Quick and Healthy – Greek Turkey Meatballs

My husband and I have been looking at new places to rent and I keep running into the same problem – Small Kitchens!  Some places have less counter space than we have now, which I thought was impossible! When will builders begin making what I want? A house that is half kitchen! I don’t need a bigger bedroom – all I do is sleep in there! Give me a big kitchen.

Sigh. In the meantime, I continue to bake away in the tiny kitchen we have now.

I have been making these meatballs a lot lately. Mainly because they are so versatile. You could easily double this recipe for a small family and use the leftovers to make, meatball sandwiches, toss with pasta, or eat with some roasted vegetables. They are packed with flavor too. Really, these should be called healthier-than-sausage meatballs because they taste a lot like pork sausage, but with much less fat. I like to eat them with tzatziki and pita.

And just wait to see how easy they are to make.

A Delectable Endeavors original

1 lb of ground turkey

1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I like panko)

1 large egg

1/3 of an onion finely minced

red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp cracked oregano

1/4 cup of crumbled feta

Mix everything together with your hands. Form into 1 inch large balls.

You have 2 choices for baking. 1. Lightly spray a baking pan and bake them at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. 2. Lightly spray a saute pan and cook them until nicely brown on all sides and cooked all the way through.

The Best (Healthy) Chicken Salad Ever

I know that the title might seem hyperbolic, but this is seriously the tastiest chicken salad I’ve ever had. Honestly, I don’t even really like chicken salad that much. Something about the texture of gooey mayo with chunks of whole chicken just doesn’t do it for me. However, I have found a magical solution to my texture problem – don’t use mayo.

I know what you are thinking. That’s crazy! Mayonnaise is what makes chicken salad stick together! It is the classic glue of chicken salad! But here is the rub with mayo. 1. It has a strange, sticky texture that doesn’t really lend itself gracefully to nice, delicate chicken salad 2. It is not very healthy.

I’m not saying chicken salad HAS to be healthy. But if you can make it more healthy, and more delicious, why not?

I scoured the internet for recipes for versions of chicken salad that didn’t use mayonnaise. Most use greek yogurt. But I wanted a punch of flavor in mine. Not just plan old yogurt. So, what is a great option instead? Tzatziki!

This is a light, refreshing, Greek flavor inspired chicken salad. It is what I always imagined chicken salad to be. It works really well.

The Best (Healthy) Chicken Salad Ever – A Delectable Endeavor original

1 lb chicken breast cooked and cubed

1 cup tzatziki

5 scallions, thinly sliced

1 red or yellow pepper cut into small, bite-sized pieces

1/2 cucumber cut into small, bite-sized pieces

2-3 oz crumbled feta (depending on how much you like feta)

squeeze of fresh lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Start by draining the tzatziki. You need to get rid of some of the water, or it will make your chicken salad watery and unappetizing. I do this by lining a sieve or strainer with cheesecloth (or paper towel will work too). Place the strainer over an empty bowl. Pour tzatziki into lined strainer and let sit in your refrigerator for a couple of hours.

After tzatziki is strained, take strained mixture and place into a large, clean bowl. Add cubed chicken, scallions, pepper, cucumber, and feta. Fold the mixture gently until well incorporated. Finish by folding in a squeeze of fresh lemon and a little salt and pepper to taste. I like to eat it with pita chips.

Moroccan Crockpot Chicken

I have been wanting to make Moroccan food at home for a while. What makes Moroccan food delicious is the “warm” spices and slow cooking. Often Moroccan food is cooked in a tagine, which allows for slow cooking that holds in a lot of moisture. Now, I don’t have a tagine. When I was thinking of making this recipe, I thought about how I could cook the  dish without a tagine, and my trusty crockpot came to mind. (Not only that, but it makes it a lot easier for me.)

The prunes in this may seem a little strange, but they break down in the slow cooker and make a wonderful sauce. Plus, they help keep the chicken nice and juicy. This is actually surprisingly good.  I was a little suspicious of how the flavors would meld, but they do so beautifully in this dish.  I can see this soon becoming a quick and yummy favorite at our house.  Additionally, it is quite healthy and my husband says it tastes like fall.

