Gobble it Up! Enchilada Soup

Still got some leftover turkey? Me too! Love it. Today, I am off for a day of shopping and a movie with my guys and my mom. I made this yummy soup this morning while I was cooking breakfast for all. It always helps to use your time wisely in the kitchen, and double up when you can. With all the Mexican Spices in this recipe, the soup does not taste at all like Thanksgiving leftovers. It is smokey, spicy and cheesy and so good.

Gobble it Up! Enchilada Soup

2 cups cooked turkey, cubed or shredded
2 14 ounce cans chicken broth
1 14 ounce jar enchilada sauce (mine has 2 carbs per quarter cup)
1/2 head of cauliflower
1 bell pepper
1/4 onion
4 ounce can green chiles
1 cup black beans or black soy beans
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon Chipotle pepper powder
1 squirt lime juice
4 ounces cream cheese

Dice or shred turkey and chop all the vegetables. Make sure the cauliflower is finely diced, so it will resemble rice. Put all ingredients except cream cheese into a large pot to simmer for an hour. Add the cream cheese, allowing it to melt into the soup base. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Serves 6 at about 10-11 carbs each using black beans. Soy beans would reduce the carb count further.

This is a yummy soup for all. The carby boys will likely prefer their soup with some crushed tortilla chips, and topped with some shredded cheese, but with all this flavor, who really needs the chips?

Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce with Smoked Turkey

I love leftovers. We made two turkeys this year just so I would be sure to have extra for easy meals for a few days. It is certainly a busy few days. What with Thanksgiving food prep, shopping and birthday celebrations, who wants to do even more cooking? Not me.

To make the best use of leftovers, plan some different ways to add to the traditional flavors. The recipe I am featuring today goes way beyond the cold turkey sandwich. It uses the delicious charcoal smoked turkey my hubby prepared. It was his best ever, and definitely worth getting up early to smoke.

I teamed that flavorful smoked turkey with a Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce made from the leftover traditional cranberry sauce. Sugarfree, of course. This is not for the faint hearted, but is sooooo good if you can stand a bit of heat. Good to warm up those old bones in the November chill.

Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce

This is one of the recipes included in my new cookbook project, Low Carbing Among Friends.

This recipe is available in the book, along with over 60 additional 24/7 Low Carb Diner recipes. By ordering the book, you get more than 300 favorite gluten free recipes from four other well known low carb cooking experts…Jennifer Eloff of Splendid Low Carbing cookbook fame, Kent Altena, the Atkins Diet Geek and You Tube star, nutritionist and author Maria Emmerich of Maria’s Nutritious and Delicious Journal, and popular blogger and food stylist, Carolyn Ketchum of All Day I Dream About Food. Unlike any other cookbook you may own, this one is a compilation of mini cookbooks featuring the talents of these well known low carbers. Think of it as a “best of” project.

Low Carbing Among Friends also features recipes from numerous other talented low carbing friends and recommendations from the medical community who recognize the health benefits of low carb, gluten free living. To preorder your copy, visit http://www.amongfriends.us The official release date is 11/11/11, so pre-order now for a discount.

To make this gourmet wrap, just spread some cream cheese on a strip of Joseph's Lavash bread, cut in thirds. Top with shredded turkey. Spoon Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce over the turkey. Remember, this is spicy and a little bit goes a long way! Roll the lavash bread in a spiral, and cut the sandwich in half. Each third of a lavash serves one.

I am loving having the college boys home, even though they did have to work at their old jobs for Black Friday. Sometime this weekend, I also need to package up some home made dinners for my oldest, who has been bumming food off the neighbors in his apartment complex. I knew he would miss that cafeteria food eventually!

Teriyaki Steak Bento

My Asian inspired lunch was so good. Even though I didn't stand in line to use the microwave to heat it up, it was still tasty. I had some Teriyaki Steak strips for my protein. That marinade recipe is in the e-book. That's the one I ran a correction for a few months ago. The ginger in the recipe should say fresh ginger. If you want to use powdered, just use 1 teaspoon.

Since stir fry veggies are not too lunchbox friendly, I added some finger food vegetables. For a dip, a cup of leftover Pineapple Glaze from the Mega Meatballs recipe. Aren't leftovers great for packing lunches? The veggies are so good dipped in this sweet and sour sauce. Today, I brought steamed cauliflower and snap peas. Love those things.

For color, I had a small serving of cranberry sauce. So, this didn't fit the Asian theme so well, but it is very pretty. It is amazing how far one recipe of cranberry sauce will go!

Tonight, I will be planning my major grocery shopping trip for Thanksgiving. We are doing two turkeys, one baked and one smoked. I am having trouble finding a bird which is not injected with a solution. I am planning to do my own brining, and just need a plain bird. Why DO they have to inject this perfectly good bird, anyway? Seems wrong to pay more for a turkey that has had less done to it! But then when did much of anything in the food industry make sense? Guess since we are paying by the pound, solution is cheaper than white meat.

Good luck on your holiday shopping!

