Balsamic Rosemary Turkey

*My original inspiration for this recipe came from the January 2012 edition of Cosmopolitan, but I changed it to suit what was available in my kitchen.

I wanted to make something delicious (besides just lettuce) using my new Raspberry Lime Balsamic.  I picked up turkey cutlets at Fred Meyers on Friday, and decided this would be a good way to use them.  This recipe was more of "a dash of this and a dash of this," adding what I wanted, but I will try and explain what I did. It was also very cheap - I had almost everything in my cupboards.

Ingredients:

• 5 turkey cutlets
• Minced garlic (to taste)
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons balsamic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 teaspoons dijon mustard
• salt/pepper to taste
• Juice from half a lemon* My lemon was VERY juicy so you may want to use an entire lemon
• Sliced mushrooms
• Dried thyme

Directions:

1) Whisk together the garlic, rosemary, balsamic, olive oil, lemon juice and dijon.  I used half normal balsamic and half raspberry lime balsamic, but you could use whatever you have.  It really didn't taste very different to me.

2) Poke holes in the turkey cutlets with a fork, all over the front and back.

3) Put the turkey in a gallon zip lock bag and pour in the marinade.  Massage the turkey through the bag so the marinade soaks in.  I marinated for 3 hours, but that was just because I wasn't ready for dinner.  I am still figuring out marinades, so I am not sure how long you *should* marinade.  If you don't have a lot of time, you could always pour the sauce over and cook in the sauce instead.

4) When ready, heat up a big pan on medium.  Add the turkey cutlets and cook until done.  Mine were very thin cutlets and took about 7 minutes to cook through (and I like my meat very well done).  I also was cooking five cutlets, so I cooked three first, then the other two.

5) When done with the meat, remove and add mushrooms.  Add splashes of balsamic as necessary to cook mushrooms.  I used dried thyme (that used to be fresh) but you could use dried or fresh thyme - sprinkle over mushrooms to taste.  Cook at least five minutes, but I find the longer they cook, the better they taste.

6) Plate the turkey and cover with the mushrooms.  Serve with a lemon wedge.

The best part of this meal is the turkey with marinade is under 200 calories per cutlet (depending on the size of your cutlet of course).  The marinade is 325 calories total (so 65 calories per cutlet) and my packaging said each cutlet was about 120 calories.  This is a very filling meal with lots of flavor but low on calories.  Also really simple - I only had to use one bowl for mixing the dressing and another pan for cooking.

I think I will be cooking with turkey more in the future.  I don't know if it was because my cutlets were so thin or what, but it didn't have a trace of that bloody flavor chicken sometimes gets.