Marjorie Approved Turkey Meatballs

Soooooo, never leaving anything alone, I have a new Turkey Meatball recipe

There are three things to remember
1)  Fresh ground turkey, no frozen chubs.  I prefer turkey from The Turkey Store (Go Barron WI), but you can use other.
2)  You MUST cook by temperature - once the meatballs hit 150, off the heat they go.  At 170 they turn into dry disgusting balls of sawdust.  Under 150 you risk food poisoning.  So get a Thermapen.
3)  Seasoning is your friend - low fat means you need lots of seasoning.  Under season and they are boringly bland

Ingredients
1 lb fresh ground turkey (I use 93/7 - you can use 99/1, but that is pretty dry stuff
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1/2 onion
1 stalk celery
Garlic (you can use fresh, or use Penzeys Roasted Garlic)
Seasoning as appropriate (depending on if you want Italian, Asian, Swedish, or other style meatballs). For Italian I like Penzeys Tuscan Sunset and for Asian the Sate seasoning.
Salt
Pepper

Sauce of choice, depending on style of meatballs

Recipe
Finely dice onion, celery and mushrooms
Saute onion, celery and 1/2 the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper, and whatever seasoning your using.  Cook till soft, then cool.
Spread cooked veg on plate, spread turkey of the top
Spread rest of mushrooms on top of turkey, salt, pepper, season with seasoning
Mix together, but not too much.  Compress the turkey, you get blech

At this point I like to make a quarter size piece of the meatballs (squished flat) and cook, to check the seasoning.  Then adjust seasonings if necessary and cook the rest

Heat pan  medium (I use teflon, just spray oil)
Make meatballs and begin to brown
Once meatballs are brown on two sides (but not cooked yet), I add sauce and turn temp down to low. The idea is that the sauce will bring the temp of the meatballs up slowly to 160, making it hard to overcook.  Remember - at 150 they come off the stove.  Residual heat will bring them to 155

Serve - I like using Rosarios Spaghetti Sauce over Zucchini noodles.

Marjorie Approved

Turkey (or chicken) Meatballs the don't suck - HMR Phase 2!

Turkey/Chicken meatballs can suck.  Dense, dry, DISGUSTING.  I don't care how low calorie a food is, if it tastes bad it doesn't get made.

There are a couple key things to remember.

1)  You must use a Thermapen.  Poultry has to be cooked to 165 degrees.  But anything over 170 and it gets dry, especially if your using the breast.  Thigh meat is a little more flexible, but higher calories. A thermapen is the only true instant read thermometer there is.  Spend the $100 - best kitchen tool ever.
2)  You must use fresh ground poultry, or at very least the fresh Turkey Store ground turkey.  Those frozen turkey chubs turn turkey into dog food.  Just say no.
3)  Use raw veg - they will cook and release moisture as they cook, helping keep the meatballs moist

Ingredients

1 lb fresh ground chicken or other poultry
8 oz of finely diced RAW vegetables.  Options can include:
- mushrooms
- onions
- spinach
- peppers (red, green, whatever)
- think creatively - use several to add up to 8 oz
2 ounces of COOKED (this adds some bulk and keeps them from getting too dense)
- quinoa
- wild rice
- brown rice
- barley
- any cooked grain
Salt, pepper, seasoning ( I like 1 tbs of pizza seasoning, but hey, go mexican, asian, whatever)

Recipe

Heat teflon pan (medium)
Get out a wide, shallow bowl
Spread half of the veg and other items in the bowl
Spread the meat over it
Spread the rest of the fixings, including spices
Mix gently as you can.  You do have to work the meat, but try to go easy
Make meatballs - I go for about 1 to 1 1/2 inch in diameter
Spray pan with a shot of spray oil
Put in pan
Cover pan!
When meatballs begin to brown, rotate
After rotation, be sure to check, and keep checking their temp - when they hit 160, turn the stove off and take off the burner!  DO IT.  It will naturally rise to 165.

Use whatever sauce you like.  I like using the HMR chicken soup made with chicken stock

Chicken - 500 calories (I used 99% fat free chicken breast)
Veg - depends on what you use - 40 calories
Cooked wild rice - 2 ounces - 60 calories
HMR Chicken Soup (1/2 package) 50 calories
Fat Free Chicken Stock, 1/2 cup - 10 calories

660 Calories, three servings - 220 calories per serving.  Add more vegies, a great, filling meal for under 300 calories.

WOW - Creamy (non dairy) Jalapeno Green Sauce (Vegan even) - Low Calorie! HMR Compliant!

A.K.A. the Green Stuff.

