Dukan Moo Shu Turkey (it's Paleo too!)

We loved this recipe!

I should say, we loved the taste of this recipe, but boy was it time consuming!  While I prepped the meal I told the male half of this couple, I don't think I want to make this again...it took me a while to

clean the bean sprouts (we clean each piece).  Plus I was prepping veggies and fruit for breakfast at the same time.  Just seemed like I was standing at our sink for hours.

We found this recipe on an about.com site.  I haven't eaten plum sauce for several years -- ever since I started trying low carb and low sugar diets...so we didn't try the sugar free plum sauce recipe -- if you try it, let us know how it was!

After tasting the dish, I announced I would be willing to make this again...maybe I need to look into growing our own bean sprouts.  By the time bean sprouts hit our markets, the ends are mostly

brown.

For this dish, we used some carved turkey, but you can use chicken if you wish.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 30 minutes + (depends on what kind of veggies you use and how you end up cleaning your veggies)
Cook time: 8-10 minutes

Marinade:
3 T. Tamari gluten free soy sauce
1/2 T. sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 t. fresh grated ginger
1/2 t. Chinese Five Spice Powder

Other ingredients:
1 lb. turkey, cut into thin strips (we used precooked, but you can use raw turkey or chicken)
2 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T. fresh grated ginger
6 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
1 c. sliced green onions
4 c. sliced cabbage (we used Napa, about 1/2 inch strips)
8 oz. bean sprouts
1 T. Tamari gluten free soy sauce
1/2 T. sesame oil

Mix together marinade in a large ziploc bag.  Add turkey and mix to coat.

Have your other ingredients ready, this will cook pretty quickly.   Heat a large wok over medium-high heat.  NOTE: Because we used precooked turkey, we added it in last just to heat it.  If you are using raw meats, stir fry your meats first until they are just about cooked, then remove from wok and set aside.  Add sesame oil to wok, then the celery, garlic and ginger.  Saute for one minute.

Add vegetables in this order, stir frying each for about 1-2 minutes after each addition:  mushrooms, green onions, cabbage, bean sprouts.  Add the soy sauce and turkey with marinade.  Toss to combine.

Serve as is or you can try about.com's sugar-free plum sauce recipe.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Southwest Turkey Burgers (it's Paleo too!)

Southwest Turkey Burger

We loved this recipe!

This was very simple to make and very tasty!  We used Rachael Ray's recipe and made some changes so the meal would fit both Dukan and Paleo.   We did use bacon which we wouldn't use in Cruise (too much fat).  We used lettuce in place of a bun.

Not sure if it's just my imagination, but the leftovers tasted even better.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: approx 15-16 minutes, we cooked our burgers in two batches

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey
2 slices bacon, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1 t. dried thyme leaves
2 T. freeze dried or fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 small bell pepper, seeded and chopped finely (any color)
2 small serrano peppers, seeded and chopped finely
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. adobo seasoning (Paleo folks, making your own is best)
4 pieces of romaine lettuce to fit burgers like buns

Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  Mix all ingredients except lettuce together.  Form 4 large patties and
grill.  For the Dukan folks, spray your pan lightly with non-stick spray and for the Paleo folks, extra virgin olive oil or your choice of fat.

Grill patties approx 4 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.  It'll depend on how thick you make your patties.

Serve with lettuce pieces.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan and Paleo Rockin' Turkey Meatloaf

Rockin' Turkey Meatloaf

We have mixed feelings about this recipe...it was tasty and easy to prepare but the almond flour made it a bit mushy.  Texture-wise, not the greatest.

This is the original recipe in case you want to try it.

We're definitely planning on making this again and hope to try a couple substitutions to see if we can get the texture right.  We halved this recipe since it's just two of us in our household and we didn't add spinach (none at the Farmer's Market).  Half the recipe made a lot for the two of us.  We had it for dinner one night, the next morning I had a couple slices with an overeasy egg and a couple more slices the following day.

If you're on the Dukan Diet, use oat bran instead of almond flour and the carrot can be optional if you're in Cruise and omitting carrots from your diet.  In addition, for those in Cruise, omit the bacon.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 with lots of leftovers or 4-6 people

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: approx. 45 minutes or until juices run clear

3 slices of bacon, chopped into fine pieces (we removed some of the fat)
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into smaller pieces (for food processor)
1 small handful of basil
1/2 small onion, chopped into smaller pieces (for food processor)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 - 7 oz. can of tomato paste (or half if you can use the other half for something)
1.25 lbs. ground turkey
1/4 c. almond flour
1 t. pure sea salt
1/2 t. black pepper

Over medium heat, cook bacon until it starts to brown and crisp up.  While your bacon is cooking, start on the veggies.  Place the chopped carrots, basic, onion and garlic in a food processor and process until fine.

