Let's Talk Turkey!

Happy Monday My Little Ladybugs! 

Ok, I'm not watching American Idol that much, but I am entertained by Nicky Minaj and her cute little sayings. Little ladybugs is the name she calls a lot of the contestants. It's endearing right?

I am one week post my arthroscopy and not really that much better. I don't know if it's because there is still some healing to do after all the poking, cutting, cleaning, and scraping inside my knee, or if this is as good as it will get. If the latter is my outcome, then I will have to face and explore the possibility of a knee replacement. Ironically my mother just had her second one three weeks ago. She now has two totally new knees. The doctor explained to me that I might not see any real improvement, due to the arthritis and cartilage loss. It’s strange how three months ago I would have said that I don’t have any problems with my knees.  In some cases, you don’t know you have any problems until you have a problem and something brings it all to a head.

So this week, I’m going to continue to rest it as much as possible, keep it elevated and iced when I’m sitting down. I haven’t been able to be at my brothers and all  lately and the responsibility has fallen on my mother. Luckily she is a strong woman and keeps forging ahead even with her own knee issues. Oh well, enough of my whining. Thanks to those of you who wrote me and came to my pity party. How fun it would have been if we could all have really gotten together for a real party. Maybe someday!

I have been doing limited cooking because I don’t want to stand on my feet too much. I have been trying to use up things in my freezer. I like to really purge the cupboards and freezer every year after winter is done. It’s kind of a challenge to see how many meals I can throw together without buying too much at the store except fresh produce.

So there were these two packs of frozen turkey breast that I thawed out this morning, just begging to be used.  I decided to make turkey burgers. Kim gave me the idea from seeing that she has been having one for lunch every day.

 I have bought the Jenni-O frozen turkey burgers and they are pretty good. Last time I accidentally bought the dark meat ones. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t care for them, so I thawed them and made turkey meatballs out of them. They came out really well. A little soft in texture, but I baked them in the oven and  then put the in the sauce. Here’s the recipe I used for turkey meatballs from Giada on food network. I used the sugar free ketchup from Natures Hollow and whole wheat bread crumbs. I made mine a normal size and baked in the oven for about 40 minutes.

So back to the turkey burgers. The best homemade turkey burger I ever had was one that I made after it  was featured on the Oprah show. She had it at Donald Trumps place in Palm Beach and raved about it on her show. They are called the Mar-a-Lago-Turkey-Burger. At first he refused to share his chefs recipe, but then he finally agreed and came on the show with great fanfare and presented her with the recipe ( in a locked briefcase no less!) that she shared with her viewers. They really are delicious, but so labor intensive and I’m sure the sugar content is high as they have chutney, apples and pear. I wasn't watching sugar back then when I made them, but trust me they are really delicious. I'm sure you could make some modifications too and that would make them lower in sugar.

 I wanted something faster and easier so I did a web search and tried a recipe that I found on food.com  These burgers were easy to make, with ingredients that I had on hand. I tripled the recipe using two packs of the lean ground turkey breast, the natures hollow sugar free ketchup, and increased their size to one and half times the 110gms that the recipe called for. I used my food scale, and measure out 165 grams which made a nice size burger. I had mine on flaxseed toast and it was really good. Sorry I forgot a photo. Here's the one from the website.

 Hope everyone has a great week. Hugs and love all around from me to you! XO

Thought for the day: Learn to smile at every situation.  See it as an opportunity to prove your strength and ability.  ~Joe Brown