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.

Best Way to Cook Bacon Ever?

Makes sense to me (great way to cook brats/sausage for sure).  If only my wife could eat bacon or my daughter would eat bacon.....

So sad for me

Rice and Beans - Southwest Style (a.k.a. Spanish or Mexican rice) - Vegetarian also!

Rice and Beans are a classic combination across the world.  Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cajun, and many others.

But as far as I can tell, you can't get "spanish" rice in Spain, nor do you get (typically) rice and refried beans in Mexico (unless you are a restaurant catering to gringos)

Yet I love Rice and Refried Beans.  The only problem is most places the beans are boring (and seemingly straight out of a can) and the rice is a frighting dish too often prepared with tomato soup.  Blech.

However, I am also cognizant of time - how can I get dinner made while fitting it in with everything else that has to get done.  And finally you have the whole rice issue - it's basically like eating sugar pills - simple carbs that add nothing of value (although yes, I understand they make a complete protein when served with beans)

So here is my Rice and Beans recipe - Mexican style - fast, nutritious and delicious.  Just don't pretend this is how it is done in Mexico.  Or Spain.

Ingredients

Cooked Brown Rice (You do make extra when you make other dishes, right?  Otherwise this dish takes way to long to make), 8 ounces cooked.  Basically 2 ounces per serving - no more.
1/2 onion, white, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs Chicken Taco Seasoning (from Penzeys), in 1/4 cup water
Peas - 16 ounces.  Frozen works great.
1 fresh tomato, diced (or 2 Roma)
1 Can, Vegetarian Refried Beans
1 tbs Rojo Taco Seasoning (Penzeys again).  Or cumin and cilantro if you don't like heat
Water
Cooking Spray or oil

Obviously you will have to adjust based on how many you are serving - the above is for 4 people.  You want at least 2 ounces of peas to 1 ounce of rice.

Recipe

Rice -

If using frozen peas, microwave about 1/2 the time on the package (your thawing them, not cooking at this time)
Heat non stick frying pan, spray with cooking spray or 1 tbs oil
Add onions - cook till just starting to brown
Add garlic, cook 2 minutes
Add rice and peas
Add Chicken Taco Seasoning that has been rehydrated as above
Cook 5 minutes.
Mix in diced tomato (your heating, not cooking the tomato)
If you turn off the heat but leave it in the pan it will hold for at least 5 minutes till your ready to serve.  Just cover with a clean dish towel

Beans -

Place beans in pan on stove, add 1/4 cup water and seasoning (either the Rojo or the cumin/cilantro).  Mix well
Heat for 5 minutes at medium heat.  Add 1/4 water (or broth) as needed to thin - the beans should be thin (think thick pancake batter), not watery or soupy

Serve next to each other, not mixed.  These are often served as a side dish, but there is no reason you could not serve this with a fresh salad dressed with guacamole and sour cream and it would be a great meal.  Or feel free to serve with carnitas or tinga or grilled chicken

Low Calorie, Low Fat, Low Carb - Great Tasting Pizza

As anyone on a diet can tell you, pizza is terrible for you.

The crust is a big pile of sugar, the cheese is full of fat (as are many of the ingredients) and you eat way to much of it at one sitting.  But it tastes so good!

Most diet options are bad options that don't really satisfy the craving for pizza.

The hardest place to start is the crust - most diet crusts are not really crusts, and don't really satisfy.  We just found one that does - a thin crust, whole heat, low fat, low sugar pre-made crust - from Wisconsin!

Golden Home Bakery makes a 100% whole grain, thin thin thin pizza crust.  One serving - which is a third of the pizza, not a tiny slice, is 130 calories, 1.5g fat, 25g carb, 4 g fiber and only 1 gram sugar.  Not great for you, but really pretty good.

The best part is - it tastes great!  I mean it is a good crust that holds up well and is a real "cracker" crust - which is my favorite.

Smear on a little sauce (go edge to edge - if you don't the edges get too crispy), add toppings (go cooked onions and mushrooms, thin sliced tomatoes, a little italian sausage (turkey or chicken!), some basil from the garden, a dusting of cheese (just a dusting - no layering it on), some penzey's pizza seasoning - bake for 12-14 minutes at 450 degrees...Tastes great.  I mean it really does.

You can have pizza and not kill your diet.  Purchased at Gordy's in Eau Claire - Birch Street.