Add veggie mixture to bacon and saute until veggies are soft (shouldn't take too long).   Add tomato paste, stir to mix.   Transfer mix to a mixing bowl and let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add ground turkey, almond flour, salt, pepper and mix.   Line a baking pan with parchment paper and shape your mixture into a loaf.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked.

Enjoy...we kind of did!

Dukan Green Chili Turkey Burgers (it's Paleo too!)

Green Chili Turkey Burgers

We loved this recipe.

The burgers were juicy and tasty...plus, very easy to make.  We found this recipe during one of our initial searched for Paleo recipes.  It's listed as a Gluten Free and Paleo recipe on Elana's Pantry blog....and it's Dukan!   Elana's Pantry has a lot of great recipes that fit into the Dukan Diet.  Some you will have to wait until Consolidation.  She has a lot of Gluten Free recipes too.

The burgers are soft when you're trying to form them and place them on the grill pan, but once they start cooking they are fine.  We're definitely having these again...perhaps in meatloaf form.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 small patties or 4 large patties
Prep Time: 10 minutes or so
Cook Time: 20 minutes (2 batches in our grill pan, but would have taken less had we used a grill and cooked all 8 patties at once.

1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 - 7 oz. can of diced green chilis
1 c. cilantro finely chopped
1/2 c. onion, finely chopped
2 t. ground cumin
1 t. chili powder
1 t. pure sea salt

Wish we had a larger food processor to mix all of this up, but oh wells.  Mix all ingredients together.  Form patties and cook in a grill pan over medium high heat.  Cook approximately 3-4 minutes per side or until juices run clear.

We had these with asparagus.  I should've made myself a fried egg!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Persian Turkey Burgers (it's a Paleo recipe too!)

Persian Turkey Burgers

We have mixed feelings about this one...

It was a little on the plain side but it's always nice to try something different.  We went back to see if we did something wrong and we probably could have increased the amount of each spice since the recipe calls for 1 pound of meat and the ground turkey at Safeway only comes in 1.25 lbs -- we didn't want to save .25 lbs. of ground turkey, although we could have used it for something.  It could also be because we used ground turkey instead of ground beef.

Anyway, we also didn't try any of the sauce recipes listed on the recipe page and the yogurt sauce would've been a good one to try with these burgers.  So, this wasn't a bad recipe, the burgers were juicy, just not one that knocked our socks off because it was bursting with flavor.  We'd definitely try this recipe again.

The nice thing about this recipe -- it fit both the Dukan and Paleo diets without any changes...well, except we didn't cook ours with ghee.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 (we ate it as a Cruise/Paleo meal, so with veggies only, no starch)
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey or 1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, diced finely
1 egg
1 t. kosher or sea salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. dried oregano

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Form patties (we made 8 small patties).  Heat grill pan over medium.  If you're on the Dukan Diet, spray your pan with a little bit of nonstick spray.  If you're on Paleo, use your choice of fat.  We lightly brushed on a small amount of extra virgin olive oil on our pan for the first round of patties and didn't need any additional oil for the second round of patties.

Cook patties until they are half cooked, then flip patties over and cook until done.  We usually cook ours about 3-4 minutes per side or until there are no pink juices coming out of the patties.

We had ours with steamed broccoli.  The leftovers were broken up into small pieces and made into a Persian Burger Scramble for my breakfast.

Dukan Cuban Style Burgers

Cuban Style Burgers

We liked this recipe.  It was tasty but if we were to make it again, we'd just make the burger part.  The ham and cheese part was a little too much for me...but it was delicious.  We had this on our Pure Protein Day, so we didn't have the pickle, it really needed the pickle.

Closet Cooking is another of our favorite recipe blogs.   He's very creative and we like his "trying not to eat the same thing over and over" style.  We love Cuban sandwiches so we knew we would enjoy Closet Cooking's Cuban Burger recipe.

We didn't have these on buns so we skipped the mayo and mustard.  The male half of this couple had his burgers with red rice and I had mine plain.  Next time I think we'll use some fat free mayo and mustard just to add flavor to this dish.  We also used a lower fat ham and reduced fat Swiss cheese.  We made ours with ground turkey only because we don't care for the ground pork sold at Safeway, has a funky taste.

