Ah! It feels good to blog again! I really think I’m inspired to keep on a schedule now.

I’m so glad to be able to focus my attentions on other things again. I’ve been so focused on the move and some other stuff going on in our lives for so long now that I couldn’t even bring myself to cook anything new. Seriously, we’ve been surviving on the same few dishes for months. It was definitely time to try something new.

I made this awesome turkey mushroom bake a couple nights ago that I’ve just got to share with you because it is so delicious!

Turkey Mushroom Bake

A filling pasta bake with turkey and peas in a thick onion and mushroom gravy.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 turkey breast filets
• half a box of dried penne pasta
• approx. 1 cup frozen peas
• approx. 2 cups crimini mushrooms (sliced)
• 1 medium onion (sliced)
• 2 large cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 4 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• olive oil, salt, and pepper as needed
• parmesan for grating over top

Cooking Directions

1. Roast the turkey coated in olive oil on a foil-lined baking sheet for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. When turkey is cool enough to handle, shred with hands or a fork into small pieces.
2. Boil pasta and peas together until done and drain.
3. In a large non-stick pan, saute onions in butter until translucent then add garlic and mushrooms. Cook until softened.
4. Sprinkle over flour and stir in until it makes a thick paste with the onions and mushrooms. Add in vegetable stock and stir until the flour paste in smoothly incorporated. Stir in sour cream. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Fill a 9x13 baking dish with the pasta, peas, and shredded turkey. Pour over the mushroom sauce and stir to combine.
6. Grate over parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

One way I’ve made this recipe quicker is to roast the turkey ahead of time. I like to buy a huge full turkey breast and cut it into 6 filets, then roast them all or save a few for dinners throughout the week. Then I can shred up all the roasted turkey and either freeze it or use it in other dishes. It really doesn’t take a lot of effort up front but saves me lots of time later when I have delicious roasted turkey on hand to use whenever I need.

I’ve also been getting ready for fall, which for me means a freezer full of pumpkin puree. I roasted this little organic pumpkin and I’m going to roast the seeds in a day or two as well. The big one will be a jack-o-lantern since we’ll undoubtedly get trick-or-treaters this year.

It’s getting really cold here too, almost time to turn on the heat. I’ve been trying to put that off as long as possible to save us some money, so the cats are having to find creative ways to keep themselves warm….like by falling asleep in the warm clean laundry.

YARN!!!!!

I’m just going to end up covered in their fur anyway, might as well save myself a step and apply the fur directly to the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer. It’s easier that way. 😉

This weekends project: Finish sweeping out the basement and possibly even mop it, then bring down all the stuff we intend to store in it so that we can actually use that second bedroom for something. Yoga studio? I think so.

Where is the strangest place you’ve found your pet asleep?

October 20, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 1 comment

It’s hard for me to believe that yesterday was Halloween.  I don’t know why, but the holiday just completely escaped me this year. We didn’t even get one single trick-or-treater either! And now I have a bowl full of Halloween candy sitting in my living room mocking me.

"You know you cannot resist, weakling!"

I felt an intense urge to make something today that would celebrate the holiday somehow, but what? I don’t have any more pumpkins, but wait…I do have pumpkin seeds! I’ve been saving the guts from the pumpkin that I recently used to make pumpkin butter with.

For many, Halloween means carving pumpkins, and for me that’s always meant that roasted pumpkin seeds were in my immediate future. I really wanted something out of the ordinary, so I turned to Mama Peas’ recipe for salt and vinegar pumpkin seeds.

If you’re not already familiar with her blog, Peas and Thank You, you have got to check it out.  Make sure you’re wearing water-proof mascara, cuz you’re gonna laugh your butt off til you cry.

Anyway, I got started by picking all the seeds out of the flesh and giving them a good rinse.

Rather than laying them out on a towel to dry, I rubbed them with a few paper towels to speed up the process.

Next I tossed them with the vinegar and poured them out onto a non-stick sheet pan.

Sprinkled on the salt…

And after about 20 minutes I had this…

They’re not burnt, that’s just all the sugars in the vinegar that have caramelized and glazed the seeds. I did have my oven at 350 degrees rather than 300 as the recipe calls for, which is why mine took less time but got darker.

They are really tasty, although I expected them to taste more like salt and vinegar potato chips.  I think the balsamic is what makes them so different, they are mostly salty but with just a hint of figgy sweetness on the end.

I couldn’t keep my hands out of them so I just decided to add them to the salad I was making for lunch.

This salad was a total mish-mash anyway. It has carrot-miso dressing, avocado, toasted buckwheat, chia seeds, dulse and seaweed flakes, and of course the seeds.

Weird but good.

At this rate I’ll have polished them off before the husband even gets home from work! No matter though, tonight marks our 6th month of being married and we’re going out to dinner to celebrate!

I’ll make sure to document our evening well, ta ta for now!

November 1, 2010 Alayna Discussion 1 comment

I’m nearing the end of my beloved jar of apple butter.  Sigh…  I know I can always buy more, but for some reason it still gives me heartache to see those last dredges lying listless at the bottom of the jar.

So in the wake of this obvious tragedy, I decided to take the last pie pumpkin sitting proudly and patiently atop my fridge and grant him with a most noble calling… that of becoming pumpkin butter.

Ok. That was way too dramatic.

But seriously, I almost bought some overpriced pumpkin butter at Whole Foods the other day and snapped myself out of it when I realized that I had a whole pumpkin at home and that I could totally make it myself.

I started by making pumpkin puree and transferring it to a heavy-bottomed pot.

I added about 1/4 cup of apple cider, a hunk of Earth Balance (1-2 tbsp.), 4 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1 tsp. each of cinnamon and nutmeg.

I turned the heat on to medium-low and stirred until everything was melted and incorporated.

After about 25 minutes of cooking, having stirred often throughout, it turned into this luscious creamy spread…

I turned off the heat and stirred in about half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I covered it and let it cool on a windowsill for a few hours.

And this was my marvelous breakfast this morning!…

Homemade oatmeal topped with a bit of crumbled vegan pumpkin bread and a generous dollop of the rich autumn-scented pumpkin buttah!

Yes, it was awesome.  Thank you for noticing.

So the verdict is that yes it was worth it to make it myself.  Mine was just as rich and decadent as store-bought pumpkin butter and not terribly labor-intensive.

What if I made oatmeal with pumpkin butter and apple butter!?!?  I know what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow.

October 28, 2010 Alayna Recipes 2 comments