I’m sure you all have a go-to recipe to use up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. My mom always made turkey and dumplings, so when it came to using up the bird in my fridge, that’s what I immediately thought of. However, my mom’s recipe was pretty bare bones and calorific, if I remember correctly: no veggies, just turkey in a creamy sauce with carblicious dumplings on top. And she always baked it, it was never a stove-top deal like a lot of chicken/turkey and dumpling recipes I’ve seen.
I think you know what I’m getting at here… I made my own healthy, skillet baked turkey and dumplings tonight.
Skillet Baked Turkey and Whole Wheat Dumplings
serves 4
1 1/2 cups chopped/shredded leftover cooked turkey
1/4 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (approx. 1 clove)
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour*
2 cups warmed vegetable/chicken broth*
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
Dumplings:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup lowfat buttermilk (2/3 cup 2% milk + 2 teaspoons white vinegar)
Preheat over to 325 degrees. Spray a 10 inch cast iron skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium. Add onion, celery and garlic; stir. Add in chopped carrot, cooking all veggies together for about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the 2 Tablespoons of flour to the pan, stirring to coat the vegetables with it.* Slowly add heated broth, stirring to combine. Bring up to a simmer and reduce heat to medium low; add turkey. Season with sage, cayenne, salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
In a mixing bowl, combine sifted whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the buttermilk using a fork until combined. Drop by the spoonful on to turkey and veggie mixture; I prefer large globular dumplings, so my spoonfuls were about 2-3 Tablespoons big. If you like small dumplings, by all means please drop smaller spoonfuls!
Cover the cast iron skillet with foil and place in preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes, removing the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
*I used up my remaining gravy by mixing it in with the vegetable broth. It was only about 1/4 cup of gravy to 1 3/4 cups broth, but it most likely helped to thicken the dumpling sauce even more. If you are NOT adding any gravy to your recipe, try adding another teaspoon or two of flour to the pan to achieve results similar to mine.
I’ll admit to taking it easy over the extended holiday weekend. We had some fairly good weather, though, so I made sure to take a walk or two. And I did a quick ab workout here and there. But tomorrow, it’s back to business as usual on the workout front. Here’s the workout schedule I aim for each week lately:
Monday:
WARM UP: Stair Master – 10 minutes
Elliptical – 20 minutes
Strength Workout (using various weight machines at gym) – 20-30 minutes
COOL DOWN: Plank (1 minute) and stretching
Tuesday:
Treadmill Intervals – 20-30 minutes
Ab workout – 3-10 minutes
Wednesday:
Circuit Workout (using free weights/body weight at home) – 20-30 minutes
Thursday:
Treadmill Intervals – 20-30 minutes
Ab workout – 3-10 minutes
Friday:
Elliptical – 30 minutes using varied incline and resistance
Strength Workout (using weight machines at gym) – 20-30 minutes
COOL DOWN: Plank (1 minute) and stretching
Saturday:
Yoga – 20-40 minutes
OR
Circuit Workout (using free weights/body weight at home) – 20-30 minutes
OR
Ab workout – 10-15 minutes
Sunday:
Off
Since this is a safe space, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I usually miss one of the scheduled workouts. It’s usually Wednesday, too. I haven’t quite figured out why as Wednesday is never a very crazy day at work and the workout itself isn’t anything out of the ordinary. I can do it at home for Christ’s sake! I have no idea why I poop out on Wednesdays, but I’m going to make a very conscious effort not to this week. What day do you find hardest to stick to your workout plan?
One thing I’ve got going for me this week is a new workout playlist… maybe these tunes can get me past my hump day slump.
