Turkey Pot Pie

We hosted our third Maine Thanksgiving this year, and for the third time we ordered the smallest free-range turkey we could get. For the third time, the smallest turkeys ranged from 10 pounds to 13 pounds and for the third time, we scored a 13-pounder. According to commonly accepted turkey math, that gave us enough turkey to feed 13 people. We were feeding five. Thankfully, we love leftovers, especially in the form of turkey pot pie.

This recipe is adapted from a chicken pot pie recipe from SELF.

For the Filling:

2 cups low-sodium nonfat chicken broth

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 medium new potatoes (approx ½ lb.), skin on, diced

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ cup cornstarch

1 cup skim milk

1 zucchini, diced

1 yellow squash, diced

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 cups (or so) cooked turkey, diced

For the top:

2 ¼ cups reduced-fat Bisquick

¾ cup skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Bring 1 cup of chicken broth to a boil in a Dutch oven. Add onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.

3. Add another cup of chicken broth, potatoes and thyme. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender, 6-8 minutes.

4. Combine cornstarch and skim milk in a large bowl. Stir until smooth.

5. Add zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, green pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce to the cornstarch and milk. Mix well.

6. Add the zucchini mixture to the Dutch oven. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes (or until the liquid thickens), stirring to make sure the cornstarch doesn’t burn. Remove from heat.

7. Add turkey to the mixture in the Dutch oven. Stir to combine.

8. In a large bowl, combine Bisquick and milk. Stir until you’ve created a fairly sticky dough, then use your hands to lay the topping over the turkey and vegetable mixture. (The dough will stick to your fingers, which will make it challenging to cover the entire surface of the pie. This may be frustrating if you’re a perfectionist. Get over it. It’ll still taste delicious.)

9. Bake for 15 minutes, until the top is golden.

Makai's Favorite: Giblet Gravy

This is Makai’s favorite part of Thanksgiving. Note: Makai is a dog. We make no claims about the taste or healthiness of this dish for human consumption.

This recipe is from The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs.

1 tbsp vegetable oil*

½ pound turkey or chicken giblets

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth

1. In a small skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add giblets. Cook, stirring frequently for 5 minutes, or until giblets are cooked through.

2. Remove giblets from pan using a slotted spoon. Cut into small pieces.

3. Return the oil in the skillet to medium heat and add flour. Stir to form a flour and oil paste.

4. Slowly add chicken broth, stirring constantly. Make sure you scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

5. Return giblets to the pan and stir. Cook 1-2 minutes, until gravy comes to a boil and thickens a little bit.

6. Serve a few spoonfuls over your dog’s regular food.

7. Refrigerate leftovers in a sealed container.

*The recipe calls for 2 tbsp vegetable oil, but this produces a lot of splatter. We suggest starting with 1 tbsp and adding more as needed.

Tofu with Peppers, Carrots and Brown Rice

Tofu with peppers and brown rice is one of our speedy go-to dishes. About a year ago, we went to it too much and experienced major tofu-with-peppers burnout. We avoided the dish for months until this fall, when our normally lettuce-heavy CSA finally pulled through with some beautiful peppers—and carrots. How could we resist?

1 package extra-firm tofu, drained, patted dry and cubed

2 (or more) red, yellow, orange, green or purple bell peppers, cut into chunks

3 (or more) carrots, peeled and sliced

2 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce

3 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Grated fresh ginger (somewhere between 1 and 2 tsp)

Garlic powder, to taste

1 cup brown rice

1. Cook brown rice.

2. Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic powder in a medium bowl or pie plate. Add tofu and marinate for 5-10 minutes.

3. In a large skillet or wok (we use an electric wok), heat 1 tbsp canola oil over medium heat. Add peppers and carrots. Cook, stirring until tender crisp. Remove peppers and carrots from wok.

4. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil over medium heat. Add tofu and marinade. Cook, stirring to keep the marinade from burning, for 7 to 10 minutes until edges start to brown.

5. Return peppers and carrots to the wok. Add brown rice. Mix everything together, stirring well so the marinade flavors the rice and vegetables.

