared baking sheet.  Top with bacon strips. 

Stir the glaze ingredients together and brush in a thick layer over each loaf.

Bake for about 1 hour, until done (160 F)  Allow to rest about 20 minutes before slicing.

*Emily decided to halve this to  make this for her youth group potluck this week.  I gave her an 8x8 foil pan to shape the loaf in to freeze until it needed to be baked on Thursday.  She didn't make a loaf, but pressed the ground chicken mixture into the pan & topped it with bacon & glaze.  It looks fine, and will probably need less time in the oven.

French Onion Soup

Spring is teasing us and yet some days a nice bowl of soup is the perfect thing at the end of the day.
I asked Emily if she was planning to cook this week; she said she was.  I asked several times what she was making, and finally, on Tuesday she told me French Onion Soup.  I confess I was surprised.  French Onion Soup was her choice.  I love it, and have made it for her once, but she's only recently stopped plucking the onions out of almost everything.  She found a recipe on line....and I went looking for my tried and true one.  It is no where to be found.  Frustrating.  But we found one that looked pretty easy.
On Wednesday when I got home Emily asked if I would let her attempt the recipe on her own.  I agreed, although I was called upon several times to inspect the caramelizing onions for doneness.
I did advise her to slice the onions into half moons; but one was cut into substantial chunks.  Not a terrible thing, but it made cooking the onions evenly a challenge.
Emily was delighted to discover I had onion soup crocks stashed away and carefully ladled the soup into them, topping the broth with a piece of toasted bread and shredded Swiss cheese.  I was surprised to learn she had also put cheese in the crock first.  Apparently the recipe says to do so.  Interesting, but not a choice I would make.  I love Swiss cheese, but it was overwhelming to have that much.
This was an easy recipe, but I would double it, the recipe says it serves 4, but we only got 3 crocks.

French Onion Soup

14 oz (1 3/4cups) Beef broth                  2 pressed garlic cloves

1 can beef consomme                              dash Worcestershire sauce

2 large onions, slice thinnly                    1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

2 tablespoons butter                                4 slices toasted French bread

Place butter and onions in a saucepan, saute on medium heat until onions are tender.

Add the garlic and saute another 1-2 minutes. 

Add the broth, consomme and Worcestershire sauce, bring to a boil for 1 minute.

Spoon soup into oven proof bowls, top with a slice of toasted French bread, top with shredded Swiss cheese.  

Place under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly.

*The orignal recipe says to put cheese in the bottom of the bowls as well.  I prefer the soup without the extra cheese

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

Ground beef & noodles?  How could you go wrong?  Like my last post this recipe also appeared unsolicited on my FaceBook page.  It looked good and pretty easy, so I reposted it on Emily's page.  It got an immediate response of "Dinner next week".

Life has been clipping along here.  February is almost half over, and after a magnificent dump of snow over the weekend a chinook has brought spring back to us.  My junior chef in training is starting to prepare these meals with alnost no supervision too.  
I compiled the ingredients for this recipe for Emily and left her to it.
She browned a pound of ground bison (the recipe calls for a pound and a quarter....which is fine if you're buying meat at the grocery store.  The meat in my freezer is packaged in 1 pound packagers, so we adjusted.)  Once the meat was browned she added tomato sauce, salt & pepper and left it to simmer.
While egg noodles were cooking Emily then combined sour cream and cottage cheese.  This was added to the cooked noodles, followed by chopped green onions.
Initially we miscalculated, and only cooked half the package of noodles.  Thankfully we had time to cook the second half before assembling the casserole.
Emily poured half the noodles into a 9x13" baking dish.  She topped the noodles with half the meat sauce and grated Cheddar.  The layers were repeated then the dish was baked for 20 minutes to melt the cheese.
It tasted vaguely like lasagne, which is not a bad thing.  Especially since it went together mcuh more quickly.  A salad and good garlic bread would have finished this meal wel, but most Wednesdays I'm just not that organized!  I even forgot to take a picture this week.  You'll have to take my word for hou good it looked

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

1 1/4 pounds ground beef                    1/2 cup sour cream
1 -15 oz can tomato sauce                    1 1/4 cup cottage cheese*
salt & pepper                                        1/2 cup sliced green onions
8 ounces egg noodles**                       1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350F
Brown beef in a large skillet, drain fat & stir in tomato sauce, salt & pepper.  Stir, then leave to simmer.
Cook the egg noodles, drain & set aside
In a bowl combine the sour cream & cottage cheese & more freshly ground pepper. Stir in the noodles and green onion.
Layer half the noodles in a baking dish.  Top with half the meat sauce, then half the cheese.  Repeat the layers.  Bake 20 minutes, until heated through and the cheese is melted.

*I don't generally buy cottage cheese, so I bought a 250ml container which was sufficient.
**We wound up using all of a 375g bag of egg noodles.  