RECIPE:
Serves:  Makes 6-8 smaller burgers or 4 large burgers (there's just two of us, we had leftovers)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on how many burgers you can cook at once)

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 handful cilantro, chopped
1 t. lime zest
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. ground cumin
1 lb. ground turkey (or pork)
1/4 c. oat bran
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices of low fat ham per burger
1 slice of reduced fat Swiss cheese per burger
2 -4 slices of dill pickles if it's your PV day
Dukan bread if you prefer eating this as a burger on a bun.
If you're using a bun or even if you're not, mix 1 mashed garlic per tablespoon of fat free/Dukan mayo (use 1 T per burger) as a dressing.  You may also use 1 T. dijon mustard per burger if you wish.

Mix the garlic, cilantro, lime zest, oregano, oat bran, egg and cumin into the ground turkey.   Form 4 larger patties or 6-8 smaller patties.  Spray a grill pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and over medium high heat start grilling your patties.  They should take approximately 3-5 minutes per side.  We wrapped our cheese in our ham, folded them up and grilled them along with the last two burgers just to melt the cheese and heat up the ham.  Serve burgers with ham/cheese on it.  Add dressing from above recipe if you wish.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Spaghetti Meat Sauce

Spaghetti Meat Sauce

We both liked this recipe and would use it again, but wish we followed No Recipe's recipe closer.

Just before we started the Dukan Diet, we came across Marc's blog called No Recipe.  What caught our eyes were the unique recipes he's posted.  Everything looks yummy on his site and we've saved quite a few of his recipes but this is one of the few recipes of Marc's we've actually tried.

His posts which are part of a PBS special are easy to follow for people like us...less experienced cooks. Our version of Marc's "Best Spaghetti Recipe" did not come out looking anything like his!  It was still very tasty, probably one of the tastiest spaghetti sauces we've made at home.  It was very easy and really was ready in about 30 minutes.

The changes we made are: left out the carrots (next time we'll splurge and use the 1/2 a carrot), we used turkey bacon and ground turkey instead of pork bacon and ground beef, we used lower sugar ketchup.  Oh and we also simmered the sauce too long.  It looked very similar to Marc's sauce when it was first ready but I left it on the stove simmering while the male half of this couple finished washing his car.

The male half of this couple had his sauce over whole wheat spaghetti noodles and I had mind over the Nasoya Shirataki Fettucini noodles.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 minutes (we're not as fast as Marc!)
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 4

Pasta - depends on what you're making.  For me, one package of the Nasoya Shirataki Fettucini noodles made me full.

8 slices of turkey bacon, chopped into small pieces (you can use less, we had 8 in the freezer and decided to use the whole thing)
9 ounces of ground turkey
1 small onion, diced into 1/8 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 c. dry white wine
400 grams of crushed tomatoes (use diced tomatoes, we used crushed because the male half of this couple won't eat tomatoes unless they are sauce-y)
2 T. low sugar ketchup
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 t. oregano

According to Marc, you can prepare your noodles the same time you're making this sauce, but if you're using Shirataki noodles like we did, boil your noodles just before your sauce is ready.

Over medium high heat, add bacon to your pan and fry until a good amount of oil has been released from the bacon.  Then add the ground turkey breaking up the meat, fry until cooked.  Remove meat mixture from pan and set aside leaving oil in the pan.  If you have more than one tablespoon of oil left in the pan, remove some oil.  If you don't have one tablespoon of oil, add olive oil. Turn the heat down to medium low.  Add onions and garlic (if you're using carrots, add those in now too).  Saute onions and garlic around 10-15 minutes or until onions are soft.  As Marc mentioned in his post, do not skimp on time here.  Turn the heat up to high and add meat mixture.  Then add wine, stir constantly until the there's almost no liquid left.

Turn the pan down to medium low and add the tomatoes, ketchup, salt and pepper.  Put the oregano in the palm of your hand and rub your hands together in a circular motion to crush the oregano into a powder.  Add oregano to the pan.  Mix well.  Simmer for another 10 minutes and serve on your choice of noodles.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Cheesy Broccoli Frittata

Cheesy Broccoli Frittata

We loved this recipe!

We've never made a frittata before...it's so easy and yummy, we're looking forward to making many variations soon!  Frittata's can be made with either whole eggs or egg whites for those watching their cholesterol.

We were given a recipe book recently and came across a recipe for a Sicilian Frittata.  It sounded great, but ultimately we ended up changing it quite a bit to fit the Dukan diet.  Nix the potatoes, nix the Italian blend of cheese...etc.  After we get back from our business trip we're hoping to make a Chinese Frittata.

