Turkey Taco Quinoa Stew

I originally wrote this in February...and was so proud because I was going to post up two entries in a week!...and then life kicked in. I'm really sorry >.<

But!!! - in order to make up for my sporadic posts, I have decided to post up one of my favorite dishes. It's not new to me, but it's really just so delicious that I had to share.

The original recipe from greenlitebites.com was so great that I mostly only changed the addition of cheese (because you really don't need it in the stew). I changed the proportions of the other ingredients based on personal preference and replaced some ingredients based on what I had on hand...no big differences but still, enjoy!

Turkey Taco Quinoa Stew - Serves 6

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Ground Turkey

1 package of taco seasoning

2-3 tbsp of canola oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 medium zucchini, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 cup of Quinoa, rinsed

1 14oz to 15 oz can of chicken broth

1 14oz to 15 oz can of black beans

1 14oz to 15 oz can of diced tomatoes with jalepeños

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium to medium-high heat. Brown onions and turkey until turkey is no longer pink.

2. Add zucchini, bell pepper, and taco seasoning to pot, stirring ingredients until seasoning is evenly distributed.

3. Add chicken broth, black beans, tomatoes, and quinoa to pot. For a wetter stew, fill tomato can with water, swirl, and dump contents into pot as well.

4. Stir to evenly distribute ingredients, bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes (until quinoa soaks up most of the liquid...or until you can see the sprouts from the quinoa). You might want to stir up the bottom once or twice to keep the quinoa from sticking to the bottom and burning.

5. Enjoy!

Stuffed Pepper and Zucchini Galore!

Note: All of my good pictures were deleted from my battery deprived camera. I apologize in advance for the less than glamorous shots of food stuffs that now follow >.<

I know, I know. It's been a month. I've missed you blog. School sucks, and I've been surviving off of those yummy, filling, easy to cook carbs (mostly spaghetti and sandwiches >.<).

But alas; I planned on making a certain stew but realized I was missing two main ingredients...and the bell pepper (because I only had one pepper >.<) and zucchini I bought for that recipe were going bad. So, I thought, why not stuff the giant green bell pepper with zucchini and ground turkey? So I googled a recipe for the specifics on heating times and kinda winged the ingredients...turned out reallyyy good though =]

Stuffed Pepper with Turkey and Zucchini - Yields 1 serving

Ingredients:

One Large Green Bell Pepper

2-3 tbps cooking oil (I used Canola Oil)

1/4 lb Ground Turkey

1/2 Large Zucchini, chopped

3/4 small cooking onion, chopped

3 tbsp spaghetti/tomato sauce

Garlic Powder to taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Cut the top off of pepper and either throw away the top or cut up the extra pepper flesh for the filling. Remove all seeds from the rest of the pepper and wrap the pepper in aluminum foil. Put in oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

3. Over medium heat, heat a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil and cook the turkey until evenly browned. Set aside.

4. Using the rest of the oil, heat the zucchini, onion, and pepper bits (if you took any from the top) until tender. Add the turkey with the mixture and stir in the tomato sauce, garlic powder,

salt, and pepper.

5. Stuff the mixture into the pepper and return to oven for

15 more minutes. Enjoy when ready!

While the stuffed pepper was cooking, I looked over to the leftover zucchini and onion and decided to make a quick zucchini egg dish.

Zucchini & Eggs - Yields 1 serving

Ingredients:

2 eggs, beat

1/2 zucchini, sliced

1 tbsp canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat. Saute zucchini slices until tender. Spread the slices out in a layer covering the bottom of the pan.

2. Season eggs with salt and pepper to taste and pour eggs over zucchini.

3. Cook until eggs are at the consistency you want, flipping and scrambling at your discretion.

Needless to say, I gobbled down this second dish before the first one finished baking...so I actually had leftovers! Yay lunch!

I will be updating within the week with that stew post...going grocery shopping today! Woo!

Vegan Mexican Pizza

Oh gosh it's been a while since I've posted hasn't it...really sorry! >.<

On a good note, this blog has been the motivation that I intended it to be; to the point that I find myself looking at a recipe and thinking "ohh, this will be awesome to make for my blog." Only thing is, once I cook and enjoy my meal, I don't have the energy to post a blog about it >.< I will revisit those recipes though. Don't worry~

But for today, I have a yummy post that is so easy to make and so easy to customize: pizza!

The main difference between this Mexican pizza and regular pizza seems to be the dough, not needing any time to rise at all.

College-level simplicity. Loving it.

The only thing wasn't easy was having to get the veggies. You know, those things that college students never buy because they seem to go bad so quickly? Yea.

Anywho, my friend Mairead and I were going to go to a local vegan cafe to get pizza but their wait time was ridiculous (I called at 3 to pre order a pizza and they were backed up until 8!) so, we decided to make our own! She pulled out this book called The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy International Recipes by Bobbie Hinman and flipped to page 76 to find "South-of-the-Border Pizza." Now, this politically incorrectly named pizza was completely vegan except for the cheese part...so I bought some almond cheese. I have to say, the worst part about this pizza was the cheese I used. Next time, I'm going with Daiya Cheese. More expensive, but considering how much I paid for the almond cheese, might as well splurge a little more on actual deliciousness. Also, Mairea

Note: the recipe I'm posting will only make one pizza...though I guess you could make multiple small pizzas if you really wanted to.d opted to use real cheese (since she can actually eat it) so that's why we made two pizzas.

Now this recipe may seem complicated, but it's really not. Just a bit ingredient heavy. Also, I left out the tsp of ground cumin and replaced the tsp of dried oregano with Italian seasoning because I'm a college student with a limited collection of spices. Also, when it came to the toppings, we really just threw a whole bunch of toppings on it...no measurements. Just threw stuff on there.

Mexican Pizza - Yields about 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

Crust:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp water (so particular...)

Sauce:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

1/3 cup salsa (spiciness is up to you. I used medium)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp Italian seasoning (or dried oregano)

1/8 tsp garlic powder

Toppings:

1.5 cups of shredded soy cheese of your choice (mozzarella and/or cheddar works)

half a minced onion

half a very thinly sliced green pepper (my slices were too thick and they weren't soft enough when the pizza was done)

2-3 sliced mushrooms

some freshly chopped spinach

whatever else you want because it's a pizza. just make sure it's thin enough to cook well. if you add meat, like ground turkey, cook it before adding it to pizza.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly oil a 12" pizza pan (or use a cookie sheet).

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine both types of flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Add water and mix until all ingredients are moistened. Using your hands, work the dough into a ball. If it's too sticky, flour your hands a bit. Place dough in prepared pan and press to form a crust.

3. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. For the meantime, work on preparing the sauce and toppings. (don't forget to set a timer)

4. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Prepare toppings as listed.

5. Once the crust is done baking and out of the oven, spread sauce evenly, staying 1/2 in away from the edge of the crust. Sprinkle the cheese and the toppings heavily over the sauce. If it looks like a ridiculous salad right now, remember that most of the ingredients will shrink while cooking.

6. Bake the topped pizza 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted (since the ingredients are okay raw anyway).

Enjoy! The crust turned out to be quite crunchy in some spots...mmm ^-^