“Courage is the Best Career Move”

“You must have strength to say no to the wrong things and embrace the right ones, even if you are the only one who seems to know the difference, even if you find the difference hard to calculate.” – Anna Quindlen in “Courage is the Best Career Move”

So, it’s official. Ian and I are no longer living in New York City. We have ended that chapter of our lives, which in turn means that we had to leave both of our first jobs out of college. It was a necessary and yet scary step into a new beginning for us. From the first day Ian and I began dating we had long conversations about moving out of the city, about career goals and life aspirations and how we would achieve them. Unfortunately, most of what we wanted could not be provided or obtained within the big city. Thankfully, in New York the end of an apartment lease usually means a re-evaluation of life in general – and we took our latest meeting with the leasing department as a sign that our time had come. The time came for us to leave the life we had become so accustomed to and move on. Leaving friends and co-workers has proved to be the hardest part of this journey…Ian and I love our “New York family” more than we know how to say.

Ian and friends doing a farewell shot at Korean BBQ dinner

So thanks to the help of many home cooked meals, trips to Costco and strip mall heaven, we have been making the transition into normal life fairly smoothly. I’ve tried to capture some of our exciting lives…forgive me for the lack of non-food photos…my iphone stopped taking photos (I dropped it:( ) so i’ve been relying on Ian’s phone. I would post real camera photos…but I packed the camera in a box. Smart move right?

My parent's new dogs! Wally and Happy - both rescue dogs!

Me and Wally!

Ian playing "fetch" with Wally - (Wally is still confused by this game)

Spinach Turkey burger over arugula salad (recipe to come)

Spaghetti Squash with tomato sauce and ground turkey

Fun finds at Costco - Star Wars bath set...guess who found that one??

Ok, off to continue reading Tina Fey’s “Bossypants.” If you haven’t read it, you should because she’s awesome.

Healthified Turkey Burgers

Happy Hump Day!

Things have been a little busy this week – so the writing has been a little slow.  I am naturally running behind this morning as well! But, I wanted to share this recipe for turkey burgers that I made last night for dinner.

cookin up the burgers

I read a little while ago in a Cooking Light magazine about The 22 Biggest Cooking Mistakes and how to avoid them.  I was curious to see what I might be doing wrong that I could change.

One thing I learned that stuck with me was “Trading ground turkey for beef in recipes to save fat.”  Ground Turkey has always been a go-to meat for me because it is SO EASY to cook with.  I learned that depending on the kind of turkey meat one buys it might not be saving me much in the fat department!

“A Quarter pound of regular ground turkey contains 3G sat fat. Compare that to only 2.5g in sirloin.”

When buying ground turkey make sure to look for LEAN and white meat if possible.  For awhile I bought one that was more mixed dark meat and found this has more fat. If you get the good kind of lean turkey it tends to have only half a gram of sat. fat. – which is a big time fat cutter!

So, here is the recipe I used for healthified turkey burgers:

Turkey Burgers: 

16 oz Ground Lean Turkey (1 pound)

1 Cup shredded spinach

Add whatever spices you want!

I added:

salt

pepper

garlic powder

Adobo mixed spice

chili powder

Mix up all together again in the bowl. I used my hands to really get it all sticking together.

Begin to form into balls – I made 6 of them.  Stuff the balls with pieces of cheese. I used 2 String Cheese sticks (jalapeno cheddar ones) all together.  I find that using String Cheese really helps with portions!

Put a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and cook up the burgers! They cook pretty fast – I didn’t time exactly but it was probably about 12 minutes…I always cut one in half toward the end to check.  You could also bbq these if you are lucky enough to have a bbq!

I put my turkey burger over a salad of spinach, tomato, 1/4c avocado, and garbanzo beans.  Dressing was a little olive oil and balsamic.

a big mess of a plate

 

on the side I also had a little roasted cauliflower, which I had cooked up more for Ian to have on the side.  He used two turkey patties and made himself a real burger 🙂

Alright, time to get to that work thing 😉

Have a good day!