Oh, we made a mistake and mixed in the fat free cheddar cheese into the egg, but it really was supposed to be sprinkled only on the top.  It ended up being great with the cheese mixed in and we'll probably continue to mix the cheese into the egg mixture and nix the cheese on top.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 - we didn't have any starch with this, but we were still full
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

6 eggs or 3/4 c. egg whites plus 1/3 c. egg whites
1/3 c. water
1 1/2 c. broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1/2 c. turkey, chopped into small pieces
1/2 c. shallots, chopped into small pieces
2 cloves garlic
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 c. fat free cheddar cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

In a skillet, add a small amount of olive oil over medium-high heat.  When oil is hot, add shallots and garlic, saute for a couple minutes until shallots are soft.  Add broccoli, cover and let steam for a couple minutes until broccoli is tender.  In the meantime, mix egg whites, salt, pepper, thyme and cheeses well.  Add turkey to broccoli, mix, then pour egg mixture evenly over broccoli mixture.  We used a spatula to even everything out.  Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until eggs are done.  Cut and serve.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Curry Turkey Burgers

Curry Turkey Burgers

NOTE: This is a scheduled post...trying to catch up!

We loved this recipe!

The male half of this couple enjoys curry...the female half doesn't....but we came across some curry turkey burger recipes (can't even remember how we came across it) and it sounded pretty good.  We're glad we tried the recipe.  (Note, the female half does love Thai curries, but doesn't care for Indian curry).

You can adjust the amount of curry to the type of curry you want to use.  We actually used curry powder we found in Chinatown here.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 burgers
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 20 minutes

1 lb. ground turkey
1 small shallot, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. curry powder (adjust to your taste)
1-2 t. red chili flakes (we used 2)
1 egg
1/4 c. oat bran
kosher salt (I think we used 1-2 t.)
pepper (approx 1/4 t)

Mix everything in a bowl and portion our 8 servings.  Make each serving into a patty and fry over medium high heat...we used our grill pan.  Cook the patties for approximately 6 minutes on each side or until there's no pink juice coming from your patties.

The male half had this over brown rice and the female half had it with a side salad.  Have it alone on Cruise PP days or even during Attack.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Turkey Herb Meatloaf

Turkey Herb Meatloaf

Note:  This is a scheduled post.

We loved this. Today we had a brief discussion about meatloafs. The female half felt like making one, the male half told her how it's okay but he feels soft things should just be soft and his mother always added chopped raw onions to their meatloaf and he just doesn't like crunchy things in his soft things. Oh my! There went the onions and orange bell pepper idea although the sauté idea was considered. Decided to use the fabulous garlic sauce from Skinnytaste's salmon recipe we had this past weekend. The male half agreed but only if the female half agreed not to put any of the sauce on the top of the meatloaf..he had enough mustard for this week :-).

 We would definitely make this again and the female half would probably even dare to brush on some garlic sauce during the last couple minutes of baking. The flavor of this meatloaf is mild, just the way the male half likes it. The female half would prefer to use twice the amount of garlic sauce to make it "bursting with flavor".

It turned out to be a fast, simple meal minus the one hour five minute bake time...which actually gave us time to get other things done :-)  Sorry, just a couple photos since it was a throw it all in one bowl and mix recipe!

RECIPE:
Serves 4
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Bake Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit

1 lb. ground turkey (lean)
1/4 c. oat bran (next time we'll use 1/8 c.)
1 egg
2 c. non fat mozzarella, shredded (if you don't like your meatloaf this cheesy, cut it down to 1 c.)

Skinnytaste's Garlic Dijon Herb Sauce (mash together with a mortar and pestle or mini food processor):
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. olive oil (optional, we went without it)
3-4 cloves garlic
2 T. Dijon mustard

Mix turkey, sauce, oat bran, cheese and egg together...mix it well!   Place turkey mixture evenly in a 9" x 4" loaf pan (we lined ours with parchment paper) and bake for about 1 hour, 5 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit or until done.  After removing pan from the oven, let the meatloaf sit for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.

The meatloaf was juicy when it first was sliced, but as the meatloaf cools, it does become drier.  We would use only 1/4 c. next time we make this meatloaf.  This was a Pure Protein meal for the female half...the male half had his with brown rice.  We'll either make sandwiches out of the leftovers or make a sauce to pour over the meatloaf.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Crock Pot Bolognese

Crock Pot Bolognese

(NOTE: This is a scheduled post)

We loved this recipe.

The male half of this couple loves pasta, especially tomato (not chunky though) sauces and we haven't had a whole lot of pasta (not even whole wheat pasta) since we started the Dukan Diet.  After finding this recipe on one of our favorite low fat recipe blogs, decided we should pull our crock pot and try it out.

It is relatively more work in the kitchen, especially since we've been making easy stir fry dishes and this is not a "throw everything in the pot and press start" recipe, but it was worth the labor.  It made enough for 5 servings.  We served this with a small Caesar salad.

