After cooking a variety of foods that I had never had before, for the final I decided to bring it back home with a theme that I have quite a bit of experience with. Having spent my entire life in Minnesota, I decided it would be a fun idea to develop a theme around a very Minnesotan meal. I wanted to try and make familiar recipes, but make them in a healthier way that I hadn't tried before. Tater Tot Hot Dish was a no-brainer. It's long been one of my favorite recipes at home, but I decided to make it this time based off a turkey based recipe that also incorporated a full bag of frozen vegetables as well as reduced fat soups. I was skeptical that it would taste as good as what I grew up on, but decided to give it a whirl. The second option was easy too, Green Bean Casserole. Another classic Midwestern dish for family gatherings, I took on a recipe using more fresh ingredients with other low fat alternatives within the recipe. Finally, it was time to figure out a desert. I decided to go with oatmeal raisin cookies. It was hard for me to come up with a classic Midwestern recipe that isn't some form of cake or cobbler because I wanted a lighter tasting dessert that I could include some whole grains in. I ended on the oatmeal raisin cookie because I think if you were to ask 1,000 people what kind of cookie a Minnesotan would be, oatmeal raisin would be right up there.
I ended up needing quite a few ingredients for the recipes. For the hot dish, things I didn't have included the ground turkey, mixed vegetables, french fried onions, and low fat soups. I decided to substitute in almond milk instead of fat free milk because I don't typically buy dairy milk anymore. For the casserole I needed fresh green beans, bread crumbs, fat-free half and half, and nutmeg. Lastly, for the cookies since I had already stocked up on a good amount of baking supplies, I only needed to pickup whole wheat oats and raisins. All of these ingredients I found at either Target or Cub.
-1-pound ground turkey (the recipe
also includes 90% hamburger but I’m just going to use more turkey instead)
-1 package (16 ounces) frozen mixed
vegetables, thawed and drained
-3/4 cup french-fried onions
-1 can (10-3/4 ounces) reduced-fat
condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
-1 can (10-3/4 ounces) reduced-fat
condensed cream of chicken soup -1/2 cup fat-free milk
-4 cups frozen Tater Tots, thawed
-1 small onion, chopped
The hot dish was a very easy recipe to make. I started by cooking the turkey and added in some minced onions, rosemary, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes for flavor and spice. When this was done, I layered it at the bottom of my pan. I then put the thawed mixed vegetables over the top, followed by the french fried onions. Lastly, I misted my almond milk and soups together to create the "sauce" that covered the top. I topped off the casserole with my tater tots and lightly sprinkled some shredded cheese over the top. I cooked this at 350 for roughly an hour. This one turned out great, and while it's still not the healthiest option with the amount of starch, as well as the cheese and soups still having some fat in them. That being said this is a far healthier option compared to a more traditional recipe because you cut down a lot of fat with the protein since I was using 99% lean turkey. It also packs in quite a good serving of vegetables so as a whole I think it's a viable alternative.
The Casserole:https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/best-ever-green-bean-casserole-recipe-1950575
For Toppings
-2 medium onions, thinly sliced
-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
-2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
-1 teaspoon kosher salt
-Nonstick cooking spray
For Beans and Sauce
-2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
kosher salt, divided
-1-pound fresh green beans, rinsed,
trimmed and halved
-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
-2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
-1 cup chicken broth
-1 cup half-and-half
Next up was the Green Bean Casserole. This recipe was very new for me, but I really liked the fact that it included home made french fried onions and also used fresh green beans which I typically don't have in my casserole. I started by mixing some of the flour in with the onions and a little salt to create this strange dry rub esque mix that I spread out on a pan and cooked in the oven for 30 minutes. In the mean time, the recipe called to blanch the green beans for 5 minute which made me feel really smart because I would have had no idea what that was before the class. Next I heated up my butter and added my garlic to it. After they had been cooking for a few minutes I added in the half and half and 1/4 cup of flour which created this very soupy mixture. Eventually it started to solidify a little more so I was able to add in the chicken broth. I was a little nervous that it would stay too liquidy, but the half and half really starts to thicken up over the process. With the onions in the oven finished, I added the sauce mix into my glass cooking pan and added about half of the onions to them. Next I added in the green beans and the casserole started to take shape. I finished by placing the rest of the onion and flour mix on top of the casserole and put it in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes.
When it came out of the oven, I was pretty surprised. While it was still a little more soupy than I was used to, probably because I've been used to using cream of mushroom soup rather than chicken broth and half and half, but it still turned out better than I had expected. When I began mixing the flour and onions originally, I thought there was no way it would turn out as good as store bought french fried onions, but I was quite surprised at how well it turned out. In terms of the nutritional value of this meal, I think it's miles ahead of the other recipes I've had before. All of the vegetables included in the recipe were fresh and the low fat half and half along with chicken broth is surely more healthy than cream of mushroom. This is a recipe I'll definitely revisit in the future.
The Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: https://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-raisin-cookies-35813
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking
soda
-1 teaspoon baking
powder
-1 teaspoon kosher
salt
-1 cup unsalted
butter
-1 cup sugar
-1 cup brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 teaspoons
vanilla
-3 cups oats
-1 ½ cup raisins
I was super excited to try out these cookies because I haven't actually made oatmeal raisin cookies before. The recipe follows pretty much every recipe you've seen for baking cookies, but they still turned out great and the whole grain oats were delicious. To start the recipe I mixed my flour with low sodium baking powder and a teaspoon of baking soda. In a separate bowl I mixed a cup of brown sugar, sugar, and softened unsalted butter with 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I whisked this until there were no chunks and added my flour mix to it. Something the recipe mentioned was to avoid overstirring so I only waited until I no longer saw the flour and stopped. Next I added in my oats and raisins and mixed until it was evenly distributed. About 20 minutes in the oven later I had 6 massive cookies that looked awesome.
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