Asian Turkey Salad; A Quick and Cool dinner for summer

What could be a better dinner on a hot and humid July night than a loaded salad? It's full of great vegetables, a tangy dressing, and leftover turkey breast. The original recipe which came from Everyday Food used a rotisserie chicken but I had grilled a turkey breast yesterday so we used some of the leftovers instead of chicken. It was quick, cool and delicious.

Ingredients

Serves 4

* 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves and soft stems
* 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 2 limes)
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 1 rotisserie chicken (about 2 1/2 pounds), skin and bones removed, meat shredded (about 4 cups)
* 1/4 medium red cabbage (8 ounces), cored and thinly sliced crosswise
* 1 red bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced
* 2 scallions, thinly sliced
* 1 large head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
* 1/2 cup cashews

Directions

1. Make dressing: In a blender, combine cilantro, lime juice, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
2. In a large bowl, combine chicken, cabbage, bell pepper, and scallions; season with salt and pepper. In another large bowl, toss lettuce with 1/2 cup dressing. Divide among four bowls, and top with chicken mixture. Drizzle all with remaining dressing, and sprinkle with cashews.

Tex -Mex Turkey Burgers! YUM!

My friend was telling me about a recipe for
Tex-Mex turkey burgers in this month's Everyday Food. She sent me the recipe but it wasn't what I was thinking when I thought Tex-Mex. I was thinking of something a little spicier than chili powder and pepper jack.

I had some ground turkey in the freezer so I was determined to come up with a recipe for a tex-mex burger. I finally settled on adding chipotles in adobo, garlic, onion, cilantro, and lime with my turkey. It turned out wonderful. Hubby and my mom both loved them and so did I. We had them on lightly toasted ciabatta rolls with avocado and fresh sliced tomatoes. This will be a new staple on our table.



Ingredients:

2 pounds ground turkey
2-4 chipotles in adobo, depending on how much heat you like
3 garlic cloves
1 med onion
1 bunch cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice

Mix everything but the turkey in the food processor so it is chopped finely. Mix in the turkey and patty out burgers. I got 10 out of mine.

Grill until done. They are juicy and delicious.

We had them with grilled yellow squash and a sweet potato mash. The sweetness of the sweet potato mash was a great counter to the spicy of the burger.

On the grill with the squash:

Grilled Turkey and what to do with the leftovers

We have a Holland Grill. Yes it is a gas grill and we love it. I have always had trouble with charcoal so for me to use the grill, gas it is. Plus this one is so easy, you can regulate the temperature and it cooks without a lot of watching. As the Holland grill company says, "if you're lookin' you ain't cookin'."

I have a few turkeys in the freezer so we decided to cook one up to make room in there. Cooking it on the grill all I had to do was clean the turkey, rub with olive oil and poultry seasoning. I put it on the grill and two hours later it was brown, juicy and delicious.



To go with the turkey, we had dirty rice, green beans and cranberry chutney I had made and frozen in the fall.

A recipe for the leftovers:

The next night we didn't want another plate of leftover turkey because leftovers were packed in lunch boxes. To change up the leftovers, I made a turkey casserole. I got this recipe from my aunt who makes it with chicken. It's very good with turkey too.

Ritz Cracker Chicken Casserole

1 chicken cooked and torn into pieces (or 3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
1½ sticks margarine, melted
3 T poppy seeds (or just sprinkle until desired covering)

Mix together soups and sour cream.

Crush crackers and combine with melted margarine.

Layer ingredients in the following order in a 9x13 baking pan:
1. chicken
2. soup and sour cream mixture
3. crackers
4. poppy seeds

Bake at 350o for 20-25 minutes.