Moroccan Crockpot Chicken adapted from The Perfect Pantry

1 medium onion, minced

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp olive oil

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat

9 oz pitted dried prunes

1 Tbsp honey, or more to taste

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp chicken broth

1 cup sliced almonds

Mint (optional)

In a bowl, mix the onion, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, garlic and oil. Add the chicken and coat. Let marinate for 20 minutes.

Place chicken, marinade, and prunes, honey and broth in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5 hours. Let cook until the last hour, then stir and add almonds.

When cooked all the way through, finish with mint.

Quick and Healthy Series – Chipotle Turkey Tacos with Avocado Creme

I’m starting a new series based on how I’ve been cooking lately.  Fast. Easy. Healthy.  Between finishing up a post-doc, doing side projects, studying for licensing exam, well . . .  you get the idea.  While I still love cooking, I don’t have nearly as much time to cook anymore, so I’ve needed to find some ways to fit cooking into my schedule.  Of course, my tastes haven’t changed just because my cooking habits have, so these dishes also be delicious and seem like I spent hours cooking when I really only spent 20-30 minutes.

This is a great kick off to the series because it is a wonderful combination of delicious and complex flavors.  You would think that this would take someone hours of simmering, but takes very little time and effort.  The creme can be made ahead of time as well, cutting down your prep time even more!

I would like to preface this recipe with a note.  These are not real tacos.  Real tacos are a magical thing everyone should experience.  My favorites were from a food cart outside my old work place in the city.  If you have never had tacos from a food cart, don’t be afraid, they could change your life.

1 lb of ground turkey

3 chipotle peppers, in sauce, chopped

1 small (15 oz) can of chopped tomatoes

All Recipe taco seasoning mix

corn tortillas

Avocado creme (taken from Two Peas & Their Pod)

1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt (I use Chobani)
2 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 small Serrano pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Make Avocado creme by adding cilantro, Serrano pepper, and garlic to food processor.  Pulse a few times until combined and pepper is thoroughly chopped.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. Refrigerate.

To make tacos

Season raw turkey with All Recipe taco seasoning mix.  No need to let sit.  Add seasoned turkey to a pan heated over medium heat.  Once meat begins to brown, add chipotle peppers and canned tomatoes.  Let simmer until cooked through.  You can add a little slurry of cornstarch and water if you want to thicken the mixture up a bit.

Serve over warm tortillas and top with avocado creme!

Roast Chicken with Vegetables

There are some dishes that coalesce in the perfect trifecta: comforting, simple, and delicious.  Roasted chicken is one of these dishes.  In fact, there is an article that advocated making a roast chicken for lunch and changed my mind about undertaking the cooking of an entire chicken.

Roasting a whole chicken can sound intimidating, but it is actually incredibly easy.  And I know I say that a lot, so let me clarify – roasting a chicken is mind-numbingly easy.  It is so easy, you could teach your 10 year-old how to do it.  No lie.  My husband and I have roasted a whole chicken many times and there have been many incidents (ie: forgot we had it in the oven, had heat on the wrong setting) where the chicken *could* have been ruined, and almost every time, it turned out completely fine.  The only real trick is making sure you don’t over cook the chicken so you end up with dry, tasteless meat (this is where a meat thermometer comes in handy).

Carving a whole chicken can be trickier than actually cooking it.  I recommend this video to see how it is done.  My husband has become our household carver, so I usually defer to him on this task.  The nice part about this recipe is that is it calls for a chicken that is already broken down, so you can buy whatever type of meat you like best and don’t have to worry about carving.  You can do this by buying a whole chicken from your local butcher and have them cut it up for you, or buy the pieces you prefer already cut up.

Kayotic Kay has such a wonderful way of explaining things, I won’t even try to imitate her, but you can find her recipe here.  Oh and don’t leave out the whole roasted garlic.  Oh, delicious, roasted, garlic.