brie, apple, and bacon turkey burger

After a long bout with tonsillitis, I’m back! And because I feel so bad for my lack of posts, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes with you all. One of my favorite foods ever is the cheese burger- you can do so much with it and really mold the flavors that you are looking for.

Traditionally, I’m all for your typical ground beef burger, but after experimenting with ground turkey for a while, I’ve decided this combination is AMAZING!

Ingredients

ground turkey
seasoning (salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley)
olive oil
bacon
onion
apple
ciabatta rolls

Instructions

Add your ground turkey and spices into a bowl and mix together- I also add a drizzle of olive oil because ground turkey doesn’t have a high fat content. Form your pattie- you can do sliders or full sized burgers for this so it’s up to you! I also never try to make my burger too thick because unlike beef, the turkey needs to be cooked all the way through.

At this point I start cooking my bacon. You can either do it in the pan or the microwave, though I prefer cooking it in a pan, so I can use the grease later on to cook my onions. Also when I cook bacon for a burger, I weave the pieces together so they stay on the burger better. Once the bacon is finished cooking, add some thinly sliced onion, and in a second small frying pan drizzle a bit of olive oil and begin to cook your burgers.

When your burgers and onions are nearly finished, give your ciabatta rolls a quick toast to help stand up to all the toppings, and slice your apple and brie. Add the cheese to your burger and allow to start melting. Once everything is finished cooking, put the bacon on the bottom half of your roll, then the burger and cheese, then the apple slice(s), and then the sauteed/ caramelized onions. Generally I would serve this burger with homemade sweet potato fries or kale chips. Enjoy!

bacon, brusselsprout, and brie grilled cheese

 

I don’t know about you guys, but my weekend was full of shenanigans. After the late nights, crazy parties, and ridiculous dancing, all I wanted was some relaxing food- and what better than grilled cheese! I adapted this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen – the original was a vegetarian dish, but I thought adding some bacon would put this recipe over the top!

Ingredients

2-3 slices of thick cut bacon
3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons of butter
6-7 Brussels sprouts, sliced thin
Brie cheese
salt & pepper
2 slices bread of choice

Instructions

Dice a few slices of bacon and cook them most of the way, releasing most of the fat. Add in minced shallots, thinly sliced brussel sprouts, dijon, and a pinch of salt and pepper. If you need to, add a little bit of butter or olive oil to bacon fat to extend it. While these are cooking down (it should only take about five minutes once you add the brussel sprouts), slice a few pieces of brie to fit your bread. I used Ezekiel bread for my sandwich, but you can use Italian bread, french bread, rye, etc- what ever your favorite bread is!

Once the brussel sprout mixture is done cooking, add a good chunk of butter to a skillet (I used cast iron but non stick will also be fine!), and slowly heat up the pan and melt the butter. You don’t want the pan to be too hot because then the bread will cook to fast and be nice and crunchy, but the cheese won’t melt! While it’s heating, top your brie and bread with the brussel sprout mixture and gently transfer to your skillet. While it’s starting to brown, I even like to cover the skillet for a couple minutes so the cheese will melt even nicer. Once the first side is golden brown, carefully flip and continue to cook the other side, again until golden brown.

Transfer to a plate and cut in half- then enjoy!

swiss chard, fennel, goat cheese & ricotta pizza

swiss chard, fennel, goat cheese & ricotta pizza

I’m a fan of any and all types of pizza… why wouldn’t you want tomatoes and bread and cheese, all in one? At least that’s how I originally looked at it. Now I still love my classic New York cheese pizza, but I love pies that use fresh and healthy ingredients as well! So, when I was scavenging for food in my fridge today, this is what I came up with! Enjoy!

Ingredients

Pizza Dough
2 packets of active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups of warm water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 cups of flour (1/2 AP, 1/2 whole wheat)

Topping
a medium fennel bulb, sliced thinly
one onion, sliced
one bunch of swiss chard
bacon
goat cheese
home made ricotta

Ricotta
4 cups of whole milk
1 cup of heavy cream
2 tbsp of lemon juice

Instructions

In a large pot, add your whole milk and your heavy cream. While you are waiting for this to boil, add 2 packets of active dry yeast to the cup and a half of warm (about 110 degrees) water. This will need to sit for about five minutes before you do anything else. Once you see your milk start to develop foam on the top, watch carefully because it will begin to boil soon. As the milk begins to boil, add in two tablespoons of lemon juice and give one quick stir. Let rest for about two minutes. You will see curds have formed and at this point you can strain through cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer. Let your curds separate from the whey and you will soon have ricotta! Depending on how stiff or moist you’d like your cheese, draining times will vary.

Now you can finish your dough. The water and yeast should have developed a slight foam on top, and at this point you can whisk in the olive oil, salt, and sugar. Once they are combined being to stir in your flour. If it gets to difficult to do with a spoon, feel free to get in there with your hands! You don’t want to overwork the dough at this point though, so once everything is combined, coat a new bowl with a touch of olive oil and put your dough in there to rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and keep somewhere warm to rise and double in size.

At this point you can begin all of your chopping and rinsing. Slice your fennel thinly and caramelize- this will take a while, fennel is a strong veggie and needs time and patience to break down. Once they are soft and brown you can add in your sliced onion (I also added a splash of white wine!), and begin to cook it. Put the fennel and onion into a dish, and start to wilt your swiss chard- don’t even worry about washing the pan! While the chard is cooking down, throw a few pieces of bacon in a skillet and cook until crispy.

Once all of your toppings are ready, your dough should be good to go! There will be enough dough for a couple pizza’s- cut in half and save half the dough for later. Gently knead the dough on a floured surface and start to stretch to whatever shape pizza you’d like to make. For really thin crust I flatten out the dough even more with my rolling pin. Transfer your dough to a cookie sheet or pizza stone and throw on your toppings (for a vegetarian option, omit bacon)! I cooked my pizza at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes and then bumped the temperature up to 500 to finish off and get a nice crispy crust. I knew mine was ready when I could smell the pizza and when I looked in the oven, my crust was a golden brown!

I topped my pizza with some garlic powder, fresh parmesan, and salt and pepper. Divide up and enjoy!