Can someone please tell me how we are supposed to fulfill these insane instructions:

This is from the United States Department of Agriculture site:
Submerge the wrapped turkey in cold tap water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the turkey is thawed.

In cold water, it takes at least 12 hours for that glacier-iced-turkey to thaw. I’m supposed to stay up all night, changing the cold water every 30 minutes? Do they think I’m yoyos? LOL

So when it comes to turkey thawing, what do you do? How on earth do you get that bird de-iced in time for Christmas dinner? Reveal your secret, come on!

Easy Shrimp & Chicken Garlic Pasta
Serves 6-8 hungry people
1 5-lb bag cooked, frozen shrimp
3-4 chicken breasts, cubed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
3 handfuls of raw kale, de-stemmed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 pounds thin or vermicelli spaghetti
2 Tablespoons pesto sauce

Place the frozen shrimp in the sink and run under cold water, to thaw.

In a large wok, add the olive oil and toss in the chicken cubes. Turn on medium-high and simmer.

Remove the tails from the shrimp and toss them in the wok. Stir the chicken and shrimp until both are cooked/warmed well. Add the kale and garlic and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes, until the kale softens. Turn off the heat. Add pesto sauce and stir well. Serve over spaghetti.

Tip: Do not overcook the chicken or it will turn to rubber. Don’t add the garlic until last– you want it a little raw and not burned to a crisp.

This stuff is SO good, more filling than nitrix, I think. I’d eat it every night, if I could. It’s very good for you, too, because the olive oil, garlic and kale are very healthy.

Well, all this quesadilla eating started to make me want to try cooking some. So I gave it a shot. My concoction turned out pretty good– very basic but nutritious. I decided to add more veggies and less meat in mine, to pack a vitamin punch; not as potent as, say, prenatal vitamins, but pretty good. Of course, there’s alwats room for improvement. Here’s my basic recipe.

Easy Quesadillas

Chicken breasts- boned, skinned and thinly sliced
White onion
Water
Chili powder
Cumin
Fresh or frozen corn kernels
Red pepper, diced
Kale, destemmed and chopped
Shredded cheese
Tortilla wraps (smaller ones work best)
Butter

Cook the chicken, onion, and spices together in a frying pan. Add a little water if necessary. Add the vegetables and cook until just tender.

Butter one side of each tortilla. Place it on a griddle and sprinkle the cheese. Add a scoop of the chicken and veggies. Fry another tortilla and add a little cheese to that. Once the tortillas turn a golden brown, slap the two together to make the quesadilla. Repeat with additional quesadillas.

I served mine with salsa, but there’s also the traditional sour cream, too. These are even good as leftovers- I had one the next day for lunch, and while the tortilla was a little rubbery, it was still very good.

But I have actually located a recipe WITH shrimp that is pretty durn good! And it’s easy! I make this from time to time. I found the recipe again after unpacking our storage boxes (we’d stored books in boxes during the house renovation). I’m going to make it later this week. It’s a very satisfying yet light meal. If the husband likes it enough, he may send flowers. You don’t have anything to lose…

Chicken and Shrimp Pasta Dish
serves 6

3-4 chicken breasts, boned and cut into large cubes
1 pound shrimp (you can use the pre-cooked frozen kind to make this super-fast to make- make sure it’s thawed first)
7 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup olive oil
6-7 garlic cloves (add more or less, depending on your preference)
2 Tablespoons FRESH basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning, if desired (add more if you like it)

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the oil. At low heat, add the garlic, basil, salt, and Creole seasoning. Toss in the chicken and the shrimp. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the meats are cooked through.

Serve with cooked angel hair spaghetti or thin spaghetti. Yum.

Another quick fix is to use leftover cooked chicken with the thawed pre-cooked shrimp. It’s a wonderful meal. My family loves it (even the kids).

Chicken Barley Soup
serves 6

5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
Olive oil
1 can or 2 cups chicken broth
3 cups fresh water
2 white onions, diced
2 carrots, sliced and chopped
2 celery sticks, sliced
1/2 cup uncooked barley
Salamida Pinch seasoning (optional)
salt

Prepare the chicken. In a skillet, heat up some olive oil. Toss the chicken into the skillet, and saute until the chicken is done and begins to turn a little brown.

Place the contents of the skillet (oil, chicken, and any brown drippings from the pan) into a large stockpot. Add the broth, water, onions, carrots, celery, and seasoning into the pot. Cook on medium-high until the soup begins to boil; then, turn down the heat to allow the soup to simmer.

When the carrots and onions are soft, add the barley. Allow to cook for another 20 minutes or so, until the barley is soft and enlarged. Add salt, and stir.

Serve with fresh garlic bread. Yum! My kids ate this right up. My daughter had also made fresh peach pie, a perfect accompaniment to the soup. It was good to be in the kitchen again.

Well, anyway, I’m trying to come up with more ideas than the “hamburgers and hot dogs” stuff for the grill. I tried this teriyaki marinade on the chicken recently.

It was “OK.” I was surprised that it didn’t turn out better– it was Ken’s brand Teriyaki marinade. It was too sweet and not tangy enough. Still, very palatable.

What can you make with meat or poultry, rice, cheese and a vegetable?

Hmmmm. I’m not very fond of rice or chicken. And while I like cheese, I am fussy about my cheese (only Mozzarella, Swiss, and American). So this one has me as stumped as if making photo birth announcements or something. Uhhhh….

