Comfort Food with a Turkey Twist

Hey everyone!! This is Sonja and I’m guest blogging for Crazy and Cool this week! J I am currently a dietetic intern with Iowa State University (Go Cyclones!!) and am working with and learning from Crazy! I know what you’re thinking, “Wow! You are so lucky!” and to you sir/ma’am I say, “yes, yes I am a lucky lady.” What a Crazy fun experience! J

For my guest blog I decided to make Jalapeño Turkey Meatloaf, a recipe from Jennie-O! It turned out amazing if I may say so myself. To be honest, the meatloaf was my recipe of choice because my boyfriend made traditional beef meatloaf last week and I felt that it was necessary to turn it into a competition. Like most things, much more fun as a competition! Especially when you are the winner and of course I was! My Jennie-O turkey meatloaf had with less sugar, calories and fat than his traditional recipe and was still packed with all the delicious flavor of meatloaf there was no competition!

Step 1- First I preheated my oven to 350 degrees!! – Step 1, easy peasy, Winning!

Step 2- I measured all of the ingredients! The hardest part about this step was cutting the peppers and onion!! 

Step 3- I removed ½ cup of tomato sauce from the 15oz can of tomato sauce. This part of the recipe isn’t written very clearly. Luckily I am a Cyclone and I was able to use my educated brain to figure it out! This half cup was set aside to be mixed with the Jennie-O ground turkey and the rest of the sauce I mixed with the brown sugar and mustard. I prefer Dijon mustard so that is what I used. I am sure whatever mustard you typically use would work out just great!!

Step 4- The MOST FUN PART OF ALL, well after eating it of course, I mixed the meat, peppers, onions bread crumbs, eggs, and ½ cup tomato sauce together! It was an ooey gooey mess and I loved every second of it!

Step 5- I put the meat mixture in a pan, shaped it like a loaf of bread, topped it with the tomato sauce mix and baked it! It calls for a loaf pan but who has that?? Not this girl! Turned out just fine without! It took my loaf approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes to reach 165 degrees.

I served the turkey with asparagus, our favorite vegetable, and rice!

We’ve eaten a lot of meat loaf this week, especially since the boyfriend made a 3lb meatloaf, but it was still the bomb dot com!

INGREDIENTS

1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 and 1/2 pounds JENNIE-O® Lean Ground Turkey
1 tablesppon diced jalapeno peppers
1/2 cup diced  onion
1/4 cup diced red bell peppers
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup egg susbstitue or 2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup tomato sauce, divided

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. In a small bowl, stir together tomato sauce, mustard and brown sugar. Set aside.
3. In large bowl, mix ground turkey, jalepeno peppers, onions, red bell pepper, breadcrumbs, eggs, pepper and 1/2 cup tomato sauce. Blend well.
4. Form mixture into a rounded rectangular loaf and place in 2-inch deep pan. Spread sauce mixture evenly over meatloaf.
5. Bake 1 hour or until the internal temperature of meatloaf is well-done, 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured by a meat thermometer. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Slice loaf into 10 portions.

RECIPE NUTRITION INFORMATION

Calories: 150
Protein: 15g
Fat: 5 g
Carbohydrates: 8g

For full nutrition information visit the recipe from Jennie-O at the link below.

https://www.jennieo.com/recipes/989-jalape%25C3%25B1o-turkey-meatloaf

It's Posh to "Pop" for Your Next Party!

Summertime is the most adventurous season of the year. We pack our evenings and weekends with as many activities as possible to take advantage of the longer days and beautiful weather. In the midst of all the madness, our friends and family schedule events and gatherings to reconnect and spend quality time together. What will be the common denominator at all these exciting functions?  Food, of course!  Burgers, brats, hot dogs, potato chips, crackers, dips, pasta salads, brownies, cookies, cupcakes and countless other tempting, delicious and calorically dense eats. 

It the midst of all of ours summertime favorites, we forget about one of the most healthy and versatile snacks in the grocery store, popcorn. I have rediscovered my love for popcorn and have decided to make this my go-to summer snack for get togethers at my home and 

away from home. Almost everyone I know really loves popcorn too and I have come up with a few fun ways for you to add a little "pop" to your next party. 

This adventure all started with a little trip to my kitchen and I was only going to make my popping good creations from what I already had in my house. This is the best thing about popcorn, you can make creations of any combination your taste buds love:  from sweet to spicy, savory to sour. Popcorn compliments a wide variety of flavors and can be a lot of fun to eat. 

I always have microwave popcorn in my pantry and one of my favorites is Iowa-grown Jolly Time Pop Corn. Jolly Time has a registered dietitian approved line of healthy options:  Healthy Pop Butter and Kettle Corn, in large bags and mini bags, Healthy Pop Low Sodium, Crispy White and Caramel Apple.  All of these tasty flavors are only 20 calories per cup popped and are a good source of energy boosting whole grains and fiber. Since they are so low in calories, it leaves a little wiggle room to add a few indulgent ingredients of your own. Shall we start with one of my favorite creations out of my kitchen?