We made a couple changes to the recipe - used whole wheat thin spaghetti, fat free half and half and turkey bacon.  We are posting the recipe without the carrots.  Oh and we only made half the recipe which was a tight fit in our 2 quart crock pot, but too little for our 4 quart crock pot.  A 3 quart would have been just right!  If you're in Cruise, you may want to omit the oil and have the sauce over Shirataki Tofu noodles.

FYI - Bolognese is traditionally served over tagliatelle, but we already had the whole wheat thin spaghetti.  Leftovers can be frozen.

For Skinnytaste's stove top version, click here.

RECIPE:
Serves 5
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes on stove, then 4 hours in the crock pot

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey, lean (or 1 lb. lean ground beef - the local market here sells 1 1/4 lb. prepackaged)
2 oz. turkey bacon, chopped
1/2 T. olive oil (use cooking spray if you're in Cruise)
1/2 red onion, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1/8 c. dry white wine
1 - 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1-2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 T. dried parsley (if you have fresh, 1/8 c. chopped)
1/4 c. fat free half and half
whole wheat pasta (your choice, but if you're in Cruise, use Shirataki Tofu Noodles)

In a large pan, saute bacon over low heat about 4-5 minutes.  Add olive oil, onions and celery and saute for about 5 minutes over medium heat.  Increase heat to medium high, add turkey, season with salt and pepper and saute until browned.  Drain the fat, add the wine and cook until it reduces down, about 4 minutes.

Add turkey mixture to crock pot.  Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaves and a little more salt and pepper.  Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours.  Before serving, mix in the parsley and fat free half and half. Serve over hot pasta.

We like to cook our pasta about 10 minutes prior to plating our dinner.  We usually add a splash of olive oil, salt and garlic powder to the water and cook al dente. Do not rinse your pasta after cooking.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Vietnamese Noodles and Turkey Patties

Vietnamese Noodles and Turkey Patties

We loved this recipe.

It really was a simple dish and very light tasting.  We really think the carrots could be optional, we kept them in the recipe because the male half of this couple loves carrots.  We subscribe to email notifications from Katerina's blog, Daily Unadventures in Cooking and recently received her recipe for Bun Cha, a Vietnamese Grilled Pork Meatball dish.

We made a few changes and had it as a Dukan dish this past weekend.  We love the fish sauce broth served in Vietnamese restaurants, but always had it as a dipping sauce, never as a broth.  We weren't sure we would like THAT much fish sauce with our noodles but it was actually very tasty.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes, depending on how many patties you can grill at a time

Patties:
1 lb. ground turkey, lean
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
3 T. fish sauce
2 t. natural sweetener
2 finely sliced scallion, white part only

Dipping Broth/Sauce:
1 c. water
4 T. natural sweetener
4 T. fish sauce
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 birds eye chili or something similar, seeds removed, sliced in half (suggest you use gloves)
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 carrot

fresh mint and thai basil

2-3 pkgs, Shirataki Tofu noodles (we used spaghetti shaped because we had it, but next time we'll use angel hair shaped)

Boil noodles for 5 minutes in salted water.  Drain noodles.  Prepare the broth.  Add water, garlic and sweetener, chili and fish sauce to small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer, stirring until sweetener dissolves. Remove broth from heat.  Stir in lemon juice.  If you want to add carrots, peel thin strips of the carrot and add to the broth.  You'll heat the broth up again once you're ready to plate your dish.

Mix patty ingredients and form 12 small patties.  Because we used lean turkey, we flattened our patties to cook faster (less drying out).  We only have a Foreman's Grill which seems to dry out our turkey patties, so we pan fried them with some olive oil spray.  While your patties are cooking, rinse and pat dry your herbs.

We served ours like this - place warmed up noodles in a bowl, add patties on top of the noodles.  Pour in desired amount of broth, you don't need to have it drowning in broth.  Break apart herbs and sprinkle on your noodles/broth.  As we eat, we add more mint and basil.  Very refreshing.

Enjoy...we sure did!  This really is an easy dish to prepare!

Dukan Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey Burgers

Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey Burgers
These were juicier than they look in this pic

We loved this recipe.

The male half of this couple doesn't get excited about food...he eats to live, not lives to eat :-)  Once in a great while when asked the question "what would you like me to make for dinner?", he will suggest something.  It's usually spicy salmon bowls or a pasta dish.  This past weekend the female half said "ground turkey's on sale, what kind of turkey burgers shall we have?" and without hesitation the male half said "how about jalapeno turkey burgers?".  Whoa, he had an opinion about what we'd be eating.  It really only happens 2-3 times per year!

