Linguine with Turkey Meatballs and Quick Sauce

I've sat down twice to blog about the linguine with turkey meatballs and quick sauce recipe from Everyday Pasta, which I cannot find online in an official form (it's on page 177-- buy it!). The trick to the recipe is that Giada throws all kinds of flavorful bits in with the turkey in the meatballs to pump up the bland flavor, including pancetta, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese, which makes it perfect for someone who is turkey ambivalent like me. Since we're counting calories these days, I cut out the first installment of EVOO down to 2 tablespoons, and then reused the leftover oil for the quick sauce without adding more. I also cut the cheese in half-- this I might recommend even if you're not counting calories, because the cheese has the tendency to burn and stick to the pan in the oven. Finally, I cut down on the amount of linguine and used whole wheat; unless you're making your own linguine, the sauce is the yummy part and doesn't need an excessive amount of pasta.

Orange and Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs

How do I explain these bizarre bundles? You create a veggie tower of shitake mushrooms and scallions, layer on a chicken thigh (recipe calls for bone-in, I used boneless and baked for less) and smush. Amazingly, they stay together! You then top off with the orange-soy sauce. The sauce is delicious (sweet, salty, sour), but be warned... do not let it sit. It will thicken quickly. I would recommend assembling the sauce ingredients, but not starting to cook it until the chicken is ready and out of the oven.

Turkey and Quinoa Meatloaf

I said no tofu... I didn't promise no quinoa!

If you want meatloaf, you should eat this meatloaf. If you want meatloaf but have been forced to banish unhealthy deliciousness from your diet, try this. It's spicy! It's sweet! It's still turkey, but you can deal. The friend who passed along the recipe suggested replacing the 1 teaspoon of water with about a tablespoon of tomato paste. According to livestrong, if you divide it into 10 slices, it's 114 calories a slice. So have a few slices :)

Baked Cod and Chorizo

All right, so the recipes from here on it are going to get a teeny tiny bit healthier-- less red meat, less fat, more veggies, more spices. No tofu.

The smart thing about this Spanish-style baked cod and chorizo recipe is that it uses a very small amount of chorizo, which is super flavorful but has a lot of fat, and makes the flavor go a long way. Meanwhile, there is a lot of lean protein in the cod and just enough potatoes to fill you up without overdoing it on carbs. Watch out for cooking the chorizo-- I found that mine cooked much faster than expected. On my burner, at least, I'll stick with medium heat.

Bizarrely, my husband said this was good the next day. I'm afraid of leftover fish, so I kind of don't believe him.

Butter Chicken

I don't know why, but I'm kind of embarrassed about the success of this recipe. Partly because it's from Pioneer Woman, partly because it's called "butter chicken" and partly because of the large amount of cream it contains. I've been wanting to make Indian food at home, and even though the tandoori chicken I made was a success, I'm still gun shy from my Jamie Oliver curry failure and wanted to try something easy. Well, this was definitely easy and, as the multitude of commenters noted, delicious. I didn't end up marinating the chicken overnight; I don't imagine there would be a huge taste difference, but starting with cut-up marinated chicken would definitely be a time-saver on a weeknight. As commenters noted, this does make a huge amount of sauce, so next time I would halve the tomato sauce and halve the cream (and use light cream or half and half instead). I think the reduction of the liquids will also intensify the spice flavors and make this less American-ized.