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Turkey Time

December 8, 2010 6 Comments

I swear every time I make meatballs I forget to write down what I threw into them. Ohhhh, the elusive turkey meatball recipe… changes every time. Yet, always tastes delicious.

I bring you spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs and garlic mushroom marinara:

Easier than it looks, I promise!

(Check out this post for some tips on cooking up your spaghetti squash)

While my spaghetti squash was doing its thang in the oven, I got to work on the meatballs. Here’s what went into them:

Your guess is as good as mine. Winking smile

Alriiiiiiiiight, here’s approximately what went into the meatballs:

10 ounces 99% fat free ground turkey breast
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried oregano

This mix gave me 10 2-bite meatballs:

I sprinkled each meatball with a little olive oil (about 1 tbsp for all 10 meatballs). I cooked these in a 400 degree for 15 minutes, flipped them over and cooked for another 10.

Meanwhile, I sautéed 2 cloves minced garlic and a couple handfuls of sliced baby bella mushrooms in a sauce pan:

Then added 1.5 cups of Prego sauce to the pan along with some garlic powder, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and dried oregano. I popped a lid on the pan and let it simmer away on low heat until the meatballs and spaghetti squash were done cooking:

I promise you–this dish will totally satisfy your pasta cravings. Look how tasty:

As an added bonus, I was able to get 3 servings out of this batch. Hello tomorrow’s lunch and the day after tomorrow’s dinner!

Stats on 2 cups Spaghetti Squash with 3 Turkey Meatballs and 1/2 cup sauce: 320 calories, 37g carbs, 10g fat, 27g protein, 7g fiber. Molto bene!

Since the ground turkey comes in a 20 ounce package, I decided to use the remaining 10 ounces to make up some of my beloved Turkey Meat Muffins Open-mouthed smile

Only thing I did different this time was to omit the oil. I didn’t notice much of a difference, so I think I’ll stick with the oil-free version in the future.

I LOVE these guys for several reasons.

They are pre-portioned and super cute.
They satisfy my belly in a healthful way.
Leftover meatloaf sandwiches rock my socks off.
Saying “meat muffin” brings an unavoidable smile to my face 😀

Nom.

Recipes

Wow Balls

November 28, 2010 9 Comments

You may know them as Cookie Balls, Oreo Balls, or perhaps Oreo Truffles.

I know them simply as Wow Balls.

Why “Wow Balls”? Because that was the first and only word I was able to utter as I enjoyed my first delicious bite of one of these glorious goodies.

Wow.

Chocolate haters beware – this recipe is not for you. These balls are rich, decadent, and oh-so-delicious. In a word: WOW.

The ingredients are simple:

1 package oreos (minus two for munchin while you work)
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 packages Baker’s Chocolate
Toppings of your choosing

First up, dump the Oreos into a food processor and pulse away until they are completely chopped up into little bits. Then dump in the softened cream cheese and vanilla extract and mix together with a blender.

Once everything is combined and you can no longer see any white bits of cream cheese, use a small cookie scooper to scoop out bite size chocolate balls. (I was able to get 3 dozen out of mine):

Pop the tray into the freezer for about an hour. This will make dipping them in chocolate MUCH MUCH easier.

Next, get your double boiler ready. Or, if you are like me and don’t have a double boiler, you can make do with a large pot of water and a glass mixing bowl. Fill the water in the pot up high enough that the bowl sits in the water when you place in on top of the pot. Also, make sure the bowl is large enough that no water will splash up into your chocolate. Water + melty chocolate = bad news bears.

Dump all of the Bakers chocolate into the glass bowl and let it slowly melt.

Now it’s time for dipping! I worked in batches of 5 (so that the balls didn’t start to unfreeze), and I found the fork and spoon method to work best. Basically I plopped one ball in the melted chocolate at a time, used the spoon to roll it around, and the fork to lift the ball up out of the chocolate and drain off the excess chocolatey goodness.

I set the dipped chocolates on wax paper to cool and immediately topped with a variety of toppings I had on hand, including pecans, chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, coconut, and crushed cookies:

When the chocolates had hardened, I slipped each on onto a mini muffin liner.

I had several people ask me if I bought these in the store—they really did look quite professional!

I can’t wait to make these with peanut butter cookies!!!!

Thank you Jessie for bringing these lovely treats into my world!

