Asian Lettuce Cups with Spicy Ground Turkey Filling

Asian Lettuce Cups with Spicy Ground Turkey Filling

Makes 4-6 servings

Recipe adapted from California Sol Food Casual Cooking from the Junior League of San Diego  (Food photography by Frankie Frankeny)

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil 
• 3 Tablespoons minced red onion or shallots
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic 
• 2 Tablespoons grated ginger root
• 1-1/2 lbs. ground turkey
• 4 Tablespoons soy sauce 
• 1 Tablespoons Sriracha sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/3 cup chopped peanuts
• 1 large head or 2 small heads Boston Lettuce or butter lettuce, or substitute 1 head iceberg lettuce

Directions:

1. Chop onion and set aside. 
2. Peel ginger root, then grate with the large side of a cheese grater.
3. Chop garlic 
4. Chop cilantro 
5. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, add onion and saute about 2 minutes
6. Add garlic and ginger root and saute about one minute more
7. Add ground turkey to frying pan and break apart
8. Add soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and fish sauce. 
9. Cook until the turkey is brown and crumbling apart, and the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
10. Add chopped cilantro and cook 1-2 minutes more
11. Serve filling in lettuce leaves
12. Chop peanuts and put in small bowl to serve on the side

California Sol Food celebrates the sunny climate of San Diego with simple, refreshing recipes that perfectly reflect the casual, surf’s-up lifestyle of America’s Finest City. In addition to 163 triple tested recipes, California Sol Food offers fabulous menus, great cooking tips, and 25 full-page food photographs by Frankie Frankeny, recently named one of The 100 Most Creative People in America by Entertainment Weekly Magazine.  A 2005 West Regional Winner of the Tabasco Community Cookbook Award.

Eat This, Not That! 2013

Do you know what’s really in your food?   No, we’re not talking about fat and calories. It turns out that America’s supermarket aisles are full of dangerous and downright disgusting ingredients that could be harming your health. 

Eat This, Not That! 2013

This 2013 book is a must-have for anyone who cares about their health and how their body looks.  A great book that teaches you can still have a life while making healthier decisions.

Check out the dirty details:  

Pink Slime in Beef - a mixture of waste meat and fatty parts from higher-quality cuts of beef that have had the fat mechanically removed. Afterward, it's treated with ammonia gas to kill salmonella and E. coli bacteria. Then it gets added to ground beef as a filler. 

Eat This Instead: Organic ground beef is safer.  The National Organic Program standards prohibit meat containing pink slime.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) - According to tests from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, may be contaminated with mercury.   Especially prevalent in processed foods.

Eat This Instead:   Buy HFCS-free versions of foods.

Moldy Berries & Rocket Fuel in Lettuce - The FDA legally allows up to 60 percent of canned or frozen blackberries and raspberries to contain mold. Canned fruit and vegetable juices are allowed to contain up to 15 percent mold, and most of California lettuce is contaminated with low levels of perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, perchlorate is found in the Colorado River which irrigates much of California's lettuce crops and can be taken up inside lettuce plants.  In a  separate study from the Environmental Working Group, perchlorate, which can harm thyroid function, is found in 50 percent of store-bought winter lettuce samples.  

Eat This Instead:   Buy Fresh!  Another reason to buy local and in season.  However, most fresh berries and fruits can be frozen at home for eating out of season.  

Baked Deviled Eggs

Food Writer's Favorites - Entrees - Quick & Easy Recipes

Baked Deviled Eggs

Recipe from Suzanne Hall, Food Editor, The Chattanooga Times, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Deviled eggs are traditional picnic fare, but in this recipe, shared by a Chattanooga cooking teacher, they get a classy touch for brunch or supper.  The eggs are good served over rice, toasted English muffins or waffles.  For a fancier dish, serve them in puff pastry shells.  However you serve them, they are quick, easy and tasty.

Serves 6 to 8

6 hard-cooked eggs
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons dairy sour cream
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup, undiluted
1/4 cup chopped pimento
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Peel eggs; cut in half, lengthwise.  Remove yolks; reserve whites.  

Mash yolks, blend in 3 tablespoons sour cream, mustard & salt.  Filled reserved egg whites with yolk mixture.  

Heat butter in a medium saucepan.  Add onion and bell pepper; saute' until tender.  Remove from heat.  Stir in mushroom soup, pimento and remaining 1 cup sour cream; mix well.

Pour half of the soup mixture into a shallow 1-1/2 quart baking dish.  Arrange filled eggs, cut-side up, in a single layer over the soup mixture.  Pour remaining soup mixture over eggs.  Top with cheese.  Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 20 minutes, or until heated through.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Serve over hot cooked rice, toasted English muffins halves, waffles or puff pastry shells.