That was it, we had to make jalapeno burgers.  We actually had a can of diced jalapenos for a while, so we were happy to finally use it.  We also had a little less than a 1/4 c. of fat free cheddar cheese from our Christmas Eve Baked Rigatoni (forgot to post the recipe).  The recipe turned into Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey burgers.  The female half decided to do another PP day (and probably a couple more this week to get lose her vacation weight), the male half ate his with some rice.

This was another quick and easy recipe.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 burgers
Prep Time: 20 minutes or less
Cook Time: approximately 20-30 minutes (we have a small pan, cooked 2 patties at a time)

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey, as lean as you like
1 4oz. can of diced jalapenos, drained (ok to use fresh jalapenos also, approximately 2, with or without seeds depending on how much spice you want, we usually leave a few seeds in)
1/8 c. oat bran or less (we prefer less since it tends to dry the turkey out)
1 t. adobo seasoning
1 egg
fat free cheddar cheese, grated (we used approx. 1/2 T. in each burger, but you can use more or less)

Mix all ingredients together except the grated cheese.  Form eight balls of turkey.  Form a crater in each turkey ball, add the cheese in the crater and pinch the edges together forming a ball around the cheese.  (Reminds us of making dim sum).  Gently flatten your turkey balls into patties and pan fry or grill them.  We usually cook them for approximately 3-4 minutes on one side, flip them over and cook until the juices run clear.  Try not to overcook the burgers or they will dry out.  We used a little bit of nonstick spray also.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Korean Turkey and Veggie Bowl

Korean Turkey and Veggie Bowl

We loved this recipe.

We wanted to try bibimbap for the longest time, but knew we had to make some changes to make it a Dukan friendly recipe.  Although time consuming, this is a very easy dish to prepare. Bap means rice in Korean and we've usually seen this served with white rice...that we replaced with quinoa.  We used less oil for the veggies and used olive oil spray when stir frying the turkey and veggies.

This was a great light dish although it took a while to prepare.  Almost an hour!  It looks pretty when you put your bowl together, but you end up mixing everything up.  Next time, to save time, we'll probably cook certain veggies together.  For example, the cucumbers, carrots and mushrooms we'll cook together instead of individually.  The only time we'd cook them separately is if we were making bibimbap and banchan.  This dish can also be made as a vegetarian dish, omit the ground turkey and add more veggies.  Also, lean ground beef, chicken or pork can be substituted.

The garlic and sesame are what makes this dish tasty.  Not recommended for Cruise.  Eat in moderation during Consolidation.  If we were in Cruise, which we may go back to in January, we might make this dish without quinoa and very little sesame oil.  Sesame oil is very strong, a little bit can flavor up your dish a lot!

RECIPE
Serves 4
Prep Time: 40-50 minutes
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/4 c. chicken broth
1 lb. ground turkey, lean
1 carrot (small), sliced into strips
1 cucumber (small), sliced into strips
1 1/2 c. bean sprouts
1/4 c. - 1/2 c. hydrated shiitake mushroom pieces (or your favorite type of mushroom), thinly sliced
soy sauce (1 t. for the cucumbers or whichever green veggie you use, 2 t. for the mushrooms, 1-2 T. for the ground turkey)
garlic cloves, minced (1 for the bean sprouts, 1 for the green veggies, 6-8 for the ground turkey)
sesame oil (you'll use a splash or two for each item)
kosher salt (1 or two pinches for the bean sprouts, 2 pinches for the green veggies)
natural sweetener (1 - 2 t. for the mushrooms, 1 T. for the ground turkey)
pepper, a dash or two for the ground turkey
4 uncooked eggs
gochujang or chili paste (it also tastes just fine without the hot sauce)
platter to hold all the cooked ingredients
4 bowls to eat from, you'll want to use larger bowls since the dish is usually mixed up

Usually each item is cooked separately.  We will show you how to put this together how it usually is cooked, then how we would cook it next time (and how our Korean Aunty told us she cooks it when she doesn't have time).

