Monday, April 22, 2013

Mediterranean Baked Turkey

This is a dish I'm pretty proud of. I made it up essentially on the spot with the ingredients that I had, and not to brag, but it was delicious. Working off the Mediterranean theme I crafted a simple, healthy dish packed with flavour. I'm beyond excited to eat these leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Mediterranean Baked Turkey

2 turkey breasts, pounded out to 1/4 inch thickness, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
1/4 onion, chopped roughly
8 cremini mushrooms, quartered
12 grape tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey
salt, pepper, herbs to taste
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease an oven-proof glass dish. Pound out the turkey breasts and season on both sides. Arrange in a single layer in the glass dish.
In a small bowl, toss the garlic, onion, mushroom, and tomato with the balsamic vinegar and the honey until thoroughly coated. Season the vegetable mixture with salt, pepper, and your favourite herb. To intensify the flavours, make ahead, seal with plastic wrap, and let sit in the fridge for 1 hour.
Pour the vegetable mix over top of the turkey breasts in the dish. Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and add the goat cheese, sprinkling evenly over top. Return to oven and bake for 5-7 more minutes. Serve with a sidedish of your choosing (I did baked potatoes).

The finished meal! There was quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of the baking dish with the vinegar and the liquids released from the vegetables during cooking. You could serve the cooking liquid as an au jus with the turkey. I saved it and poured it into the tupperware container with my leftovers to keep them moist.

You could also personalize this dish more with your favourite vegetables, or toss in more Mediterranean staples like red peppers or olives. This is definitely a repeat meal to be filed with my simple, healthy dinners that come together in under 30 minutes for busy nights.

For my beats, I'm choosing a sweet, simple song to match this dish (that seems to be becoming the theme of this blog...). Here's Into the Mystic by Van Morrison.


My Take on the Magic Cookie Bar

I have been neglecting my postings recently. April has been an extremely busy month, and I haven't done much experimenting in the kitchen to produce new dishes to share. One glimmer from the last four weeks is the one sweet indulgence that I baked. Bars are so quick and simple to make when you have a hankering for something sweet. I threw these together with some basic ingredients that I always have on hand.

My Magic Cookie Bars

2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup pecans
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the first three ingredients together in an ungreased 9x13 inch pan until incorporated and all crumbs are moist. Spread across bottom of pan and press evenly into the corners with fingers. Pre-bake for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Sprinkle evenly over the crust the coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and pecans. Drizzle all over with the sweetened condensed milk. Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until set. Let cool thoroughly, and then cut into squares to serve.

Fresh out of the oven and so ooey-gooey! I plated one and took a side-on view so you can see the crust:
Very indulgent with many layers of flavour. I have been the envy of my colleagues at work bringing a square in every day as part of my lunch.

For my beats, I decided to turn to an indulgence from my youth. Since these bars are sweet, frivolous, and satisfying, I'm going with a good old Spice Girls tune. I have a very vivid memory of making a music video to this song with my friends and my little brother (wearing a Baby Spice blonde wig!), so this song never fails to make me smile and feel silly. Here's Stop by the Spice Girls.