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

This is only a week overdue....somehow last weekend got away from me.  It happens.
In truth it's rather apropos, as Emily was supposed to make this dish for Monday night supper, but forgot to bring it in and put it in the slow cooker before she left for school Monday morning.  I got a dismayed and almost tearful phone call at lunch time Monday.  We wound up having prefab turkey burgers instead. Thankfully, and I am rarely thankful for cold weather, the prepared dish was out in the garage, which was colder than the refrigerator, so no concerns about spoilage.
It was more than well marinated & very tasty on Wednesday when it was finally served.
I had found the recipe on one of those annoying Facebook posts; the ones no one solicts, and aren't shared by a friend, they are just there.  It looked good, so I suggested it to Emily.  She loves Chinese food, so this was a natural choice.
She placed several chicken breasts into the slow cooker's casserole insert and combined chicken stock, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, garlic and soy sauce to pour over the chicken.  Once she remembered to plug the slow cooker in, it cooked on low all day.
When I got home I started a pot of rice and showed her how to shred the cooked chicken.
Like all slow cooker meals it was an easy prep, and wonderful for a busy work night.  We sauteed a package of frozen oriental vegetables as a side as well.  I think this dish will become part of our regular rotation

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

3  boneless, skinless Chicken breasts           5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chicken broth                                    1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce                                   1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 cup brown sugar                                     sesame seeds

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken & sesame seeds.  Place chicken in a slow cooker, top with sauce, cover & cook on low 4-6 hours, until chicken is cooked through.  Shred chicken with two forks and serve over cooked rice; sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Creamy Ranch Chicken

We seem to be back on track, cooking wise, anyway!   I am always on the lookout for new dishes to try, and I think Emily is picking up the same habit. I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and came across this recipe.  Of course there seeems to be a lot of recipes appearing on those newsfeeds, but some of them are interesting looking.  This one looked simple enough and appetizing.  I don't use my crock pot as much as I could, but it does require more forethought than I usually give dinner.  Still I forwarded the recipe to Emily and asked her if she wanted to give it a go.  She asked if I had a crock pot (and she has seen me use it!) but thought she could manage.
After supper Sunday night I helped her assemble everything and stowed the casserole insert in the refrigerator until morning.
She scrubbed and diced 6 potatoes, the recipe didn't mention peeling them, so I told her to save the effort.  These went into the pot, followed by baby carrorts.  She laid chicken breasts on top and stirred together a can of cream of chicken soup, a packet of Ranch dressing mix and some milk then poured this over the top,  I thought it looked a little scant, so I added a second can of soup.  As it turned out we had too much sauce; I always forget things get more liquid, not less, in a slow cooker.  Oh well.  The orginal recipe cited 1 - 23oz can of soup, which seemed an awful lot to me.  Must have been a misprint.
When I got home from work on Monday I attempted to thicken the sauce a little by stirring a little flour & water into some sauce I spooned out, then stirring everything back in & turning the heat up to high while Emily made a salad.
Dinner was delicious, and made a nice lunch the following day.  The chicken breasts could even have been diced to make this into a nice chicken stew, especially with the addition of some peas, and even an onion.  I thought it needed a little seasoning too, but maybe that second can of soup detracted from the ranch dressing mix.

Creamy Ranch Chicken

6 meduim potatoes, diced                                         1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups baby carrots                                                   1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (1 pound)         1/2 cup milk

Place the potatoes and carrots into a greased crock pot, top with chicken breasts.  Mix together soup, dressing mix and milk, pour over chicken.  Cover and cook on high 4-6 hours, or low for 8-10 hours.

Top with fresh parsley, chopped, if desired.

Beefy Pasta Casserole

January is already more than half gone!  How time flies - and I know I am quite sure I say something to that effect every week, but it is true.  Emily didn't cook last week, I worked late the night she was supposed to cook, and every day after that seemed to just be busy.  The recipe she chose initially had 2 kinds of dried beans to be soaked and cooked, which I thought would take too long for a weeknight, and I also had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn't like them much, as good as it sounded.  I flipped the page in her new cookbook and suggested this; simple and easy,  It actually tasted very much like an old favourite of mine, Prairie Casserole (emilycooks1015.blogspot.ca/2016/03/prairie-casserole)
She called just before I left the office to see if she could make a cake for dessert too.  There was a mix in the cupboard so I agreed, since I would be home soon enough.
Once I got home I found the oregano in the cupboard (as much to make sure I had some!) and let her begin browning the ground bison with said oregano.  Meanwhile she stirred together 2 cans of tomato soup and a can of water, after arguing with me about whether they needed to be cooked or not.  She was stirring dried fusili into this while I grated cheese for her.  She started stirring the grated cheese into the mixture while talking on the phone before I stopped her & showed her the mozzarella went on top, reminding her to read her recipes several times before starting.  Then I handed her a tub of ricotta to stir in instead.  After  briefly being consoled after she hung up from talking to her dad, who hurt her feelings telling her they couldn't have a daddy/daughter date because he had no money, she added the browned meat.  The whole thing went into the oven for half an hour.

