Turkey Fennel Meat Sauce

February Week 3 - Try Cooking With Fennel
At first I thought this week was going to be easy, then as I searched recipes Google came up with some really weird looking recipes. I LOVE to try new foods, but these just looked CraZy! I choose a meatball recipe at first but oh man: Ain't Nobody Got Time Fo That Recipe! I was blessed to come across an amazing pasta sauce found on the blog: Cookin' Skinny and as the name implies she has a ton of amazing looking recipes that are healthy to boot! I will definitely be checking out her blog for more recipe ideas!

Now onto what you have been waiting for...drum roll please!

Turkey Fennel Meat Sauce

 

I rate this recipe 4 out of 5 stars!! 

Yes, you read that right. This recipe was awesome!

Reasons: My husband and son loved it so much they had seconds! My husband hates...okay strongly dislikes normal boring ol' red pasta sauce and my son hates pasta recipes in general...so them liking this recipe is a HUGE deal!

The spices were a perfect blend of amazingness! 

And it was super duper easy! I love simple recipes, they are perfect for my schedule!

Notes: She lets her simmer in a dutch oven, I don't have one of those so I just let it simmer in a pan on my stove top and it turned out great! 

Although SUPER simple to prepare, I would start preparing a head of time to let it simmer, the ground turkey tastes so much better if you let it simmer!

This made great leftovers! 

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 1.5 Hours

Ingredients: 

•  1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 1/4 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/2 cup chopped white or yellow onion
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 1/4 red wine
• 1 1/2 cups roasted garlic marinara
• 1 bay leaf
• pinch cinnamon
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonade

For instructions visit the blog: http://cookinskinny.com/2012/11/turkey-fennel-meat-sauce/

February Week 3 Try Cooking With Fennel - Browned Butter Fennel Gratin

Melissa checking in here...check one, two, check, check. Good! Let's go!

I've cooked with fennel before but only once. I enjoyed it but the recipients of the dish didn't find it as delightful as I did. I think that's why I was looking forward to this dish because I want people to like fennel. 

This recipe came out of my Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. If you know me, then you know I love this magazine. I usually try to make at least one recipe from the magazine a month. And they always turn out great!

You can find the recipe here: Browned Butter Fennel Gratin

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

3 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed, cored, and sliced crosswise

3 stalks celery, sliced

2 large Vidalia or other sweet yellow onions, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices

6 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons snipped fresh dill

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup coarse Italian or French bread crumbs

2 tablespoons finely chopped hazelnuts

  Fresh dill sprigs

I rate this recipe high, 4.5 out of 5. The flavor of this dish is excellent but here were my challenges:

I put this on my meal plan as a main dish. WRONG! This is a side dish. I had to quickly figure out what else we would eat with this at the last minute. Maybe I should have known this because it's a gratin, but I didn't. 

The grocery store I shop at was sold out of fresh fennel. So I bought endives in place and seasoned like crazy with fennel seeds. Since I plan on making this again and again, I will use the fresh fennel when it's available. I felt this was a suitable substitute and I wasn't disappointed.

Besides those two things, this side dish was great and it was half eaten between two of us the night I cooked it, then gone by the next day. I can picture eating this with baked chicken or even a pork chop and then putting a salad on the side. 

This is a must make!  

First Challenge and Our Welcome to A Cuisine Adventure! Here is the List of February's Challenge

On this blog, you're a friend. And here, being friends means we have common interests. 

It's safe to assume that one easy thing to have in common with most people is a love for food. That's why we're here really...to talk about our love for food while doing weekly "challenges" to try new things. 

Here is the list of the weekly food challenges for February:

• Feb 1 - 7: Making a Chinese Dish
• Feb 8 - 14: Incorporate Chocolate in a Meal
• Feb 15 - 21: Try Cooking with Fennel
• Feb 22 - 28: Whip Up a Packed-With-Vitamins Salad

Your goal is to cook one meal per week for the chosen challenge that week. Really, this is simple. And it's a nice way to change things up in the kitchen. No one wants the food they serve to become boring and hear "sighs" when they tell their family what's for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Right?! 

This will be fun and could get quite interesting as we move forward with this. 

After you have made your dish, you can email us (click on the hyperlink below) or reply to the post for the monthly challenge to let us know you have a dish you want to add to the blog. 
The more responses, the better. 

Get planning!

Contact Information:
Click Here: A Cuisine Adventure 
Or copy and paste the email address in your message: acuisineadventure@gmail.com