This is awesome.  I mean really good.  And it takes a fairly typical salsa/sauce at Taco Trucks (the green stuff) and makes it far more nutritious with far fewer calories.

The bottled green sauce you get at taco trucks and Taqueria's is pretty basic - boiled jalapenos and onion, pureed in a blender with vegetable oil and salt.  Sometimes with garlic, sometimes with cilantro.  Some may add avocado, but most don't, even though everyone thinks it's in there.  It is really good.  To cut the heat, you take out the seeds and the membranes before boiling (which is where most of the heat in a pepper is).  Boil them with the seeds and membranes the heat goes up - your choice.

I have made it without the oil, but it is missing something.  Missing more than the 500 calories a 1/4 cup of oil brings.  The oil adds fat, smoothness and tames the heat some.

Today, VICTORY.

The solution for not using oil?  Soft Silken Tofu.  Yes, Tofu.

Tofu gets you that smoothness, the texture that oil brings to the sauce.  It has just enough fat to taste great, not enough to bust your diet.  It has 180 calories for 12 ounces, not 500 calories for 1/4 cup.  Plus 16 grams of protein, some calcium, iron and other nutrients and minerals.

And it tastes great.  On to the show.

Ingredients

One lb fresh jalapenos, seeded and de-ribbed (wear vinyl/nitrile gloves when cutting and don't touch your eyes!
One onion, chopped (nothing special, it is getting boiled and pureed later).  I use white onions as that is more typical in mexican cooking, but whatever.  You could even use green onions, tops and all.
1 Box (12 oz) Soft Silken Tofu
Salt to taste
Garlic if you like
Cilantro if you like

Recipe
Boil jalapenos and onions for 20 minutes in sufficient water to keep covered
If you like, in the last 5 minutes, add peeled garlic to the boiling water.  As much garlic as you like.

Drain and blend all three ingredients for a minute.  Be careful - it will be hot.  I use a blender, you could use a food processor.  I think the blender gets it smoother.

While blending, scoop in the tofu.  Blend for another 30 seconds.

Add salt to taste (as in, add a tsp, taste, add more as you like, or don't)
Add fresh cilantro as desired, or not.

Serve warm, or put in the fridge to cool.  This will keep for at least a week

If you de-ribbed and de-seeded the jalapenos, the sauce will be quite mild, especially if you put it on food such as HRM Turkey Chili, eggs, as a veggie dip, etc.

Calorie count for the entire recipe 355 - 180 for the Tofu, 130 for the Jalapenos, 45 for the onion. So 355 calories for the entire sauce, which will be about 2 cups.  That is about 11 calories a tablespoon, 22 calories for two tbs.  So this is actually OK on the No Decisions HMR diet as a condiment!

Woo Hoo!

HMR Five Bean Casserole - Becomes.... West African Peanut Stew - Maafe!

The HMR Five Bean Casserole is pretty good.

And you can do a number of things with it - my favorite is making it into Peanut Stew.

Peanut stew is, typically, root vegetables with chicken, and of course, peanuts and peanut butter..  Which is not exactly hmr material.  So, what to do, what to do.

Well, this is what you do

The simple adds are

PB2 - yes, that wonder of modern science, freeze dried, defatted peanut butter.
Cilantro
Green Onions
Jalapenos
HMR chicken soup

Get to add Vegetables?  Time for some fun

Cooked Sweet Potato or Butternut squash are classics
Sweet corn
Fresh or canned tomato
Garbanzo beans (1/2 cup equals one serving of veg)
Cooked potato
Diced red peppers

This is a delicious stew - really!

HMR Lasagna with Meat Sauce - Pump It Up!

The HMR Lasagna with Meat Sauce is fine.  I mean, it's not great, but its ok.

However, it can be so much more....

There are a few things you can add in the no decision phase, for example....

Penzey's Frozen Pizza Seasoning - spices, garlic, it amps it up some

Hot sauce of your preference

and.... not sure what else goes in.

Once you get to add Vegies to your diet....then it can become quite good.

My fave is spinach and mushrooms

Saute the spinach with garlic
Saute the mushrooms with the Penzey's Frozen Pizza Seasoning

Layer with the Lasagna in a microwave dish

Spinach, Mushrooms, Layer of Lasagna, repeat.  Top with Spinach and Mushrooms

Cover and nuke.

Serve with a salad...Pretty good.

HMR Turkey Chili with Beans - Best HMR Entree?

HMR has about a dozen plus entrees that largely remain the same - they add some, they drop some, but generally there is little change.  Some are good, some ok, all of them are at least edible.  All of them are improved by adding things.