Paranthetical note here.....Non custodial parents, your kids don't need you to spend money on them, they want your time, your attention.  A walk in the park, a game of cards, an ice cream, just you & your kid(s) one on one, no interruptions, no distractions.  Time is so very fleeting.

OK, back to dinner....While the casserole baked Emily set the table, made a salad & frosted her cake with chocolate pudding.  She made the pudding while the cake was baking, a misunderstanding of my pouring pudding over a cooled cake before it sets, after using the handle of a wooden spoon to make several holes in the cake, so the pudding fills the cake.  When the 30 minutes were up Emily topped the casserole with the shredded mozzarella.
Dinner was very good.  I would have cooked the noodles first, or baked the casserole longer, the noodles were not quite cooked enough.  The next day, reheated, though, the pasta was tender.

Beefy Pasta Casserole

1 pound ground beef                             4 cups uncooked rotini or fusili

1 Tablespoon dried oregano                  1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese*

2 cans condensed tomato soup              1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 soup can of water

Cook the beef & oregano over medium high heat until beef is well browned, stirring to separate meat.  Pour off any fat

Stir the soup, water & pasta into a 9x13  shallow baking dish.  Add the beef and ricotta cheese, stir. Cover.

Bake at 375F for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.  Let stand 5 minutes, until the cheese melts.

* Ricotta is not inexpensive.  Cottage cheese could be substituted, I like ricotta better, personally.

Mango Salsa Chicken

Goodness Gracious!  I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything.  No excuses.  Life got lazy and busy by halves and Emily hasn't been doing much meal preparation.  She has done some baking, but not even much of that.  All our household routines somehow fell by the wayside.  It happens to the best of us I suppose.  In any case we are going to try to get back on track.  With the holidays now, sadly, behind us and a new year underway we can press forward.
Peter commented to Emily over dinner the other night (while she was protesting about the peppercorns coating the pepper steak I had made ) that she hadn't been cooking much.  I agreed, and said we were going to get back to it soon.  A day later she had the magazines out and had chosen this recipe.
I was surprised by her selection, since I didn't think she liked mango or avocado, but who was I to argue?  It looked good, and like it might taste just a little bit like summer in the middle of a frigid January.
When I arrived home the next evening, groceries in hand she had pre-measured the seasonings and was boiling water for the rice.  I explained rice usually went into cold water & then brought to a boil and advised her how much rice to add to the water she had measured.  While she rubbed the spices into the chicken I diced both a mango and an avocado for her.  Incidentally, finding a ripe mango or avocado on the grocery shelf is a challenge....but we managed.  Emily chopped some red onion, but knowing was not going to be cooked I took the onion she had prepared and minced it into finer pieces, stirring the ingredients for the salsa together.
Emily measured some oil into a frying pan to cook her chicken and then came in to visit with her aunt and me.  Before long I could smell very hot oil and reminded her to never walk away from a hot pan, explaining hot oil can just ignite on its own.  We cooled the pan off a little and she started to brown the chicken, crisis averted.  When the meat was mostly cooked she came in and asked where the salsa was.  I pointed out the bowl of mango & avocado on the counter....to which she expressed with shock that that was NOT salsa.  She was expecting the usual tomato based salsa we always have jarred.  I laughed and wondered where she had read that tidbit in her recipe.
Regardless of having the "wrong" kind of salsa dinner was delicious.  The sweet mango & creamy avocado were a nice balance to the mildly spicy chicken.  The next day the onions were almost overpowering in the salsa though.  Later in the week I had the last of the dish for lunch again.  Emily had packed it all together in one container, so the salsa got heated with the chicken & rice.  It was still tasty, but would have been better chilled on the hot chicken.  Oh well.

Mango Salsa Chicken

2 large boneless chicken breasts (1 pound/450g)       1 large mango, cut into 3/4" cubes

1 Tablespoon brown sugar                                          1 avocado, cut into 3/4" cubes

2 teaspoons chili powder                                            1/4 cup Mango Chipotle dressing (Kraft)*

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder                                         1/4 cup minced red onion

Cut each chicken breast into half horizontally, to make 2 thin pieces.  Mix the sugar, chili & garlic powders until blended; rub onto both sides of chicken pieces.  Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Meanwhile combine remaining ingredients.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over meduim high heat.  Add chicken and cook about 4 minutes per side, until done.

Serve topped with Mango Salsa

*I couldn't find Mango Chipotle salad dressing the day we made this,so I substitued Madarin Orange with Sesame.  The recipe also called for 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro in the salsa, but since we don't particularly like it I left it out.  Fresh parsley could be substituted.