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We Love Turkey… Don’t You?

By on December 11, 2013

We took a really good look at the health benefits of turkey recently and we feel the need to boast more about this delicious food. In fact, some of our team are now so excited for Christmas Day, just so she can play around with the turkey leftovers and try some of the recipes that we have talked about. We can’t work out if she is optimistic… or sad?

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Either way, we feel the need to show you some of the great swaps that you can make to make full use of the lean, low-calorie, low-fat, high-protein meat. Let’s make the switch – are you ready for more turkey?

Turkey Carbonara

We love ham and bacon and all sorts of pink meat in our carbonara. We have been known to throw chicken in with gammon and bacon, added full-fat cream, thrown wine in… Let’s just say that we have been very bad when it comes to spicing up our carbonara. It’s a pretty calorific meal if you aren’t careful but thankfully, we’ve found a few days to reduce the calorie content down a bit for you… without having to sacrifice any of the taste!

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You’ll obviously need the pasta, turkey bits, bacon (or low-fat ham), button mushrooms, parmesan cheese, 300ml of low-fat yogurt, 150ml fromage frais, salt & pepper and a chopped onion. You can throw some garlic in there too if you wanted!

Making the meal is easy – put the onions, garlic and oil in a pan, let them sizzle for a bit and then add the turkey. Cook the pasta as you normally would and make the sauce by heating the salt and pepper, fromage frais, low-fat yogurt and garlic in a saucepan. Throw the cheese of choice in there and grate some extra for the topping and if you are feeling really adventurous, you could even have a bash at making your own garlic bread. This meal is delicious and we guarantee that you will love it. We made extra and even ate it cold for lunch the next day – it’s that universal.

A large (ish) portion of this contains just 500 calories, 50g protein and a good helping of fibre too! What’s not to love?

Sticking with the Italian theme, we bring to you another healthy favourite:

Turkey Lasagne

You make this as you would any other normal lasagne but with this one, you substitute the beef mince for turkey mince. Get yourself some fresh tomatoes in there and you have your daily portion of “super foods” and homemade, whole-wheat garlic bread can be thrown in for just 600 calories per portion. There’s a whopping 60g+ in this dish too so you know you are doing your cells a favour!

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You could add cous cous to grilled turkey done on the lean grilling machine you undoubtedly have in your kitchen – throw some asparagus on the side, or even some spinach for another “super food” boost, and you have one of the easiest dishes out there. There are hundreds of dishes just as simple as these too. Just have a think about anything that you can make with meat and you can do the same thing with turkey. Bolognese – use turkey mine. Sausages – make your own with turkey mince. You could also use the mince for burgers. Chunks of turkey, or even strips of turkey, can be covered in breadcrumbs or a healthy homemade batter and air-fried for tasty goujons, nuggets, crispy-style patties… It’s up to you – the possibilities are endless. Marinate it, stuff it, mint it, morccan it, mini pizza it, Irish it, roast it, stew it, pie it… Literally – the possibilities are endless!

For now, why not have a look around some of the other diet and weight loss articles regarding Christmas? We can help you to fight against Christmas weight gain this year. We’re giving it a shot – why don’t you join in on the fun?

 

**Pictures sourced from Herinterest.com