I am a HUGE fan of chocolate and I pretty much always have dark chocolate chips on hand to curb my "occasional" sweet cravings. I knew this would pair perfectly with the sweet and rich flavor of coconut. 

I like the pairing of dark chocolate with toasted coconut. So I measured out 1/2 cup of coconut and placed it in a pain heated to medium. Watch the coconut closely while constantly stirring to prevent it from burning. Once it is lightly brown, remove from heat. 

I recommend dividing your freshly popped popcorn into 4 bowls and equally divide the toasted coconut flakes, sprinkling on top. Divide 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips between the 4 bowls. Melt 1/4 cup of the dark chocolate chips, melt and drizzle the chocolate over the 4 bowls. 

Yummmmmm!

The next surprise from the kitchen is a simple one, but involves my most favorite dried fruit:  golden raisins. All you need is 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped and 1/4 cup of golden raisins. Divide your freshly popped corn into 4 bowls and equally distribute the pistachios and golden raisins. Enjoy!

Drum roll please.........For the grand finally of my pantry popcorn party, this is hands down my favorite. Summer would not be summer without basil and tomatoes in mouth-watering caprese fashion.

Popcorn does not need to be limited to shelf stable add-ins, fresh and full of flavor toppings can really compliment the crunch of popcorn. All you need is 1/2 cup freshly shredded Parmesan, 1/2 cup of ribboned fresh basil leaves, 1/3 cup roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper. 

For this creation, I like to place the 1/2 the freshly popped popcorn on a large plate for sharing. The first layer I top with half of all the toppings. Then I top that with the rest of the popcorn and repeat. I recommend making sure the popcorn is nice and warm so the cheese melts, and the heat warms the basil and tomatoes to intensify the flavor. 

Your welcome!

At your next get-together, consider forgoing the potato chips, brownies and cupcakes.  Take a "shopping" trip around your kitchen and see what flavorful, healthy, satisfying and 

posh treats you can create for your guests with my longtime favorite summertime snack:  popcorn. 

~Crazy

Kodiak Cakes Review

For our product review this month we choose Kodiak Cakes.  They have so many different flavors out there so they really do have something for everyone.  

My family and I tried out 3 different flavors  including: whole wheat, oat, and honey, dark chocolate, and superfood.  We just tried them all as pancakes and haven't tried them for waffles yet, but maybe we will do that this weekend. 

The whole wheat, oat, and honey one tasted just like any other boxed pancake mix.  I didn't get a lot of honey flavor or anything too different or spectacular with this one.  The dark chocolate was my favorite because it had little chunks of dark chocolate in it.  It was just sweet enough but not overly sweet, even after I doused it in maple syrup.  The superfood pancakes were also good, I liked this one because it actually had some texture to it and a little more flavor than the honey and oat one.  I also felt better about my kids eating three of these for breakfast than just a regular pancake without all of the adding benefits.  My kids tried all of them and 2 out of the 3 liked all of them.  One of my boys didn't care for the dark chocolate one, but when I asked why he didn't like it, he said that he wasn't hungry.   

I will say that the directions on the box said to make with a 1 c. mix to 1 c. water ratio and I thought it was too watery.  I ended up adding more pancake mix to the batter to thicken it up a little.  I would start off with directions on the box and maybe add more mix if you like your pancakes a little fluffier.

All in all I liked the pancakes and will be buying the dark chocolate ones again.  I am also going to try the other recipes on the box for the other breakfast treats.

-Cool

I get pretty excited when a package of new products, well new to me, land in my office and Kodiak Cakes surely increased my giddiness. I was ready to whip up pancakes for family, friends and clients to see if these boxes delivered plenty of yum and good nutrition.

I split up the flavors with Cool (it was hard to give up the chocolate one) and I took the Buttermilk Power Cakes and the Crunchy Peanut Butter Power Cakes. 

What really caught my eye about these mixes were not the flavors but the nutrition. These boxes of mix are packed with 100% whole grain wheat flour, 14 grams of whey protein per serving (3 cakes about the size in the picture above), 5 grams of fiber and a wholesome ingredient list packed with things we all know and can pronounce.  Woo hoo! 

I made the Buttermilk for brunch with friend and topped them with fresh strawberries from the garden. They were gobbled up before I could even get a picture! They were light and fluffy and filling because of the protein and fiber. 

I made the Crunchy Peanut Butter for a class I teach about pre-diabetes. These are a healthy choice for people watching their blood sugars and weight. They loved them and so did I. The best part about this flavor is similar to the dark chocolate one, there are little chunks of peanuts in the mix which adds a nice texture to the finished product. 

With the leftovers, I spread a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in between two of the pancakes and put them in the freezer for a protein-packed grab and go sandwich for when I am in a hurry. 

Their website has a ton of recipes to create even more delicousness like cookies and muffins. For more information go here. 

The Crunchy Peanut Butter will definitely be a staple in my pantry. I also will be sneaking over to Cool's house to try the dark chocolate one too! 

~Crazy