Having said that, I think the Turkey Chili with Beans is the best entree, and certainly better than most packaged chili's.  But it still can stand to be spiffed up some.

Flavors - rule is, must be under 20 calories, or be an HMR product.

HMR Chicken Soup is a good addition to add a little more to the meal.  Makes it more soup than stew, but....

Chili Powder - if you need to amp it up a little.  I recommend Penzeys.  If you just want chili flavor, add some of their chili con carne seasoning (no heat, lots of flavor).  If you need some heat, they have lots of chilis that can bring it.

Chop up and add

• a jalepeno
• green or regular onion (keep it under 20 calories!)
• Some canned green chilis or other peppers



Sunday Lunch - with corn, fresh tomato,
green onion, cilantro, cocoa, coffee, jalepeno
salsa over power greens.   Really good

• Cilantro

Fat free sour cream is nice

Salsa is available at this point, as are most hot sauces

PB2 is an interesting addition (hey, don't knock it till you try it)

A half teaspoon of cocoa powder (really!)
A tablespoon of strong coffee (really truly!)

Ingredients - Now we are cooking!

Corn is always a winner
Potatoes
Broccoli
Fresh tomato
More beans (1/2 a cup is one vegetable)
Make a taco salad - serve it over lettuce (with tomato and avocado!)
Spinach
Sweet potato, butternut squash or even pumpkin (cook ahead of time)
Avocado
Some people like mushrooms in their chili
Red, green, yellow or orange peppers (or go for others)
Hominy is interesting (or disgusting, depending on your preferences)

Hacking the HMR Vegetarian Thai Curry with Brown Rice

HMR Vegetarian Thai Curry with Brown Rice - Pumping up the Thai

The HMR Veg Thai is ok.  A little spicy, but not too much. They use Gardein as the meat substitute, and it's actually good.  However, the meal is a little boring.  So, what to do.....

Two questions really - what are the options when you are only using HMR products, and what can you do once you add fruit and veg.

Flavorings

Mixing the Thai Curry with a Chicken soup makes it more like the curry you get in a restaurant, which tend to be quite soup like

To pump up the curry, try Green Curry paste - just watch out for calories.  Some pastes are quite low - some are not so low.  I find green curry paste is often the lowest calorie of the red, yellow, etc. types.

Fish Sauce is an added feature, but it can be salty, and the HMR meal has a fair bit of sodium

Some add Soy Sauce, which is a flavor, but see fish sauce.  I usually skip the Soy Sauce

PB2 (Powdered Peanut Butter, 85% less fat)  makes an interesting addition (but remember to measure accurately).  Makes it more of a pad thai type meal.  Add it to the chicken soup when you are adding the water.  You may need to add a little more water as it will thicken

Chopped Green Onions - one onion is less than 20 calories, and it adds a little crunch and bite

Cilantro - fresh herbs are always free

Coconut extract (1/4 teaspoon) - I am not a huge fan, but some like it since coconut milk is definitely out, although technically a 1/8th of a cup of lite coconut milk would be about 22 calories.....

Lime - half a fresh lime, squeezed over the heated meal

Splenda Brown Sugar - just 1/2 a teaspoon packed is 10 calories

Garlic powder (rehydrate in the chicken soup)

Minced garlic, although I would probably only use it with vegetables when I stir fry them

Thai Basil

Hot sauce, such as sriracha

Vegetable (and Fruit!) add ins

Things get a whole lot more fun at this point.  I still would mix the meal with the chicken soup as the start, add your choice of flavorings above... then you can think about ...

Pineapple!
Red Pepper (or green, orange or yellow), sliced thin and stir fried briefly
Onion, sliced thin and stir fried (no oil remember!)
Snow pea pods stir fried
Sugar Snap Peas, just cooked lightly
Bean Sprouts (no need to cook at all)
Frozen Peas (just add to the soup to warm)
Sweet potato - peeled, then sliced or cubed and cooked just al dente, not mushy
Cauliflower rice!
Cooked sliced carrots (or raw for some crunch)
Peeled, cubed, stir fried eggplant (but don't over cook!)
Birds Eye Chili's - if you like it hot!

HMR Pancakes - official version, and oh so much more

HMR Pancakes, in multiple options

The "official recipe" is good, and fits in with the no decision diet well, so long as you take their advice and make it an occasional item.  I have tweaked both the ingredients and the recipe, and I think it improves on the original.