Cook your quinoa in a rice cooker with 1 1/4 c. chicken broth (use more liquid if you prefer your quinoa softer, we prefer ours the same texture as tabouleh).  While the quinoa is cooking start on the other ingredients.  Bring bean sprouts to a boil in about a cup or two of water, add 1 t. salt and let simmer for 20 minutes.  Drain water, add 1 clove garlic (minced), a pinch of salt and a small splash of sesame oil.  Mix and set on your platter.  Depending on what kind of green veggie you are using, either boil it (if it's something like spinach) or saute it if it's cucumbers or zucchini.  We sauteed our cucumber slices in a pan with a light bit of non stick spray.  Remove from pan and mix with a pinch of salt, 1 t. soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic and a small splash of sesame oil.  Set cucumbers on your platter.  Saute carrots in a pan with a little bit of non stick spray if necessary, set on the platter.  Stir fry mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of non stick spray, add 2 t. soy sauce, 1 - 2 t. natural sweetener and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add a small splash of sesame oil, continue to stir fry for another minute, then transfer to your platter.  Cook ground turkey in a pan with a little bit of non stick spray, 6-8 minced garlic cloves, 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. natural sweetener, a little bit of pepper and a splash of sesame oil.   Transfer to platter.  Cook eggs, each person will get one egg for their bowl - either over easy or sunny side up.  We've seen people eat this with a raw egg too.  We suggested heating up your bowl of food before mixing in a raw egg to the dish.  Add desired amount of quinoa to each bowl, build bowls to each person's liking, top with an egg, mix it all up, then enjoy!

Shortcut way - next time, we are taking a shortcut.  We'd boil the bean sprouts along with any veggies that we would normall boil (i.e. spinach), saute all the sauteed veggies together, cook the ground turkey separately, cook the eggs, then build bowls.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Singapore Noodles

Singapore Noodles

We loved this recipe...but it was a bit spicy for the female half of this couple.

Well, not make your nose run spicy, but spicy enough where the first thought that came to mind was "we have to use less curry powder next time".  

A few months ago we came across a great recipe site called "No Recipes".   This is the first recipe we've tried from this site, but everything Marc posts looks great and the innovative recipes even better.  The male half of this couple loves curry, so we chose this as our first recipe to make from this site.  

You can find Marc's original recipe here.   While we loved the way this dish came out, here are the changes we would make to the recipe below: use angel hair tofu noodles instead (we already had the spaghetti tofu noodles in the fridge), use only 1 T. curry powder and lessen the amount of chicken broth mixture since with the tofu noodles being non-absorbant this dish came out soupy.  For a celebration meal, we would use Marc's recipe as he posted it, with the mai-fun noodles. 

Another note: we used turkey breast since we already had some in the fridge, but next time we'll either try chicken or tofu. 

RECIPE:

Serves 2-4

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

* We recommend prepping all ingredients first since this dish cooks quickly.

2 pkg. tofu noodles (we used spaghetti but would have gone with angel hair)

4 oz. turkey breast, cut into strips

2 t. shoyu (soy sauce)

2 t. Chinese rice wine

1 t. cornstarch

2 T. curry powder

2 T. fish sauce (we used a Vietnamese one)

1 T. oyster sauce

3/4 c. chicken broth

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. ginger, minced

1/2 medium onion, sliced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

8 oz. can of strip bamboo

4 oz. bean sprouts

3 green onions, chopped

Boil noodles for 5 minutes in salted water.  Drain and pat dry.  While your noodles are boiling, mix the shoyu, rice wine and cornstarch in a bowl.  Add turkey and let marinade.

Measure out curry powder into a small dish.  In a separate bowl, combine fish sauce, oyster sauce and chicken broth.  Heat a wok over high heat until very hot and spray with a little bit of olive oil spray, then add the egg, swirling them scrambling.  Remove egg and set aside.  Spray wok again, then add garlic and ginger, then fry until fragrant.  Add the turkey (discard marinade).  Our turkey was already cooked so we just stir fried it to heat the turkey.  

Add the onion, bell pepper, bamboo and bean sprouts - stir fry until vegetables are a bright color.  Add the curry powder and stir fry until fragrant, then pour chicken broth mixture in.  Stir, then add noodles and use a tong to coat noodles with sauce.  Top with green onions and serve immediately.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Quinoa Turkey Chili

Quinoa Turkey Chili

We loved this recipe, although we would have liked it a bit spicier.

This was our first time cooking with Quinoa...our friend fell in love with it and bought everyone a bag of Quinoa!  Quinoa cooks up nicely in a rice cooker and since we prefer our food less mushy we used 1 1/4 c. of chicken broth to cook our Quinoa instead of the 2 c. as suggested by many others.

We decided to try this recipe found on allrecipes.com and altered it to make it Dukan friendly.  Since this recipe does have Quinoa, this is a Consolidation and/or Stabilization recipe.  The male half of this couple got an extra treat - sliced avocado on his chili.

If you love spicy food, you may want to increase the amount of chili powder you use, leave in some of the seeds from the jalapeno and/or add a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.  Next time we make this chili we'll probably use 1/2 c. to 3/4 c. of quinoa instead of 1 c.

