Turkey "Pasta" Casserole

This meal was what happened when I wanted to do a simple pasta bake for the family...while still being able to stick to my low-carb meal plans. Turns out, cauliflower is an incredible substitute for most starches - noodles, breads, rice, mashed potatoes, etc. There are a lot of ways to prepare it, and each more delicious than the last!

To chop the cauliflower quickly, with zero mess, I used my Vitamix blender. I filled the canister half full of cauliflower, topped it off with water, pushed it to medium speed, and turned it off nearly immediately. The result was finely diced cauliflower that cooked quickly in my sauce.

Enjoy!

Aunt LoLo's Turkey "Pasta" Casserole
Serves 6
(Each serving equals 1 Lean, 3 Green, .33 Condiments)

Ingredients:
24 oz. ground turkey (measured AFTER cooking and draining) (4 Lean)
29 oz. canned tomatoes with their juice, pureed (6.5 Green)
8 oz. low-fat mozzarella cheese (2 lean)
20.25 oz. cauliflower, finely chopped (11.5 green)
4 wedges Lite Laughing Cow Cheese (4 healthy fats)
Salt & Pepper to Taste
1 tsp. smoked paprika (1 condiment)
1 tsp. granulated garlic (1 condiment)

1. In a skillet, brown your turkey. Drain and measure out what you need for your casserole. Set any extra aside for another meal.

2. Return meat to the pan, add your pureed tomatoes, cauliflower, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and granulated garlic.

3. Cook over low heat until the flavors are well blended, about 20-30 minutes.

4. Add your Laughing Cow cheese and stir to combine.

5. Sprinkle with mozzarella, cover, and cook on low until the cheese is melted. (Optional - stir the cheese in, if you like.)

Enjoy!

PS - I told my kids this was Pizza Soup, and they enjoyed it quite a bit. *Grin*

Chinese five spice pulled pork

Inspired by a recent obsession into all things kamado (a type of ceramic charcoal grill), I put together an Asian-fusion pulled pork tonight in the crockpot. The results were delicious- moist, flavorful, and delicious. Enjoy! 

(This recipe works as a lean in a low-carb diet. I added no sugar to the rub. I added a large Caesar salad on the side to make it a complete Lean and Green meal.) 

I used a "Crock-Pot Pork Roast." Not entirely sure what made it different, other than some slow cooker-specific directions on the back. 

Aunt LoLo's Chinese Five Spice Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

1 medium sized pork roast

1/4 cup Chinese five spice powder (mine was a blend of orange, clove, cinnamon, anise, and ginger)

Salt, to taste

Place your roast in the cooker and dump your seasoning on. Use your hands to pat the rub into the meat, covering all sides. If you have a rack for your cooker, put the meat on a rack. Add 1" of water to the pot and cook on high 4-6 hours (6 if frozen), until it is fall-apart tender. 

Remove to large bowl and shred with two fork. Season to taste with salt. 

Serve with rice and/or veggies. 

Enjoy! 

Aunt LoLo's Pumpkin Butter

*Edited to add a step to the recipe. I had to puree my pumpkin butter because I didn't get a good puree on it when I first put it up in the freezer.

Last year, I convinced the husband that we needed three pumpkins from Stew Leonard's for Halloween. I mean - come on! There were three of us...it just seemed fair.

I need to stop here and ask you a question. You know how when you're at a huge warehouse store and a two pound package of yeast looks small? Because there's nothing really small to compare it to?

Alright - keep that in mind.

When we got our pumpkins home and weighed them, we realized we had just purchased slightly upwards of 100 pounds of pumpkin.

Can I get an oof?!

Then, to add to the Crazy, I was called out of town and couldn't be here for Halloween. We didn't even carve them.

I was told, in no uncertain terms, that if I didn't follow through on my promise to process and preserve all 100 pounds of pumpkin, I would be In Trouble.

I'm a smart girl, so I set aside a few days and dutifully cut, steamed, peeled, pureed, drained, bagged and froze all three pumpkins. I even roasted as many seeds as I thought we could eat! For the rest of the winter, you could be pretty sure that if I was invited to a party, I was going to show up with my Pumpkin Bread in tow.

Well, now that it's October, I figured that I ought to clear the last of that pumpkin out of my freezer, to make way for the new pumpkins I'm going to talk Lo Gung into buying this year! (Luckily, Stew's pumpkins seem noticeably smaller this year. Phew! Because now? There are four of us.) I had five baggies of pumpkin left in the freezer, which I threw in the crock pot on high until they were thawed. At that point, I added some spices, left the cover off, and let the slow cooker work its magic!


I kind of winged this, but I really like how it turned out. A lot of recipes online call for the addition of applesauce or apple juice, which would probably add a nice depth of flavour to this spread. However, as is, it's lovely spread on fresh bread. Even Siu Jeun likes it, straight from a spoon!

Please note - There are no safe ways approved to can pureed pumpkin at home - the mixture is simply too thick to achieve the correct germ-killing temperature. This pumpkin butter is a strictly keep-it-in-the-fridge-and-eat-it thing, or freeze it.

Aunt LoLo's Pumpkin Butter

Makes 2-3 pints

Ingredients:

10 cups Pumpkin Puree (If you are using puree made from jack o' lantern pumpkins, you can shave quite a bit of time off of this project if you first drain the pumpkin for a few hours in a tea-towel lined colander.)

2 tsp. Saigon cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground Ginger

3/4 cup brown sugar, or to taste,

In a slow cooker, combine the pumpkin, cinnamon and ground ginger. Turn the cooker to high, and leave the lid off. Stir every hour or so. I found that, since my cooker heats all around the pot (as opposed to just on the bottom), I could move the process along by smearing my pumpkin around the inside of the pot, up the edges.

When the pumpkin butter has reached the desired consistency, sweeten to taste with the brown sugar and pack it into sterile containers (jars or plastic containers with lids). Store it in the refrigerator or freezer. (Freezer would be long term storage - anything over two weeks.)

I should add that my pumpkin was a little on the chunky side - I wasn't very careful about pureeing it last fall. To compensate for that, I let the pumpkin butter cool and then ran it through my food processor before packing it away.

Bon Appetit!