turkey – Page 2 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

Triple Salad

Posted on July 11, 2013 by LFFL

Fried Chicken Salad with lettuce topped with strips of fried chicken, tomatoes, cheese, green onion, and homemade croutons with Ranch dressing.

I was on a salad kick the last 3 days at the diner. And even though I got them all to-go each day, these were rare moments that I did NOT set the car up like a dining table for the drive home.

I figured it’d be a big mess if I dared try eating a salad while driving. Plus you can’t really smell a salad wafting through a car like you would, say, a hamburger. So the temptation wasn’t as great.

Cobb Salad with lettuce topped with grilled chicken, bleu cheese, tomato, bacon, red onion, cheddar cheese, and hard-boiled eggs with Ranch dressing.

And every time I called my order in ahead of time, they would ask if I wanted the ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ portion. Why is this even a question??? HELLO, it’s ME! You knew who I was when I said my name.

Isn’t dinner bigger? DINNER, PLEASE!! Let’s wake up over there, people!!! In what world do I want the smaller size?

Chef Salad with lettuce topped with turkey, egg, cheese, green onion, tomatoes, and homemade croutons with Ranch dressing.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try out different salad varieties at your favorite restaurant—and make sure it’s the dinner-sized portion.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Dinner sizes are bigger than lunch sizes—enough said. Now back to meat and potatoes.

Out Of Turkey They Say

Posted on June 25, 2013 by LFFL

Turkey Melt sandwich with sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, bacon, and sourdough bread.

Around 4:00pm yesterday, I phone-in a to-go/take-away order from my local hometown diner—“a turkey melt sandwich,” I say. Well, no such luck. They’ve been outta turkey all day! I guess the lunch rush earlier sucked for them since they couldn’t make most of their sandwiches or salads because their turkey was missing.

Well, the no-turkey-thing threw me for a loop. I didn’t have a backup plan and was freaking out—umm, umm, umm. I mean, how hard is it to just order something else? After about 10 ‘umms,’ I hurriedly tell them to just get me a tuna croissant instead. Yeah, they had tuna. Phew.

The guy taking my order asks if I want my ‘usual Monday bread pudding.’ (Man, they know me all too well.) But I clearly tell him ‘NO, not this time—just the sandwich.’ (I’ve no clue why I said NO, but I did.)

When I get to the diner right after 4:00—LOW AND BEHOLD—they get lashings of turkey coming through the back door. Yay! The guy that took my order rushes to the front line to halt the tuna order and they make my turkey melt instead.

I pay, he packs my to-go sack—and WHY does he give me a FREE BREAD PUDDING anyway?!! ROCK ON, DUDE! It was already made and sitting there when I walked in the door, but I thought it was for someone else. They just LOOOVVVE me there!! I go there way too much. Such are the perks of being a ‘regular’ customer—(and I’m really nice to them, too).

When I get to the car, I set everything up dining-table-style before pulling off. I open the box with my turkey melt inside and I’m sooooo disappointed. I hate when it doesn’t look like anything special. I mean, just LOOK AT IT! It wasn’t pimped out even a little like I thought it’d be.

I really could have made that puny sandwich much cheaper at home myself within 30 seconds. BUT—the free bread pudding made up for it. Clearly, I should have stuck with my 2nd option of the tuna croissant—which I happened to order today! See how much better it looks?

Tuna Croissant—tuna salad on a croissant.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, find a favorite diner you love, order up some good food, show your face on a regular, and get to know the workers. Call the servers by name, tell them yours, and tip well. They’re usually more than happy to bend over backwards for you. Always ‘get in good’ with them. You never know what kind of perks will come out of it.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Apparently, some sandwiches you should just make at home yourself.

Lovin' A Pimped-Out Sandwich

Posted on May 23, 2013 by LFFL

Made with 15-grain bread, sliced turkey, sliced Virginia ham, Swiss cheese, butter, eggs, milk, salt & pepper, and topped with confectioner’s sugar.

