Turkey and Veg Stew, Tuna Casserole

Turkey Sausage and Vegetable Stew. 

Peel the carrots (but not the potatoes!) and then chop all them veggies up and I went ahead and chopped up the sausage as well (or crumbled, I guess).

Heat about 1 tb. oil in a big pot. Add the sausage and brown (but not cook). I threw in some diced garlic as well.

Remove the sausage and add 1 Tb. of paprika. It will not look good at first! Just bear with me.

Then pour in 2 cups of water and about 1 cup of beef (or veggie or chicken...) broth. Add in the chopped veggies and put the sausage back in.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until veggies are cooked to desired tenderness. I top it with some herbed sour cream (sour cream blended with fresh parsely) with makes it all velvety. mmmmmmmmmm.

Tuna Casserole 


I made a simple bechamel sauce recipe that I found in Everday Food. You melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Saute 1/4 cup onions. Add 3 tablespoons of flour. It will look like this:

Then, you're supposed to cook this for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. It started to get brown on the edges at 4 minutes so I stopped and slowly added the 4 cups of milk (I used 1%) whisking the entire time. Bring this to a boil while still stirring frequently. Cook for 10 minutes. Don't underestimate this stage. It took FOREVER. This meal's prep time was defintiely near 45 minutes. The sauce should be pretty thick.

Ok. Now for the rest of the casserole. I had already boiled 1/2 bag of WW egg noodles. It also calls for a 2 cans of tuna (I used a pouch and a can since that's all I had), a can of green beans (drained) and bread crumbs. I got a little creative with the topping and it turned out fabulous. I used some old corn muffins in the freezer, thawed them and then threw them in the food processor until they were coarse crumbs. Melt some butter and combine with the crumbs. How much butter you need depends on how much crumbs you want. Add it 1 Tb at a time until the crumbs are moist but not wet and still crumble easily.

Combine the sauce, green beans, tuna, noodles and salt and pepper in a 2 qt oven safe casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until crumbs begin to brown.

Not the healthiest meal on the block but HOLY YUMMMM. I actually wasn't expecting it to be that good but it WAS! Here's to hoping for more great soups and casseroles very soon :)