Need Recipes for Ground Turkey

Anything you make ground beef with, you can substitute turkey with. I do it all the time.

mix it 50/50 with cheap ground beef add an egg and a cup of Italian bread crumbs, sprinkle in some garlic powder and onion powder, salt and pepper, and bake it at 350 till done, and you got yourself a meat loaf, you're welcome, ha ha

We make turkey meatballs or burgers. I put onion, salt+pepper, garlic, cumin, fresh parsley, and fresh thyme or cilantro into the food processor and chop that up. Add it to the ground turkey with an egg and then make little balls or patties and cook it over medium heat in a little coconut oil. Serve it with fresh green beans, sweet potatoes. If you have more calories available and want to make it Mediterranean, you can do hummus, a few olives, tzatziki or labneh, tomatoes and cucumbers, and part of a whole wheat pita.

I agreed with using it anywhere you would normally use ground beef. My mom uses it in spaghetti sauce. I use it for taco meat. My family is so accustom to it that way that when I used ground beef, they didn’t like it.

On the web there are lots of recipes for stuffed peppers that use ground turkey. Some use bell peppers - green or colored. I even saw one that used poblano peppers that I want to try. I live in the southwestern U.S. so a lot of these ingredients are plentiful year round which I know is not the case in other areas. Just pick a recipe that sounds yummy, the ingredients appeal you, and it fits your calorie budget. Adding extra veggies to the stuffing and foregoing or limiting the amount of rice will help to keep the calorie count lower.

Turkey Chili:

Ingredients:
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 + pound package of lean ground turkey meat
• 1/2 cup each - chopped carrot, celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and finely diced onion plus 1 clove garlic chopped
• 1 can black beans (low sodium just as good)
• 1 can small red beans (low sodium just as good)
• 1 large can or 2 small cans diced tomatoes (yes, low sodium is fine as an option)
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1-2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• a few dashes of Worcestershire
• a few dashes of hot sauce (if you have it)
• Salt - scant
• 1 tsp. black pepper

Step 1:
Heat 1 TBSP olive oil in sauté pan (have stock pot handy) - add all of the chopped veggies (carrot/celery/peppers/onion/garlic)
Sweat veggies until they begin to soften over medium/low heat- approx. 10min
Remove veggies to stock pot, or crock pot

Step 2:
Heat 1 TBSP oil in sauté pan and cook turkey (I sometimes add a little water; it helps to break the meat down).
Once turkey is cooked add that to veggies in stock/crock pot - and turn heat on medium

Step 3:
Add cans of tomatoes and all of the seasonings
If it seems too thick - add about 1/2 cup of water - you want it a little watery as it will cook down for several hours in total

Step 4:
About an hour into cooking add the black and kidney beans (drained and rinsed) and continue cooking the chili for another hour-2 hours.

I've used ground turkey for chili, spaghetti, and fajitas/tacos. It usually is about 93% fat free, so having some sort of sauce helps keep it from tasting too dry.

I ain't picky so this is just thrown together but I eat rice, ground turkey, pasta sauce and boiled spinach.

It's also good with scrambled eggs or you could make meatloaf or turkey burgers.

I use ground turkey for my stuffed peppers- it’s a staple around my house because my kids love it too! Many things that use ground beef could be substituted. I wouldn’t substitute in a meatloaf (personal preference), but could easily do so for things that carry other flavors- chili, spaghetti sauce, etc.