One Turkey Breast - Three Meals

Up until last week, I was feeling very secure in my job, which is more than most can say in the current economy. Oregon is almost $800 million dollars in hole right now. The state has to cut corners somewhere - and that somewhere is looking like education. Investing in high quality teachers, modern technology, and mold-free building is really wasteful, come on, they are just kids. Kids are totally resilient. You can learn everything you need to know from TV anyway. Right. I digress. That is not really the topic of this blog.

Like most folks, we are being extra careful with our expenditures. I have been trying to bring down our grocery bill. This is a challenge because I love to cook and Justin loves to eat. Seriously, it is like he has a hollow leg for food storage!

I have been trying to live the talk and only buy humanely raised and butchered meat that has been vegetarian fed and is hormone free. This means we eat a lot of veggies, grains and beans. This week I stumbled upon turkey breasts on sale for $2.99 a pound! I bought a 7 pound breast, on the bone. The lovely butcher at New Seasons cut the meat off the bone to give me two large breast-meat pieces and a bone with just enough meat still on it for a huge pot of soup.

This gave us 3 dinners and 10 lunches. I feel like the budget queen. Turkey tortilla soup, turkey paprikash, and turkey pot pie. I even had about 6 cups of stock left over after making the soup. The best was the turkey pot pie was the winner of the week. I have never made pot pie before and had been warned that it was a pain in the arse. I am glad I tried it, it turned out great.

I only used a top crust to cut calories and I don't like soggy bottom crusts.
There are million pot pie recipes online. Here is one more.

Turkey Pot Pie
1 pie crust
olive oil
2 cups raw turkey breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion sliced
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 sweet potato diced (you can throw it in the microwave for 3 minutes so it will cook faster in the pan)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chile powder
A few grinds of black pepper
1 cup frozen green beans
1/2 frozen peas
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 lowfat milk
1 teaspoon dill
1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I used garlic dijon)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. In a large pan, heated over medium heat, add olive oil, onions, carrots, and spices. Saute until onions start to soften. Add turkey. Let the turkey brown. Add frozen veggies, mix together and take off the heat. Pour the mixture into an oven proof baking dish.
2. Stir cornstarch into a cup of the broth. Pour into a sauce pan and add the dill, mustard, (crushed garlic if you want), and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Pour sauce over mixture. Cover with the pie crust. Cut some holes in the pie crust to let steam escape.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and sauce is bubbling up through the holes in the crust.