1 HMR 70 Plus Vanilla Shake
1 HMR Multigrain Hot Cereal
1/8 th Teaspoon Baking Soda (this is less than 1 calorie)
½ cup Water
1 Non-Stick Cooking spray

Method to Madness

• Mix the Shake with Cereal and Baking Powder.  DON'T Blend both packets in a blender until you have a flour consistency. Instead, use the cereal as is, or just pulse one second the cereal after you have taken out the fruit.  If you are cooking for two, pulse one and leave the other as is.  I think this gives a better texture.  And the baking powder gives the pancakes some lift.
• Add water until a pancake batter is reached
• Allow to sit for 3-5 minutes (batter will thicken; add more water if needed)
• Spray skillet with non-stick cooking spray
• Pour ¼ cup batter for each pancake
• Cook until bubbles form, pop and stay open, then flip to brown the other side

• Things to "spiff it up", and stay in the box, include (but only pick one - they are condiments, not the meal)
• Splenda Brown Sugar - 10 calories per HALF teaspoon (packed)
• Low calorie syrup (we like Vermont sugar free low calorie - 15 calories per 1/4 cup)
• I Can't Believe It's Not Butter brand butter flavoring spray

If your cooking for two, I use three cereals and two 70 plus shake (thus a 1/2 batch is equal to two shakes).  I would also add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda for a double recipe.  And of course you have to increase the water amount.  I add about 2 cups, but vary based on thickness.  The mix should be thick.

Once you start adding fruits and vegetables to your HMR diet, things get really interesting

Favorite things we add include:

• Finely diced apple, not pre-cooked.  I use one apple for a double recipe
• Blueberries.  1 cup for a double recipe
• Mashed Banana (mash ripe banana and mix with water, then add to the pancake mix.  1 Banana for a double
• Zucchini, finely diced (I spiralize, then chop into rice size pieces).  I also do not precook.  Half a zuchini (med) per double recipe
• Sweet potato, sprilized, chopped and microwaved with a little water until soft (1/2 cup per double)
• Apple pie or pumpkin pie spice
• Pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) (1/2 cup per double
• Cooked carrot, diced fine or shredded

There are lots of things you can add and stay in the box - get creative and experiment!

This is our Saturday morning breakfast - that's how we keep it "occasional"

And these freeze pretty well - if you wanted to make them as a treat, just reheat in toaster or microwave.  Pretty good a work when others bring in treats or a pot luck - gives you an in the box option.

Turkey Apple Onion Spinach Meatballs in fresh Tomato sauce over Pasta

It is fall, so we have a lot of apples, onions and tomatoes.  In fact, it becomes difficult to find enough uses for them.  So, this is one way.

Festival usually sells one pound packages of ground breast (both chicken and turkey) meat that, while not labeled with nutrition info, certainly looks and cooks like no skin, defatted breast meat.  So, it is.  Ipse Dixit.  Don’t use frozen chubs.  They are almost always fatty, and have lots of bone and nasty stuff in them.  Turkey Store ground turkey works ok also.

Ingredients for meatballs (will make 15 meatballs (or so)

1 lb ground turkey or chicken.

½ onion rough chopped

1 tart apple (I like Wolf’s), peeled, cored, rough chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1 cup fresh spinach, loosely packed

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp italian seasoning

Toss all ingredients (EXCEPT CHICKEN) into food processor.  Pulse until relatively finely chopped.  

Spread ground turkey out on plate

Spread rest of ingredients over

Mix thoroughly with hands

Form into whatever size meatballs you like.  I go for just a shade under golf ball size, they cook well

Brown in non stick pan with cooking spray.  I cook them at medium on my dial (5-6 out of 10).  These are fragile meatballs - don’t be tossing them around the pan and stirring a lot.  You will break them up.  Brown on one side, turn gently, brown on other, then add sauce (see below) to finish cooking process

While browning, make the sauce

Ingredients for Sauce

5 medium garden tomatoes, diced.  You could peel and seed them, but unless I am cooking for company, I don’t bother.  If you do, you will have to add ½ cup chicken stock to replace the liquid

½ onion, diced

½ green pepper, diced (or more if you like)

A zucchini from the garden would be nice also, as would an eggplant if you had it

8 oz of mushroom would be fine also

1 tsp italian seasoning

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

After meatballs have begun browning, toss onion and pepper in with them.  Once meatballs have browned on at least two sides, toss in rest of ingredients, cook for 10 minutes, covered.  Sauce will be chunky, not smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.  You may need to sweeten the tomato sauce with a bit of splenda if the tomatoes are too tart.  If you felt like it, you could toss another cup of fresh spinach in the sauce

After you add the sauce to the meatballs, cook the pasta.  I cook one (1) dry ounce per person, of high fiber pasta

If I did not add a zucchini or eggplant or mushrooms to the sauce, I would cook some frozen veg and serve the sauce over them, along with the pasta. Basicly, figure out how much veg you need to make your meal big enough.  Don’t use more  pasta to up size the meal.

