Meal Prep - Turkey Patties & Roasted Veg

So last week I had cold sesame noodles, which were awesome, but with no meat in my lunches or breakfast, I was stuck having to shove my daily proteins into my snacks and dinner. That was really hard. I felt like I was eating nothing but meat at dinner. And that much meat on one's tummy late at night isn't always pretty. With that being said, I decided to do a traditional southern meat and two lunch. 

Don't get me started on how ground turkey is full of feces (look it up if you have no clue what I'm talking about). Have you ever been to a meat processing plant? They're gross. You really think that chicken is clean? I mean the FDA has a percentage for the amount of bug parts that can be in your peanut butter. Let's not pretend that ground turkey is the only gross product out there. I like ground turkey. It is versatile and can take a lot of flavor since it doesn't have much of its own. So I decided to make turkey patties, roasted green beans, and mashed cauliflower. I ended up roasting the cauliflower because I didn't have milk to cream it with and the idea of putting vanilla almond milk in there was gross. I roasted the head whole. Let's discuss. Here are the goods from the store. 

I bought a pound of green beans, a pound of ground turkey, a smaller head of cauliflower, and some shallots. I already had the parm, eggs, and minced garlic. I like that shallots give the onion flavor with out being overly oniony. Also, I tear up like my dog died when I cut onions and the shallot doesn't affect me as much, so I went with the shallot. I didn't use particular recipes for anything, I just used cooking knowledge I had and mixed several recipes together. First up the beans. 

All the recipes I found left the ends of the beans on. Uh I don't know about you, but I grew up cutting or snapping the ends off all my beans because they don't usually make for good eats. So I pulled out the gross beans, the tiny beans that would just burn, and then cut the ends off the chosen ones. I dumped them on a sheet pan lined with foil and then drizzled about a tablespoon of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) on them, some salt, some pepper, and at the last minute threw on some onion powder and garlic powder for some extra flavor. Also I learned something when doing this. I actually realized my EVOO bottle had two different little pour sides in the cap. One was wider for pouring and the other was narrow for drizzling. I honestly never noticed until this last Sunday. Anyway, I tossed them all together to make sure they were coated and popped them in a 425 oven for 20 minutes shaking the pan every 5-7 minutes or so.

       

See look! Pour side & drizzle side!

 

While these were off roasting, that's when I realized I didn't have milk and had to come up with plan B for my cauliflower. That's when I was like well, I guess I'll just roast it too, because steamed cauliflower is boring. Instead of taking the quick way and cutting it up and roasting, I decided to roast the whole head. While there was like no prep, it took me 45 minutes to cook the darn thing. It was okay though. It tasted good. All I did was cut the bottom off, rub it with a little EVOO, salt, and pepper, place it in my cast iron skillet, and cover it tightly with foil, and pop it in the 425 oven for 45 min. 

   
             

Raw

Cooked

Then while this was cooking I started on my turkey patty prep. I dumped the meat into a medium bowl, chopped up one shallot and dropped that in. Then I used about a 1/2 teaspoon of the minced garlic, maybe a little more, dumped in about 1/4 cup of the parm, and at the last minute threw in some dried parsley. It was more for looks than flavor. Finally, because turkey can have a hard time staying together, I cracked an egg in the bowl as a binder. I mixed all this up and divided it in to four patties. I have an awesome non-stick skillet that Santa brought me for Christmas, and even though it is non stick, I did drizzle a little EVOO in the pan for flavor and color. I cooked them over medium heat for about 7 minutes per side. DO NOT TRY AND SMOOSH THESE! Once you put them in the pan, leave them alone until you flip them! The more you mess with them, the more moisture you lose and they will be DRY! 

              

 

So you end up with 1/4 pound patties, which end up being about 210 calories each. I cut the Cauliflower head in to four and divided them up, and then I just created four equal stacks of the beans and put them in their little bowls. This has been really filling, really flavorful, and really enjoyable lunches. 5/5 to be honest. 

Ingredients: 

1lb Ground Turkey

1lb Green Beans

1 Small Head Cauliflower

1 Egg

1 Shallot (minced)

1/2tsp Minced Garlic

1/4 cup parm

Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder to taste

2TBS EVOO

1. Cut ends off green beans, place on foil lined baking sheet and toss in a drizzle of EVOO, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Roast at 425 for 20 minutes shaking every 5-7 minutes. 

2. Cut bottom off cauliflower, rub in EVOO, salt and pepper, place in cast iron skillet (or pan of choice) cover tightly with foil and roast at 425 for 45 minutes. 

3. In medium bowl combine turkey, shallot, garlic, parm, egg, salt and pepper if desired. Split in to four and pat out four 1/4 pound patties. Cook over medium heat 7 minutes per side (or until done). 

4. Plate in your meal prep containers, and store in fridge for up to five days. 

Nutrition Facts:

Total Calories: 377

Fat: 15.6g

Carbs: 29.7g

Fiber: 6.75g

Protein: 33.1g