Everyday Dinners... Turkey Quinoa Enchilada Bake

It's time for another EVERYDAY DINNERS, this week I'm sharing a Turkey Quinoa Enchilada Bake. This one could take a full hour if you didn't do any prep work. Like I mentioned here, I make big batches of quinoa and rice ahead of time and since we were having Nachos a couple of nights before I went ahead and browned my turkey. The only thing I had to saute that night was the corn and peppers, although that could have been done ahead of time as well, the rest was layering and baking with a little shredding. I always buy blocks of cheese instead of shredded. I do this for two reasons, first the price difference for the amount it ridiculous, I'm all for getting a little work out and saving some cash. The second reason is that fact that shredded cheeses are coated with something so that they don't stick together. I don't think they melt a well as freshly shredded cheese, maybe its all in my head but I'll stick with my big blocks of cheese.

This is another one of those recipes where I make way too much so that we have lunches for the next couple of days. I fed all 4 of us dinner, and my husband has seconds, plus we have three lunch portions ready in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll make a big pot of Spicy Peanut Noodles and toss in some steamed veggies for the remainder of the weeks lunches.

Turkey Quinoa Enchilada Bake

Serves 6-8

8 cups cooked quinoa (that's 2 cups uncooked)

½ cup salsa (I've adapted Pioneer Woman's recipe for my own liking)

approximately 1.5 lbs of ground turkey

2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning (Iseriously recommend making your own)

1 16 oz packed of frozen corn kernels, thawed

1 bell pepper, diced

½ can sliced black olives* (optional)

1 10 oz can enchilada sauce

8 oz (I block) Monterrey jack cheese shredded

Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare your quinoa by bringing 4 cups of water to a bowl, rinse 2 cups quinoa in cold water, drain and add to bowling water. Return to a bowl, turn down to low and cover. Cook 15 minutes. In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat brown ground turkey, add taco seasoning while breaking up with a spoon. Stir in half of salsa to keep it from drying out. Set meat aside. In the same skillet over medium high heat combine corn, bell pepper and remaining salsa. Cook until peppers have softened. In a casserole dish, layer quinoa topping with 1/3 enchilada sauce, then turkey topping with 1/3 of sauce then top with corn mixture and olives and add remaining sauce. Bake for 15 minutes then cover with cheese and bake another 15 minutes.

*I served mine with fresh cilantro and a slice of lime.

**In all honesty you could saute and shred and layer everything the night before, come home from work preheat the oven and toss it in, then top it with cheese. Or in my case I could make it ahead and then the mister could bake it while I'm on my way home. Just a thought.

Family Cookout

Well... Ok the title is a bit misleading. We did cookout on the grill that morning but about an hour before there was a huge downpour so we set up inside but luckily it stopped and we could eat out side and the kids could play in the pool. But it was still a bummer because we had a lovely table planned out and anddddd all of decorations clashed with my Mom's hideous wallpaper. (no that is not an insult to her it came with the house she just hasn't gotten it covered up yet) Thenn I went to print out my neon menus and they printed some wacky colors no where near what I designed but they still worked out. It's all good we still had amazing food and so much fun... Until my Granny had to go to the emergency room at the end but that's another story and no worries she is fine. She just gave us a bit of a scare.

You can see more shots on my Instagram feed, 

How about roasted veggie kabobs? Yum!

And I didn't take a good shot but COCONUT RICE y'all!!! 

So goood!

We had several homemade salsas for the chicken, pork tenderloin and sausages.

Pineapple Mango

Creamy Tomatillo

Spicy Red (Restaurant Style Salsa)

and 

Lemon

The "drink bar" had Sweet Tea

with Blackberry Syrup,

Peach Mint Syrup

and

Lemon and Lavendar Syrup

 and

Watermelon Coconut Cooler

For dessert we made S'mores.

We set up a S'mores Bar that had so many options and was a hit with the kids and adults. 

Cookie options were:

Graham Crackers

Chocolate Chip (crispy and soft)

Pecan Sandies

and Butter Cake

Marshmallow options were:

Extra Large Plain

Strawberry

Keylime

Chocolate and Other Goodies options were:

Milk Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

White Chocolate

Mini Candy Bars

Lemon Curd

Toasted Coconut

Strawberries

(We were supposed to have a caramel sauce too but I forgot to get it out, oooppsss. Just pretend its there on the otherside of the lemon curd, okay? Thanks.)

We made a list of suggestions but some of the best ones were one of a kind creations!

My little monkey had Chocolate Chip cookie with milk chocolate, a strawberry marshmallow and fresh strawberries.

This one is chocolate chip cookies (soft batch) a plain marshmallow, a mini 3 Musketeers and toasted coconut.

The one on the right was the same as Caleb's first one but minus the strawberries.

On the left was butter cake, a huge marshmallow, Lemon curd and toasted coconut. No chocolate at all.

It was my favorite!

 My cousin, Keith, created this, it was an open face s'more with butter cake on the bottom, a lime marshmallow, lemon curd and toasted coconut. He may have also added a piece of pork tenderloin to it. Not for everybody but that sounds pretty good to me.

My Momma about to try to stuff all of that in her mouth. Her's was butter cake, plain marshmallow, lemon curd, coconut and strawberries.

I'm pretty sure the cake, lemon curd, coconut, strawberries and lime marshmallows were the surprise favorites among the options. I really think we may have to recreate this idea, sooner than later!