Grilled Pineapple and Chorizo

This is more of an idea than a recipe. If your lives are anything like ours, you occasionally suffer from a shortage of time and lack of inspiration in the kitchen. Here’s some (super speedy) inspiration.

1 fresh pineapple, peeled and sliced into rounds

2 chorizo sausages (We used chicken chorizo. It was on sale at Whole Foods.)

1. Grill the sausages on a well-oiled grill over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes. Check to make sure that that they are cooked completely through before removing from the grill. (If the sausages say they are precooked, then you can just toss 'em on a hot grill until they are nice and browned.)

2. Re-spray the grill and cook the pineapple slices over medium-high heat, a few minutes to a side, until grill marks appear. (Warning: the high sugar content of pineapple increases the risk of burning, so keep an eye on it.)

3. Slice the pineapple into bite-size pieces.

4. Slice chorizo and toss with grilled pineapple.

Peanut Bars

These are kinda like granola bars, but better. There’s just one problem: they don’t hold their bar shape very well. I considered rolling them into balls, but after posting Angels’ Balls and Balls of Awesomeness, I was worried you might think I had a “thing” for balls.

¾ cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts

2 cups dried cranberries

1 ¾ cups old fashioned oats

2 cups Rice Krispies (or equivalent)

½ cup natural unsalted peanut butter

just under ½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup plus 1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Coat a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

2. In the biggest bowl you can find (trust me), combine the peanuts, dried cranberries, oats and Rice Krispies. Stir to make sure everything is mixed together.

3. In a large microwaveable bowl, combine the peanut butter, brown sugar and honey. Zap on high for a minute and a half (it’ll be hot and bubbly).

4. Stir peanut butter mixture until it’s fully combined. Stir in vanilla.

5. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients. Mix well, making sure everything gets coated, especially the oats—they often try to escape.

6. Transfer the mixture to the pan. Press down firmly. Allow to sit for at least an hour before cutting into bars.

Fall Week: Butternut Squash Pizza

This delicious dish is adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod. We’ve made it as a pizza and a calzone. The pizza is prettier and quite frankly, in a head-to-head taste test, the pizza would win, but the calzone was still delicious. To make butternut squash calzones, follow the pizza recipe below, but place the ingredients on one half of the dough and then fold it into a calzone. Poke a few holes in the top of the calzone and bake at 400° for 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

For more delectable butternut squash dishes, check out Butternut Squash Lasagna and Butternut Squash Potstickers.

Pizza dough of your choice (we use spelt dough)

Corn meal

Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced

Yellow onion, caramelized (a caramelized red onion would’ve been delicious too)

Olive oil

Garlic powder

Feta cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Dried rosemary

Golden raisins

Balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. In a large bowl, toss butternut squash with olive oil until squash is coated.

3. Spread squash on a baking sheet. Place on the top shelf of oven and roast 30-40 minutes, until squash is tender and starting to brown.

4. Prepare pizza dough. Sprinkle with corn meal for a little extra grip.

5. When squash is done, jack the oven temperature up to 475°.

6. Sprinkle pizza dough with garlic, top with squash, caramelized onions, golden raisins, mozzarella and feta. Sprinkle with dried rosemary.

7. Bake 12-15 minutes.

8. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and mangia!

Fall Week: Fall (in a bowl)

Sometimes culinary experiments go horribly wrong (we don’t post the results of those disasters) and sometimes they go wonderfully right. Fall (in a bowl) is the result of a deliciously successful culinary experiment.

Quinoa

1 package extra-firm tofu, drained, patted dry and cubed

1 tbsp olive oil

2 Macintosh apples, chopped

Dried cranberries

Chopped walnuts

Apple cider

Maple syrup

Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions.

2. Toast walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 3 minutes or until fragrant.

3. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium high and sauté the tofu, cooking until browned.

4. Throw everything (quinoa, tofu, apples, dried cranberries and toasted walnuts) in a bowl. Mix it up. Add a little apple cider. Add a little more. Add a little maple syrup. Stir.

5. Divide into servings. Top with cheese.

Fall Week: Stuffed Acorn Squash

We love fall. And we love fall food so we’re declaring this week “Fall Week” on Healthy-ish. To celebrate, we’ll be posting three recipes that just scream fall (to us, at least).