Wow Balls Ingredients List (makes 3 dozen)

1 package oreos
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 packages Baker’s Chocolate
Toppings of your choosing

Ramblings, Recipes, Slow Cookin

Some like it hot

November 3, 2010 6 Comments

There is a small portion of the population out there that crave heat in their food. These are the people who actually enjoy the runny nose you inevitably get when eating something hot. The people who know when others say something is “hot” it won’t even phase them because of their extreme tolerance for heat. The people who’ve contemplated carrying around a bottle of hot sauce in their purse/bookbag/car. The people who have found a way to incorporate buffalo sauce in to breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. The people who constantly get asked “you put hot sauce on that?!”

You know who you are.

This recipe is for you.

I bring you slow-cooked buffalo chicken sandwiches:

When I first stumbled upon this recipe, I KNEW it was destiny. Buffalo chicken dip is a staple in my circle of friends and family, so how could a buffalo chicken sandwich NOT be amazing?

Simple answer. If you like hot food, you will love this sandwich.

The recipe was very easy to throw together.

Throw the following into a plastic baggie to marinate overnight:

4 raw skinless boneless chicken breasts
3/4 of a Quart (24 ounces) buffalo wing sauce (use your favorite brand–we used Gionino’s, of course)
1 package dry ranch salad dressing mix

The next morning toss the marinated chicken into a crockpot, and cook on low for 6 hours. Once the chicken is cooked, pull the breasts out of the crockpot and shred them up with two forks. Toss the meat back in and then add:

2 tablespoons butter
8 ounces of buffalo wing sauce (which is the remainder of the quart)

Cook for one hour more, and then serve on top of a toasted kaiser roll.

To make the sandwich even more amazing, add some pepper jack cheese.

Awwwwww yeeahhhhhhh.

WARNING: Things may get a little sloppy. But true hot sauce lovers like to become one with their food, am I right? 😀

Recipes

Zuppa Toscana

October 29, 2010 15 Comments

It’s hard to believe that I used to hate soup. Whaaaattt???? I hated them. And I mean all of them. I found soup unsatisfying and uncravable. I needed something with substance (and by substance I mean a big hunk of meat or a big hunk of bread).

How could I resist this beauty???

Nowadays the soup and salad combo is one of my favorites, especially this time of year. I love the contrast: a cool crunchy salad and hot comforting soup. I went to lunch with my coworkers last week and tried Zuppa Toscana for the first time. It was DELISH, and I knew I had to give it a shot.

So first off, what is Zuppa Toscana anyway? Tuscan soup… not exactly descriptive. Google tells me Zuppa Toscana is supposed to include sausage, bacon, greens, potatoes and cream. Sounds like a good starting point!

After some futher googlin I found a few recipes that looked pretty tasty and after some tweaking and Maryfications I ended up with some mighty tasty results!

First up, I took some help for my girl Jennie O’, and grabbed 3 hot turkey sausage links.

I ran a knife along the back of each sausage link to cut through the casing, then removed the sausage meat and discarded the casings

Once my skillet was nice and hot, I tossed the sausage in and used a spatula to break out the meat. When the sausage was no longer pink, I removed it from the skillet and set aside.

Next up, I heated up a soup pot, once hot I added one large diced yellow onion, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and and 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes. I like it hot!

Glory in a pot:

Cook the onions until soft and translucent, then add 2 boxes of low-sodium fat free chicken broth (64 ounces). While you are waiting for the soup to come to a boil, slice up one large potato:

Bring the the soup to a boil, then add the sliced potatoes. Reduce to medium heat, and cook for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Next toss in the sausage and one cup of half and half.

Let the soup simmer away until everything is warmed through, and just before you are ready to serve it toss in 3 cups of spinach.

VOILA! Soup is served!

This soup was AWESOME. Only problem was my poor potatoes practically disintegrated in the soup. Next time I think I’ll chunk the potatoes rather than thinly slicing them.

Despite that potato problem, the soup was so tasty and it had a little kick which I loved! If you aren’t big on spicy foods, cut the red pepper flakes and black pepper back.

Serve with a delicious salad, of course!