I, for one, love a well-made sandwich with a side of sour cream & onion potato chips. It was a little bit of work to make this Monte Cristo Sandwich, but it was worth it. I used 15-grain bread for my tasty sandwich, though, instead of white bread—and it was just as delicious.

I had doubts at first about sprinkling the confectioner’s sugar on top (I thought it would mess it up as far as the taste goes—sugar with turkey?)—but it was actually right on time! The touch of sweetness with the sandwich was perfection. Who knew?

Recipe for—Monte Cristo Sandwich

Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Made with 15-grain bread, Thousand Island salad dressing, sliced turkey, Swiss cheese; topped with angel hair coleslaw mixed with butter, white vinegar, sugar, and salt & pepper.

Boy, now this here Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich was DELISH! I think the Thousand Island salad dressing is partly what set this off in the mouth. ‘Yum Yum’ is all I can say. Again, I used 15-grain bread instead of the rye bread. I’m not too fond of rye.

I’m also not a coleslaw person, but the coleslaw together with the salad dressing made this sandwich divine. I ate at least 3 of these sandwiches that day—with two of them being eaten back-to-back.

And I absolutely love, love, love my panini maker. I love the grill marks it gives to sandwiches—and, frankly, it’s just fun to use and press things inside it. I love warming and making sandwiches with the panini press. You should get one, too.

Recipe for—Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Ham, Gruyere, & Apple Panini Sandwich — Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich

Made with 15-grain bread, Black Forest smoked ham, Granny Smith apples, butter, fresh thyme, shredded Gruyère cheese, and whole grain mustard.

I was, at first, concerned with putting the apples onto this Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich—but it actually turned out ok. I’ve just never done the fruit thing on a sandwich before so I was having second thoughts.

But, we all know I like trying new things out—you only live once. Glad I did. It was a new and different experience for me. Once again—I used 15-grain bread instead of the white bread that the recipe calls for.

Recipe for—Ham, Gruyère, & Apple Panini Sandwich

This is just your basic homemade Turkey Sandwich with toppings I threw together myself.

Whole grain 15-grain bread
Oven roasted turkey
Co-jack cheese
Tomatoes
Romaine lettuce
Mayonnaise
Mustard

Eaten with a side of red grapes, sweet potato tortilla chips, barbecue potato chips, and organic strawberry lemonade. Mmm, hmm, yeah.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, throw together a homemade sandwich for yourself and pimp it out with all your favorite delicious toppings and sit back and enjoy that bad boy! Or better yet, try a new sandwich recipe you’ve never had before. You’re missing out on so much yummy goodness.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Invest in a panini press/maker. It makes your sandwiches look beautifully and taste crunchy scrumptious.

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Homemade Spaghetti

Posted on May 6, 2013 by LFFL

When I’m in the mood, I just love cooking in the kitchen. And it just so happened to be a spaghetti day. I didn’t really have a recipe to follow on this one—I just kind of put together anything I wanted to inside the pot. It’s my dinner, after all. Needless to say, it turned out just fine—a big batch of homemade goodness to last the next few days.

Ingredients I tossed together:

Organic durum wheat Capellini noodles
Ground turkey breast
Vidalia onions
Green bell peppers
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Tomato Basil pasta sauce

I try to get most of my ingredients fresh from the City Market as a first resort and the Whole Foods Market health food store as a second resort. The farmers only bring and sell a limited variety from the farm, you know.

But you can’t get much fresher than getting your vegetables from farmers who just plucked them from the ground a few hours earlier. I just LOVE it! Healthy, fresh, ripe vegetables are the best and make your dinner taste so divine, dahling.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try making your own spaghetti dinner without a recipe and just toss together any and everything you want to into the pot. It’s your spaghetti dinner, after all, so who cares?

Take-Away Life Lesson: When you use fresh produce just plucked from the ground, your dinner tastes so much better and fresher than using store-bought produce that had to travel country miles and sit a few days just to get to the local grocery store where you are. Eww. You deserve better.