Suprise Bento Lunch

For this bento lunch, I had planned the Deli Delights. The rest was just a surprise from the goodies I keep on hand. My favorite new thing is the cheese crisps. That is the find from the grocery store last weekend. Usually, I make my cheese crisps from the American/Swiss cheese we buy at Sam's. But I saw this processed cheese at the grocery store and John told me to go ahead and try it. We both knew he wouldn't like it and because it is CHIPOTLE flavored.

Oh my heavens these are good. For a girl who really misses her Doritos, this does the trick. In the past, I had tried adding a jalapeno to the microwave baked treats, but the pepper always made the cheese stay wet and leathery. These, however, are crispy through and though. Even better, they take only 45 seconds in the microwave oven to have a batch ready. I cut each slice into 16 pieces, so I get lots of little crisps. Warning. These are spicy and these are addictive.

Each slice has one carb and 60 calories. The brand just seems to be called Chipotle Pasturized Processed Cheese Food Slices. The real sign is on there. I got mine at Food Pyramid.

Now on to the rest of the lunch I have packed. I found these fun skewers at the dollar shop. They make deli roll ups feel like a party. Those are just ham wrapped around pickle spears and string cheese. Red bell pepper and olives are on the kabob too.

I also packed some home made vanilla butter nut yogurt. Too good to believe. There is a brownie made with the master mix I made last weekend. Next to the cheese crisps are some leftover green beans sprinkled with lemon pepper.

That is better than a Lunchable any day!

Flower Bento Lunch

I had a meeting to attend today which was scheduled to last through lunchtime. I packed this Bento lunch to snack on while we worked. The sandwich roll-ups are made from leftover Beef Stroganoff from dinner. They were delicious! I cut some bell pepper flowers and added some blue cheese dressing for dipping. That tiny little container cam from the dollar store--I have six of them now. The caps are nice and tight, so packing liquid is not a problem. Next to that is a yummy strawberry. Using my new tiny cutters, I also cut some cheese into tulip shapes. I added a couple of mini cheesecake muffins too for dessert. I didn't remember them before I took the photo, but I also added three Pick-a-flavor cookies. Guess that is enough dessert items, I shouldn't need anything sweet tonight!

Coney,Chili Dog...whatever!

My hubby used to call Ohio and Colorado home. He grew up eating plain hot dogs with no chili. How tragic! He goes on to tell me that he never knew what a "Coney" was until he met me. He will admit to knowing what a Chili Dog was, but it was far from a favorite in his family. Then he met me. On one of our first dates, I managed to spill chili down a light pink business suit after he surprised me at my job to take me out for a quick lunch. He has never forgotten laughing at me for ruining that suit, and my going back to work with a tell tale orange stain. Despite that, I never lost my love for chili topped dogs. A couple of years later, I even battled morning sickness with jalapeno chili dogs. That is another episode in my coney love story...

I am so glad we can still have my favorite while low carbing. With all those glorious toppings, who misses the bun? Tonight was such an easy dinner, thanks to the fact that I had some leftover homemade chili from last night's Multiple Meals Punkin Chili. All I needed to do tonight was to grill up some Oscar Mayer franks, heat the chili in the microwave, and add the cheese, onions and mustard.

I made up a quick batch of Nana's Coleslaw with a Kick--that takes 5 minutes at the most. My son Christian called dinner a masterpiece. John admitted he was a definite coney convert, although he still calls them chili dogs. Oh, and this time out, I managed to spare my clothing.

Life Intervenes Soup--or Creamy Chicken Cilantro

When it comes to quick fix meals, I usually don't follow recipes; I just throw stuff in a pot. Today was no exception. I didn't get my menu planning done on schedule last week. One mega cold combined with a Court of Honor Program for my Eagle Scout. Between mucus, chills and making punch for a one hundred reception guests, my shopping and menu didn't get done. So, I am playing catch up today. Yesterday was devoted to my youngest's film making venture. He didn't like the food I had planned to pack for our lunch, so we did resort to MacDonalds. Dad still had his proper food, though. (Thanks to my well stocked freezer, he had a chicken version of Mermaid Muffins for lunch and Cowboy Comfort Breakfast) Dinner was a freezer casserole. Good to have those always ready.

This morning, I cleaned up a few leftovers. In class last Friday, we had a Middle Eastern luncheon. We had some leftover garlic lemon chicken. That went into the pot with a quart of chicken broth. I still had about 2 cups of leftover coleslaw mix. I added that too. I tossed in 3 cilantro cubes, and bit of salt and pepper. I let that simmer while making coffee and cleaning up the kitchen. When the cabbage was tender, I added about 8 ounces of cream cheese. After stirring that together, I poured it into a jar for John to take for his lunch. If it sounds good, but you don't happen to have any garlic lemon chicken, just add about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and a tablespoon of lemon juice to your pot.

Now, I'm making myself hungry. I think I'll have a bowl of my own and finally get the rest of the week's menu written. Flexibility. It's a good thing.