We’ll start with this fabulous dish, adapted from Eating Well.

2 large acorn squashes

1 package baby spinach

1 15 oz. can white beans (either Cannellini or Great Northern), rinsed

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 tbsp tomato paste

EVOO

2 tbsp water

2 slices sandwich bread of your choosing (I used spelt bread)

1/3 – 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (equal to the amount of breadcrumbs)

1. Make breadcrumbs: Toast bread. Turn it into crumbs using a food processor. Spread crumbs on baking sheet and toast in a 350° oven for 3-4 minutes (until they start to brown). Set aside.

2. Stab squashes (so they don’t explode). Microwave for 6 minutes on high. Flip. Zap for 6 more minutes.

3. When squashes are cool enough to handle, cut in half and remove seeds. Drizzle insides with EVOO and microwave for 3 minutes on high, or until done. (Squash is done when it is fork tender and the inside is a dark yellow color.)

4. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp EVOO over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until the onion starts to brown, 2-3 minutes.

5. Add garlic. Cook, stirring for 1 minute.

6. Add tomato paste, water and spinach. Stir, then cover and cook 3-5 minutes, until spinach is wilted.

7. Add white beans. Cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.

8. Position rack in the center of oven and preheat broiler.

9. Combine breadcrumbs and shredded Parmesan in a small bowl. (My 2 slices of bread produced about a cup of breadcrumbs so I used close to a cup of Parmesan.) Add enough EVOO (at least 1 tbsp) to keep the mixture together.

10. Place squash in a baking dish. Fill each squash half with the spinach and white bean mixture and then sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture.

11. Broil in center of oven 1-2 minutes, until breadcrumb mixture starts to brown.

Penne 'n' Cheese

It’s getting colder…It’s getting darker…Same-sex marriage is no longer legal in Maine…Ooof! How ‘bout some comfort food?

This one’s a special request for Jane, Ollie and Simon.

1 package penne

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour (we use rice flour, but all purpose flour will do)

1 ¼ cup fat-free half and half

½ cup shredded fontina cheese

½ cup shredded swiss cheese

½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 tbsp dry white wine

4-5 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 small onion, diced

1 tsp EVOO

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a lasagna pan with cooking spray.

2. Cook penne until al dente. Drain and set aside.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour until bubbling (it will happen quickly).

4. Add half and half, stirring constantly. Cook, still stirring frequently, until mixture boils and thickens.

5. Remove from heat and add cheeses. Stir until cheeses have melted.

6. Stir in wine.

7. Dump the pasta in the lasagna pan, add the cheese sauce and mix until all of the pasta is coated.

8. Add onions and mix.

9. Top with tomato slices. Drizzle (or brush) tomato slices with EVOO.

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Baked Sustainable Whitefish

You may have noticed that we haven’t posted many fish recipes. There’s a reason for that. We try really really hard to eat sustainably and finding sustainably harvested fish is tricky (especially here in the Northeast where most of the stocks are overfished).

To learn all about overfishing click here.

This recipe originally called for haddock, but trawl-caught haddock (the way most haddock is caught in the Gulf of Maine) is on the Avoid list and haddock caught with a hook and line can be hard to find so we usually use U.S. farmed tilapia. Any sustainably caught whitefish will do.

To find out what fish are good, okay and very bad choices in your area, check out the Seafood Watch regional guides.

1 cup milk

sustainably harvested whitefish of your choice

1 cup breadcrumbs

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 tsp dried thyme

¼ cup butter, melted

*Confession: We don’t measure anything for this recipe so these measurements are guesses. You may need to use more breadcrumbs, parmesan and thyme to cover the fish.

1. Preheat oven to 500° and coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Cut fish into smallish-pieces (about the size of an Oreo).

3. Pour milk into a shallow bowl. Combine breadcrumbs, thyme and parmesan in another shallow bowl.

4. Dip fish in milk, then in the breadcrumb mixture and then arrange on the baking sheet.

5. Spoon melted butter evenly over the fish pieces.

6. Bake on top shelf of oven for about 12 minutes.