So, what is the damage….

1lb turkey breast  - 500

½ med onion - 20

1 med apple - 80

1 cup fresh spinach 7

607 calories, give or take

5 fresh tomatoes 125

½ med onion - 20

½ green pepper - 15

8 oz mushroom -40

8 oz zucchini 45

245 calories, plus or minus

3 oz high fiber pasta 225

If you needed to cut calories I would use cooked potatoes in place of the pasta.  I would peel, dice, then nuke for 10 minutes, then add them to the sauce for the 10 minute cook time.  You can figure out the calorie replacement.  Personally, I find one ounce of pasta per person sufficient to satisfy.

So, that is a total of 1,007 calories.

If you split this meal for 3, that is 359 calories.  If you split it in fours, 225 calories.

Like I said, I don’t know the fat levels of the Festival Fresh ground turkey, but it sure looks close to 99% fat free, and there is no fat in the pan while cooking.  If you don’t believe me, buy some turkey store 99% fat free.

If you needed to cut calories more, delete the pasta, cook more veg.  Personally, I find some pasta makes the meal more satisfying, less diet restrictive.  Basically, I am just happier after I have a little.

Calories calculated on www.caloriecount.about.com

Credit where credit is due - created out of thin air by me, David Carlson

Low Fat! Peanut Stew – HMR Diet Worthy! (a.k.a. Maafe)

One of our favorite dishes – Peanut Stew.  Usually attributed to West Africa, I have no reason to doubt that is its original home.  Fairly simple, comprised mostly of root vegetables stewed, it is flexible and easy to make vegetarian.  Basic idea is that this is a vegetable stew, with peanuts and/or peanut butter. If you keep that in mind, you are free to add or drop ingredients as you have them or are available – don’t worry about having the “right” ingredients

However, it is hard to make low fat, vegetarian or not.  Why, you ask? Have you checked out the calorie count for Peanut Butter?  Some recipes call for a full cup!  That’s 1,500 calories.  And that is way too much if you’re on a calorie restricted diet.

So, what’s the solution?  How do you make Peanut Stew low cal/low fat while still using peanut butter?

Why, it’s the perfect time for Bell Plantation PB2 PowderedPeanut Butter – which has 85% less fat than regular peanut butter.  PB2 is peanut butter protein – you get the flavor, not the fat – just reconstitute with water.  PB2 has 45 calories for 2tb, peanut butter has 190 calories for 2tb.  All of a sudden, cooking with peanut butter (or PB2) is great for low cal!    

Making it even simpler is the use of Penzey’s Sate Seasoning – Peanut stew calls for ginger, a little cayenne, a bunch of other spices.  Rather than tracking all of that down, I just use the Sate seasoning.  Buy it online or at their stores.  Penzey’s Sate seasoning includes coarse flake salt, brown sugar, garlic, white onion, coriander, purple shallots, ginger, turmeric, sweet paprika, Ancho pepper, galangal, cayenne red pepper, lemon grass, so it has everything you need.  Feel free to use it fairly heavily even if you don’t like hot – it is not that spicy.

Ingredients for the Stew

1 medium onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2-6 garlic cloves, minced (adjust based on level of vampirism in neighborhood)

1 lb chicken thighs, diced

2  medium sweet potato, peeled diced

2  medium potatoes, diced

14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes with or without green chilies (or use fresh)

1 lb total of butternut squash or acorn squash or carrots or other root vegetable, diced

1 can garbanzo beans or other bean – I like using Black Eye Peas

8 tbs PB2

2-3 tbs Sate Seasoning -start with two and add more if you like

2 cans (small, not the big honking ones) vegetable broth (or chicken). 

For the garnish – prepare and serve on the side for people to spice as they like

·         cilantro, chopped

·         green onions, chopped

·         jalapenos, fresh, chopped

·         lime quarters

·         unsalted dry roasted peanuts

Serve with Brown Rice or for even lower calorie - cauliflower rice!

Recipe

 Brown onion and celery (and chicken, is using).  Use 1 tbs olive oil

Add garlic, cook for two minutes

Add vegetables and garbanzo beans (what ever you are using) (but not PB2), broth, spices

Cook for about 30 minutes, or until root vegetables are soft

Add PB2

Cook for five minutes

Adjust seasonings

Serve over Rice and have the garnishes on the side for people to add as they prefer.