Roasted Pepper Coulis over Broiled Chicken & Fusilli

There was a tough crowd in my house tonight. In an effort to get more veggies in our diets, I took stock of what was in the refrigerator. A fiery red bell pepper and gleaming yellow bell pepper caught my eye. Off to the cookbooks and Google I went.  I decided to make pepper coulis and serve it over broiled chicken and fusilli pasta. This was really a plan within a plan, since I thought I could introduce the plain chicken and pasta to the kids and slowly add some of the coulis to get them to try it.  I went balls out with my husband - spooning a hefty amount of the sauce over the chicken.  I was in love at first bite. I was so proud of my first coulis. Then I looked over at my biggest child - my husband. He was poking the chicken with his fork, a skeptical look on his face. He delicately licked sauce off one fork tine. Then made a face. "What is this?" he asked, pushing the chicken around the plate. I slowly and carefully explained how I made the pepper sauce. Then he decided it was the chicken he didn't like and ate the sauce over the fusilli. The baby tried a tiny, tiny bit over her pasta and seemed to like it. My son went nowhere near it, but at least he ate the pasta. Anyhow, I highly recommend this recipe, which I pieced together from different recipes I researched. Enjoy!

Roasted Pepper Coulis
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar
1 TSP Sea Salt
1 TSP  Freshly Ground Pepper
1/4 cup of veggie or chicken stock

Heat oven to 450F.  Clean and rough chop peppers. Combine peppers in a roasting pan or Corningware with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and pepper. Roast in oven until fork tender, around 20 minutes. Check peppers at the 10 minute mark and mix them around in the pan. Remove when done and allow to cool for five minutes. Remove peppers from pan and add to blender. Add the oil from the roasting pan to blender. Add 1/4 cup of stock to blender. On low, blend on the slowest setting. Once it starts combining, change method on blender to puree. Serve over chicken and pasta.

Wild and Crazy Confetti Turkey Burger

Like every family, mine gets bored with the same meals over and over.  Within the last year, we've adapted to having ground turkey as part of our diets, mainly in the form of turkey chili.  I decided we needed a change, so I started trying to find a healthy and tasty recipe for ground turkey. As I flipped through Rachael Ray's Cooking 'Round the Clock Cookbook, I found the recipe for Urban Cowboy Burgers.  I had to make some adjustments to make it more palatable for my family.  This is a great recipe for anyone doing a low carb diet - just omit the bun. Anyhow, here is the recipe for the burger. Give it a shot and see what you think.

Jaime's Wild and Crazy Confetti Turkey Burger (makes 4)
1 1/3 pounds ground turkey
8 slices of turkey bacon
1 package or separately purchased(1) each green,yellow & red peppers(small)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 TBSP parsley
2 TBSP thyme
2 TSP ground cumin
2 TSP Frank's Hot Sauce
2 TSP Montreal Steak Seasoning(McCormick) or any grill seasoning
2 -3 TBSP olive oil (to coat pan)
1 slice of American cheese per burger (optional)
1 toasted Kaiser roll per burger (optional)

Seed and chop peppers(only half of each small pepper). Chop garlic. Cook bacon and when done, remove from pan and set aside. Coat pan with olive oil or prepare grill.  Combine peppers, garlic and spices with turkey.  Separate into four burgers. Cook until meat is done. Place cheese slices on each burger and allow to melt. Remove burgers and place on buns.Voila!