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 c. quinoa
1 can chicken broth
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 T. chili powder
1 T. ground cumin
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried parsley
1 - 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped

In a rice cooker, add 1 c. Quinoa with 1 1/4 c. chicken broth (the rest of the broth will go into the chili).  Cook Quinoa (as soon as the rice cooker turns off, remove Quinoa and fluff).  While your Quinoa is cooking, brown your ground turkey.  Once your turkey is cooked, drain and remove turkey from pan.  Spray pan with olive oil spray and saute onions, garlic and jalapeno for approximately 5 minutes.  Add chili powder and ground cumin and cook for an additional minute.  Add crushed tomatoes, bell pepper, dried oregano, dried parsley, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Once your bell peppers soften, add back ground turkey, Quinoa and mix.  We added the remainder of the chicken broth at this time since it was a bit gummy for our liking.  Once chili is heated completely, mix in cilantro and serve.  We added a fried egg on top of our chili.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Asian Turkey Meatballs

We both LOVED these meatballs!

We have fallen way behind in our posting!  Partly because the female half of this couple has been fighting off a sinus infection.

We didn't expect to love these so much, but we sure did.  We just might be making these again very soon.

The male half of this couple tasked the female half of this couple with cleaning out the kitchen.  Our cupboards, refrigerator and pantry have been getting quite full.  We decided to start making things with only items we had in our kitchen and these turkey meatballs are one of those creations.

RECIPE:
Makes 16 large meatballs
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes, 500 degrees Fahrenheit

Meatball ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey, lean
2 t. minced onion, dried
1/4 c. oat bran
1 garlic clove, minced
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. kosher salt
1 T. shoyu (soy sauce), low sodium
1 1/2 T. white miso paste
1 T. sambal oelek (Korean ground chili paste)
3 green onions, chopped
1 egg

Dipping sauce ingredients:
2 T. shoyu (soy sauce), low sodium
2 t. sesame oil
2 T. lemon juice (or lime juice)
2 T. water (tap)

Mix all ingredients together.  Form into meatballs (you could also use this as a burger recipe).  Place on baking sheet, we sprayed the sheet with a little bit of olive oil spray.  Bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Mix your sauce ingredients together while your meatballs are baking.  It's not allowed during the Cruise Phase of the diet and we actually reduced the amount of sesame oil for our sauce.  Or you can eat it without dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Dukan Buffalo Parmesan Turkey Burgers

We both liked these, but we weren't falling ourselves over them.  They were definitely juicier without the oat bran but we didn't use enough hot sauce.  If you don't like spicy, this is fine the way it is, if you like spicy food, definitely add more hot sauce.

These were our spicy miso turkey burgers, but the
buffalo ones looked the same.

Decided to throw this together...weren't sure how it would turn out.  Several months ago we saw a food show on the Travel Channel and the "original" buffalo wings restaurant in Buffalo, New York was featured.  Being lovers of buffalo wings, we just had to try it.  We really enjoyed it but since starting Dukan, all that butter is off limits and now that's we've gotten used to eating low fat, not sure we really would enjoy butter in that amount.

So, we found ourselves with a bottle of Frank's hot sauce, the one used in most copy cat Anchor Bar Buffalo Wing recipes.  Sounded like a great opportunity to try a buffalo turkey burger!  We found a 'Buffalo Burger' recipe on the internet and tweaked it a bit.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes (depending on how large your pan is, ours is small)

1 lb. ground turkey, lean
2 T. Frank's original hot sauce
1 t. dried minced onions
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated (from the can)
1/2 c. egg whites

Mix all ingredients together and form 8 patties.  Pan fry with a little bit of olive oil spray until juices run clear.

Enjoy!

Dukan Spicy Miso Turkey Burgers

We both loved these.

Spicy Miso Turkey Burgers

The female half of this couple wanted to make jalapeno burgers to use up the ground turkey we have in the freezer to make room for the fish filets we are picking up at Costco...but she left the jalapenos at her house.  Decided to scrap that idea and searched for a miso burger recipe.

Decided to try this recipe...added some spicy chili paste to it since we both love spicy food.  Also increased the amount of miso and oat bran.  Next time we'll add either some chopped oyster mushrooms (which we forgot we had) or chopped water chestnuts for texture.

RECIPE:
Serves 3
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes if you have a small pan like we do

1 lb. ground turkey (lean)
3 T. oat bran (omit if you prefer a juicier turkey burger)
3 T. finely chopped green onions
3 T. organic white miso paste
1 T. chili paste (sambal oelek)
1 T. sake
1/4 c. egg whites

Mix all ingredients, shape into patties.  We made 6, you can make mini burgers too.  Pan fry them or grill them until no longer pink.

If you want a stronger miso taste we would add another tablespoon of miso paste and if you want more heat, 1/2 T. chili paste should do it.

Enjoy!