Back Again and Buttermilk Brined Turkey Breast

Welcome back! I know it's been awhile. My laptop died and typing on an iPad is not the easiest thing to do so I was lazy and gave up. For Christmas, I got a bluetooth keyboard case for my iPad so I am back in business with lots of recipes to share! 

     One of my favorite foods is BBQ. We have a few sit down BBQ restaurants up here in the north but BBQ is generally expensive and paying a tip on top of that deterred us most of the time. I had just commented to my husband that they should have a BBQ fast food restaurant of sorts when we noticed a sign on a restaurant being built. It read City BBQ and wouldn't you know, it is exactly the type of restaurant I was talking about! 

     For the last two years, we have frequented City BBQ a lot of times. In fact, while I was pregnant with G, we ate there at least once a week and that was my first meal after her delivery. About a year and a half ago maybe, my brother in law got a smoker and smoked pork for my nephew's birthday party and a turkey at Thanksgiving...the flavors were amazing! I began wishing for our own smoker. My wishes were granted this year for my 30th birthday when my husband bought me a little charcoal smoker. The pork was delicious but it took a really long time as it was hard to keep the smoker up to temp. We decided to go ahead and upgrade to a propane smoker and I'm so glad we did! We've now smoked a few pork butts, a chicken, and a couple turkeys. We still enjoy going to City BBQ for delicious food but we also enjoy making our own at home as well. I saw a picture of a buttermilk brined turkey on Pinterest (I told you I was addicted) but after discovering the brine to be a mix you were supposed to buy from Williams and Sonoma, I ran to my next recipe source: The Food Network. Hooray! I discovered a buttermilk brine created by Guy Fieri. You can check out the original page here. 
     Fieri's recipe has you baking the turkey but if you have a smoker I highly recommend it! We used a mixture of cherry, apple, and hickory chips. The fresh turkey breast I bought at Target was a little over 6 pounds so I doubled the brine.

Buttermilk Brined Turkey Breast

 

Ingredients

• 1 (2 1/2 to 3-pound) turkey breast, bone-in
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup hot sauce (recommended: Crystal; I used Frank's)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions

Combine all the ingredients together in a large resealable plastic bag (or box in my case). Place in a bowl, to catch any leaks, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. Take out, pat dry and smoke (see link above for oven directions).

Prep work is done!

Turkey is swimming in the buttermilk brine.

Into the fridge we go...goodnight!

Turkey is out and warming up slightly before going into the smoker.

Love our smoker! We are able to cook several things at once which comes in handy sometimes. 

About 3 1/2 hours later we reached the magic temp for turkey

Beautiful golden brown!

Nice and juicy... and look... a nice pink smoke ring!

Dinner was delicous and there's plenty of leftovers for sandwiches!

I'll try to get back to my weekly posts; enjoy! 

Losing Weight and Turkey Jambalaya

After the eldest angel was born, it took me about 2 years to lose all of the baby weight I had put on (albeit only 28 lbs!). After our youngest was born, the weight came off so fast I actually asked Andrew if our scale was working. I couldn't believe it! Unfortunately the nursing came to an end too soon (way to stressful and hard with teaching 6 and 7 year olds, unfortunately there were not enough breaks in the day to pump successfully) but yet I was still eating "for two". I apparently have a bad habit of eating when I'm feeling not full anymore. I also had a goal to lose a few more pounds that I had originally wanted to lose before getting pregnant.

Enter motivation. One of my husband's best friends from high school is having a destination wedding in
Mexico right after Christmas break. I may be able to tell myself I'm doing pretty well for only having a 5 month old but I still want to look even better than that in a swimsuit. So, my realistic goal is2 pounds a week until Mexico = 8 pounds lost; a good place to be for me although a few more afterwards would be good too! After about a week and half of cutting calories I'm down about 3 pounds...right on track! This has been slightly difficult, this is my favorite time of year partially because of the food, but I've decided to control the areas that are easy to do (breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the week) and let myself to splurge in moderation on the weekend. So far, so good!

Here is an absolutely delicious recipe for dinner that is not bad for you either! It's one of my new favorites...Enjoy!

Turkey Jambalaya
8 servings (1 cup each) 249 Calories; 7.6 g of fat

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (if you don't like spicy try 1/4 teaspoon - it has a kick to it!)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
2 cups fat free, less sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups shredded cooked turkey
6 ounces andouille sausage (I couldn't find this so I used turkey kielbasa instead)
2 tablespoons sliced green onion (optional)

Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and garlic; saute 6 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in bell peppers and next 5 ingredients; saute 1 minute. Add rice; Saute 1 minute. Stir in broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Add turkey and sausage; cover and cook 5 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions.