Turkey Spinach Wraps

School Lunch Week

Day One

Turkey Spinach Wraps

This is our basic wrap in this family. Everyone likes it and it's so simple to make - great for those school lunches.

Ingredients:

Basil & Chive Cream Cheese (click for recipe)

Turkey Lunch Meat

Flour Tortillas - can use whole wheat

Baby Spinach Leaves

Tomatoes

Make the Basil & Chive Cream Cheese mixture.

Lightly spread it all over your tortillas with an offset spatula (you have enough cream cheese to make 4 to 5). Then place the turkey meat on one side of the tortilla. Place spinach and tomatoes on top of the meat.

Starting on the meat side, roll your tortilla into a tube. Slice in half on a diagonal and you're ready to eat!

This was for one of my kids that didn't like tomatoes.

However, I LOVE tomatoes on mine, so here it is.

I also decided to go for the whole wheat tortilla. Both are great, it just depends on your preference.

So simple...so good!

Pageant Turkey

Grill Week

Day 5

Pageant Turkey

I am from a small town in central Utah. Every year this town has a huge pageant telling the story of how our valley was settled and what brought the people there.

Along with the pageant, there is a dinner that people can purchase. As fas as I know, this dinner has always been the same thing - Pageant Turkey!

So today, you are getting the secret community recipe (well, not really secret) and believe me, you will love it!

I did realize that unless you live in a small community with a turkey plant in your midst, you probably will not be able to find turkey breasts. So, for this recipe I just used chicken.

Give it a try - you won't be disappointed.

Ingredients:

1 cup oil

1 cup soy sauce

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp horseradish sauce (optional)

2 cups Sprite

5 lbs turkey breast - cut into long strips about 1-1/2 inches wide

Mix all first 5 ingredients together to make a marinade. Place the turkey in the marinade and cover. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat your grill for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium/low and place turkey on the grill perpendicular to your grate. This will give you the nice grill lines on your turkey.

Cover and cook until the turkey is seared on the bottom and starting to cook up the sides.

Once it has cooked about 1/4 to 1/2 way up the side, flip the turkey.

Continue to cook until the turkey is done. It will feel firm to the touch - not soft (about 165 degrees if you want to do it that way). Hopefully, after you've cooked a few times, you'll be able to know when it's done by the way it feels.

Remove that turkey and put it on a plate - it's time to eat!

Chicken Enchiladas

My mother-in-law makes these. I don't think I'd ever had chicken enchiladas until I got married....at least not ones I'd made.

These are really easy and you can use up that leftover chicken (or turkey - I like to make them the day after Thanksgiving).

Ingredients

3 cups cooked chicken (cubed or shredded)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

1 small can diced chilies

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

flour tortillas

Place cooked chicken in a bowl.

In a small saucepan combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and diced chilies. Heat on stove until sauce starts to boil. If it is too thick, add a little milk. You want the sauce to be slightly runny.

Add 1 cup of the sauce to the cooked chicken. Stir to combine. Then place some sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Add just enough to coat the bottom - we don't want the enchiladas to burn or stick.

Now we'll assemble all the pieces...have the chicken in one bowl, the cheese in another, and the tortillas in a stack. Place some chicken on the tortilla, then add cheese, then roll it up.

Once you have a nice little log, place it in your pan. Continue this process until you are all out of chicken, cheese, or tortillas. You can vary the amounts of each ingredient depending on how many tortillas you have. You can have a lot of skinny enchiladas, or a few thick ones - it's up to you.

Once you have a pan full of enchiladas (and I like to fill my pan all the way up - even on the sides) then you pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Spread it out to evenly coat the top.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top - you can even shred a little extra if you want.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Turkey

This recipe is a combination Martha Stewart - Alton Brown. It has Martha's seasoning method with Alton's cooking method. I've made a turkey like this for the past 5 years, and it's always gone well for me!

Ingredients:

13 to 16 lb. turkey

1/4 to 1/2 cup Canola oil

1/2 cube butter - softened

1 tsp. salt

2 cloves chopped garlic - optional

2 tsp. dry sage or 2 Tb. fresh chopped sage

1 onion

2 celery stalks- optional

Fresh sage leaves - 2 sprigs

tin foil

Place frozen turkey in fridge 3 to 4 days in advance of Thanksgiving. You should allow 5 hours per pound for your turkey to thaw in the fridge.

On Thanksgiving morning, unwrap your turkey. Remove the giblets and rinse your bird. Pat dry with paper towels. Place your bird in a shallow roasting pan. Tuck the wings under the front of the bird. This keeps them from getting burnt.

Create a tinfoil tent for the turkey breast. To do this, take a strip of tinfoil and fold it in half. Shape it to exactly match the contours of the turkey breast. Press it down on the bird and fold in the edges to get the exact shape. Remove the tinfoil tent and set aside.

Cut onion in half. Cut celery into 3 inch sections, and rinse and dry sage leaves. Place all three into the cavity of the turkey.

In a bowl, combine the butter, sage and salt. This year I added garlic and it turned out well, so go ahead and add that too if you want.

Rub this mixture between the skin and the breast of the bird. You'll probably have to reach in there with a hand first and separate the skin from the breast. Once you've done that, you can go ahead and fill it up with buttery goodness. This will really flavor your meat.

Once you've filled it with as much butter as possible, take the remaining butter on your hands and wipe it on the outside of the bird. Once all your butter is gone, take some oil and continue to lightly rub the bird until all of the skin is lightly coated in oil. It may take 1/4 cup, it may not. You decide.

This is what it will look like as you place it on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake the turkey in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. This will give it a golden brown texture on the top - thanks to all that butter and oil.

Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Place the tinfoil tent over the breast of the bird and continue to bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours for a 14 lb. bird.

Remove the bird from the oven when the thickest part of the breast is 161 degrees. I did a 23 pound bird this year, and it took about 3 hours and 45 minutes to bake.

The tinfoil tent keeps the breast from drying out. It did slide mine up a bit for the last hour of baking just so the bottom of the breast could get more golden.

Once your turkey is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

Place it on a platter for all to see.

Then, pull out that carving knife and go at it!

Everyone is waiting to eat that turkey, and believe me they won't be disappointed!