Turkey Curry

This is what you can do with some of your leftover turkey. You can change up the vegetables to use whatever you have around. Happy Boxing Day!

Ingredients:
Leftover turkey, chopped
Chopped onions
Chopped celery
Chopped carrots
Frozen peas
Olive oil
Coconut milk
Curry powder
Shredded coconut

Directions:
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the vegetables and curry powder to taste, and cook until the vegetables are soft. Add the turkey and coconut milk, and simmer until the coconut milk reduces down a bit (it won't thicken very much, so don't add too much if you don't like a very liquidy curry). Serve over steamed rice topped with shredded coconut.

Baked Quinoa (or Rice) and Lentils

This recipe was loosely inspired by that casserole that people used to make that had rice, chicken, cheese, and cream of mushroom soup in it. It's a vegetarian (vegan, actually, if you don't use cheese), gluten-free, vegetable-full, healthy, and cheap alternative that's pretty easy to make. Merry Christmas!

Ingredients:
Leftover cooked rice or quinoa, about 2-3 cups
1/3 cup uncooked red lentils (don't worry, they'll cook in the tomato juice)
Chopped or shredded vegetables - I like to use chopped onions (about 1 whole onion), 4-5 stalks of chopped celery, and 2-3 shredded carrots, but you can vary the vegetables according to what you have in your fridge
1 19 oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes, NOT drained
Grated cheese - optional

Directions:
Shredded vegetables can be put in raw, but if you're using chopped onions or any kind of root vegetable, I recommend steaming/boiling/sauteeing them first until soft. Once the vegetables are ready, mix all the ingredients and spread into a casserole dish that looks big enough to hold everything. If you're using cheese, you can either mix some in or sprinkle some on top (or both). Bake at 350 F, uncovered, for 40-60 minutes, until the water has been absorbed and the lentils are soft.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Hey kids! I'm back with some more recipes. I'm trying an experiment - since I actually have some time to write blog posts right now, I'm going to schedule them to post on different days so I don't have a million posts all on one day and then none for months. We'll see how this works.

First up, spinach and artichoke dip. This is very easy and doesn't have a ton of ingredients. It also has a fairly high vegetable to cream cheese ratio. I hate how sometimes you get spinach and artichoke dip and it's basically a pile of mayonnaise with a few token pieces of spinach in it. If I wanted to eat a pile of mayonnaise, I would eat a pile of mayonnaise. In fact, my recipe doesn't even have mayonnaise in it.

You can serve this hot as a dip for vegetables or gluten-free crackers or tortilla chips, or cold as more of a spread. It's really good with celery.

Ingredients:
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
Approximately a pound of fresh spinach, coarsely chopped (or a 1 pound package of thawed and drained frozen spinach)
1 small jar of artichoke hearts, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup diced onions (optional - I know some people hate onions)
A bit of olive oil or butter (or cooking spray)
A few tablespoons of milk
Optional - shredded cheese, whatever kind you like (old cheddar or parmesan is good)

Directions:
Heat the oil or butter in a large (you'll want a lot of stirring room) frying pan to about the medium setting on your stove (or just spray the pan with cooking spray). Add the onions and spinach (along with salt and pepper to taste), and cooking, stirring frequently, until the spinach is starting to wilt and the onions are getting a bit translucent. Add the cream cheese and chopped artichoke hearts. You can cut the cream cheese into smaller pieces ahead of time to help it melt, but even if you throw the block in whole, it will melt eventually. Stir the mixture until everything has melted evenly into the cream cheese, adding a bit of milk if necessary to thin it out. At this point you can scoop it into your serving dish as is. You can also melt in some extra shredded to cheese to play with the flavor a bit, or you can scoop it into an oven-safe dish, top with shredded cheese, and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese. If you want to be extra-festive, top it with some smoked paprika.