Now we are in December I have my festive hat on vis-à-vis Christmas recipes. I found some discounted turkey steaks a while back and placed them in the freezer until I was struck with inspiration for a dish that the kids could make for dinner one evening.
That is when I started thinking about putting a pesto and cream cheese spread on top of them to keep them succulent while baking them. The boys decided that the mozzarella was a good idea. We find in a savoury dish the amount of cheese is proportional to the kids’ happiness; the more cheese, the happier the children. 
We added a sprinkling of dried bread crumbs to create a contrast in textures. Essentially, the turkey acts as a high protein pizza base – it didn’t take much convincing for my children to eat this! This means that if you do have any leftover turkey breast after your Christmas dinner, you could consider following this recipe, but grilling it to heat the meat through and melt the topping.
The kids loved spooning the pesto out of the jar and counting the same amount of tablespoons of cream cheese and then mixing it all together. They did a really good job of spreading it on top 
of the turkey steaks and then counting out bits of mozzarella to make sure all the steaks got their fair share of mozzarella. I think they had the most fun sprinkling the breadcrumbs and trying to make sure they landed on the steaks rather than the baking tray (with varying degrees of success, but they seemed to make a game out of it). As children are handling raw meat in this recipe, keep a close eye to ensure no little fingers end up in mouths.
Ingredients
- Pack of turkey steaks or 4 thick slices of roast turkey breast
- 2tbsp cream cheese
- 2tbsp pesto
- 1 ball of mozzarella
- Breadcrumbs for sprinkling
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170° fan and line a baking sheet with tin foil or a silicone baking mat.
- Place the turkey steaks on the baking sheet. It may be easier for you to do this for the children to prevent cross contamination.
- Scoop 2tbsp of cream cheese out and place in a bowl. Add 2tbsp of pesto and mix well.
- Spoon out small amounts of the mixture and place some on top of each turkey steak. Spread out the dollops with a table knife or the back of a spoon (we used a table knife) so that all of each turkey steak is well covered.
- Cut the mozzarella into small cubes with a table knife and place some on top of the pesto mixture on each steak.
- Sprinkle each steak with some breadcrumbs and place in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes until the meat is well cooked (clear juices and hot the whole way through). If you are doing this with already cooked roasted turkey, grill until warm through and the topping has melted nicely.
- Best enjoyed warm.
The whole family (minus the vegetarian) enjoyed these for dinner and there have already been requests for an encore! We hope you enjoy these as much as my family did.