Zuppa Toscana Ingredients List (makes 6 Servings)

3 links Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage
1 large diced yellow onion
1 and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
64 ounces Chicken Broth Fat Free Reduced Sodium Chicken broth
1 large potato
1 cup half and half
3 cups fresh spinach

Stats on one serving Zuppa Toscana: 207 calories, 15g carbs, 10g fat, 14g protein, 2g fiber

Restaurants, Travel

Taking it easy in the Big Easy – Part 3

October 18, 2010 4 Comments

Day 3 in the Big Easy started off with:

Haha, well actually it started off with FREE continental breakfast at the hotel. Thennnnn the Maker’s Mark (for Jarrod anyway… I think that stuff tastes like nail polish remover).

After breakfast and some meandering through the French Quarter

Then we stopped at Primo’s for some snacking:

Primo’s got horrible reviews online, but we were dying for some bruschetta and they happened to have it on the menu so we decided to ignore the reviews.

I love how all the bars and restaurants down here are open to the streets. Most of the buildings have huge windows that you can open up and it makes you feel like your are in a courtyard instead of inside the building.

I should also mention that the whether has been AMAZING the whole time we have been here. 80+ degrees, sunny, and no humidity. GLORIOUS!

I’m so glad we ignored those reviews on Primo’s! Take a look at this beauty:

Jarrod said it was the best bruschetta he ever had. I don’t know about the BEST, but it definitely was REALLY friggin delicious.

We also ordered a small margherita pizza:

This was tasty too—just needed a little hot sauce!

After lunch we had some time to kill, so we popped a squat across the street from Jackson Square to watch some street performers.

These guys were actually REALLY good!

And they drew quite the crowd!

It’s crazy what these guys can do with their bodies. I can’t do a pushup let alone hold my whole body up with one arm and spin it around like a helicopter while simultaneously bouncing up and down:

Me and the BF in Jackson Square:

After lunch, we headed to our French Quarter & Cemetery tour (which I purchased on Groupon a month or so ago). The tour only cost us $10 a piece, and it was a self-guided walking tour that lasted 1.5 hours. SCORE!

While walking around the French Quarter a random man shouted out Jarrod “Man you big as an Avatar! Look at that big ole white boy!” Neither of us have seen the movie (so we’re not quite sure how Jarrod reminded the guy of an Avatar), regardless we both busted out in laughter at the man’s explanation (as did the group of people walking behind us). Only in New Orleans 😀

You may be wondering why the heck we wanted to go on a cemetery tour on our vacation. No, it’s not because we are nearing on Halloween. It’s because New Orleans cemeteries are uniquely interesting:

Since the city is located below sea level, all of the deceased are buried ABOVE the ground.

What’s even more interesting is that family members are added to the tombs over CENTURIES. We passed many tombs where the first family member was buried in the 1800’s and over the years more and more family members were added (even as most recent as 2004)!

Jarrod and the tour guide:

The tour guide told us that this is the tomb Nicholas Cage built for himself:

Even though this tour was REALLY cool, we both felt odd smiling for a picture in front of a tomb (hence the grimace on Jarrod’s face) 😛

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for our daily afternoon nap (we’re like a bunch of old farts, I swear!).

We were having a lot of debate on where to go for dinner, but settled on Margaritaville. I know, I know… Jimmy Buffet is one of Jarrod’s unstated idols, and neither of us have ever been to Margaritaville, so off we went.

We wanted to push ourselves a little out of our comfort zones, so we opted for the Crab, Shrimp, and Mushroom dip for our appetizer:

It came with delicious garlic bread for dipping. I thought it was actually really good (Jarrod wasn’t quite so keen on it, but he was fully satisfied with the bread).

For dinner we went with the Jambalaya:

Jarrod said this was the best meal he had to date in New Orleans, and I agree it was DELICIOUS. And yes, that is seven (count them) seven pieces of garlic bread that we wolfed down during dinner 🙂

After dinner we strolled over to Bourbon Street and stopped on the backside of Jackson Square to snap a photo of the shadow casted on the backside of the building:

While on Bourbon St this time, we hit up several bars including Club 524, Krazy Korner, and the Bourbon Street Blues Company (again!).

On our walk back to the hotel, we both concurred that our favorite parts of New Orleans were everything we had seen OUTSIDE of Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is definitely fun and full of crazies, but it is a little too commercialized. We both just prefer the old-world charm of NOLA over the flashing neon lights of Bourbon Street. I do wish we had an extra day in LA to visit the districts outside of the French Quarter, but alas that will have to wait til next time!

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