Well, I guess I like Turkey Divan. Boring, I know. Turkey is poultry! It’s a pretty bland dish, though (which is why I dislike casseroles and why I dislike rice and chicken). Last time i made Turkey Divan, I made it this way:

Turkey Divan

4 cups diced leftover turkey
6 slices Swiss cheese
1 bag frozen broccoli florets
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup canned roasted red peppers, drained and diced
4 leaves kale, washed and sliced into strips
4 cups rice, cooked

Throw broccoli in the microwave to thaw.

In a large casserole dish, place the turkey on the bottom. Add the kale and peppers, then the broccoli. Add the broth. Layer with the cheese.

Pop in the oven until heated through (about 30-35 minutes).

Serve with rice.

The kale and peppers spruce up the blandness of the turkey and rice, and help to sneak in a few added vegetables.

Buuuut…. I couldn’t let my kids grow up without once trying Chicken Dumplings, now could I? What kind of mother would I be?! So I found a recipe that made it easy. I can’t say it’s very tasty… they liked it OK, but I didn’t care for it. It is certainly palatable, but I don’t like cream sauces… and this had more sauce then chicken. The original recipe is at Disney Family Food (a new recipe website I’ve discovered). I altered it a little. Here’s what I did.

Like Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 soup cans water
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients, except biscuits, in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters and gently stir into mixture. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours.

Tip
Don’t add water to the CROCK-POT® slow cooker, unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Foods don’t lose as much moisture during slow cooking as they can during conventional cooking, so follow the recipe guidelines for best results.

OK, I doubled the recipe. The “2 cans” soup water made for a LOT of water. I did it anyway….

Looks… interesting….

It was just too watery. So I added potatoes. And carrots. All the Chicken and Dumpling recipes I ever saw had potatoes and carrots. This was turning more into a Chicken Stew…. but I wasn’t going to eat canned cream of chicken soup and chicken cubes! It just didn’t seem enough. Adding the potatoes probably diluted a little of the saltiness from the “bouillon” granules (I used Ramen packets). So more salt is necessary.

End result?

Not TOO bad. I skipped the refrigerated biscuits and served fresh rolls instead. The kids liked dipping the rolls into the soup. And the chicken was marvelously tender and moist. But the overall taste….. eh. OK. It’s always the creamy sauce stuff that I don’t care for.

So this was an OK recipe. I don’t intend to make it again, unless the kids beg me. And they probably won’t. The WILL beg me for Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa, which I am going to make again.

BUT OH MY GOSH THIS IS DROP-DEAD GOOD!!!

I am *still* using my leftover turkey. No no, not from Thanksgiving. Not from Christmas, either. Not New Year’s Eve, even. (My husband wanted a nice dinner that evening, so I made him one. Mmm, roast turkey. Salad. Mashed potatoes with garlic and parsley. And Rum and Molasses Apple Pie– I’ll have to post that recipe sometime). After the holidays, turkeys go on sale and I scarf them up as quickly as I can! I love turkey. YUM. And the cold house feels a little warmer with roasting poultry in it.

Well, we had some salad and turkey left over recently, and the salad was starting to wilt pretty bad. What to do? I concocted a great dish off the cuff! Kind of like a gumbo-style, throw-in-the-pot-and-see-what-happens new orleans la style cooking.

Here’s what you need:

This:

Oh, and this:

MMM, and this:

To get this:

OK, in English:

Wow Chow Leftovers Primavera

Left over turkey, cut up in bite-sized chunks
Left over salad (in my salad: lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, red onion)
Pasta (any kind, I used rigatoni)
Alfredo Sauce

Boil the pasta.
Get a frying pan and add a little olive oil. Add the turkey and saute just a little until heated through.
Add the salad, and saute until heated through. Add some prepared minced garlic (to your liking).
Remove from heat.
Drain the pasta.
Combine the pasta, turkey and salad, and alfredo sauce.
EAT!

It’s so good. SOOOOO easy. And it gets rid of the leftovers. No more bland turkey casseroles when you’ve got this!

HEE HEE! I like this stuff- I sprinkle it generously on skinless boneless chicken breasts with some olive oil, and bake, It’s wonderful with rice.

But… Adobo Chicken, a recipe from the Philippines, is different! I didn’t know this until reading some of the Filipino blogs. Asian bloggers talk about food ALL THE TIME. I can never surf these blogs on an empty stomach, especially the Japanese blogs. YUM!! I don’t need fall protection, I need food protection! I get so hungry when surfing those blogs. :-p

Anyway, here’s a recipe for Adobo Chicken. It’s so easy! Going to do this this week. It’s from Manilenio, a fellow Entrecarder. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!

Ingredients
1 head of garlic, minced
1 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
3 leaves of laurel (bay leaves)
1 kilo of pork or chicken cut into pieces

Over low heat, saute the minced garlic and add the pork or chicken meat. Add in the 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of vinegar while stirring to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, then add the bay leaves. You can turn up the heat to bring it into boil and simmer until the meat has turned brown and tender, OR you can maintain the low heat for slow cooking and more flavor for about an hour.

Top it off with garlic flakes (minced garlic fried until golden brown) for added aroma. Enjoy your Adobo!

You can also use pork for this recipe. Go to Manilenio for more yummy recipes.