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.

Chicago Style Pizza - How to Make at Home

Places to eat in Madison - Paisan's

Daughter #2 moved to Madison, and asked me, where should I be sure to go out to eat?  So this is the start of a series - Places to eat in Madison

First up - Paisan's.  

Funniest, and most accurate review of Paisan's I have read said "Ownership of a UW alum license plate and likeliness of an appreciation for Paisan's are in direct correlation.".  That is a true statement - or at least certainly the correlation is there for anyone who has gone to UW Madison.

There is a definite split in views on Paisan's - either people think it is the best thing ever, or they think, meh, kind of average.  Put me in the column of best thing ever.  First up - best Pizza ever.  Thin, crispy crust, great toppings (love me some of that italian sausage).   The Porta salad also gets high marks.  Sandwiches - good. Pasta - only meh.  Stick with the Pizza.  

If your interested in an adult beverage, you have to have the Sangria - available in white or red versions, it is the original wine cooler, only it tastes good.

Only downfall is the prices have gone up - $13 for a small pitcher of sangria?  That used to buy you two large!  

White Bean (or Lentil) and Kale (or spinach) and Sausage or Shrimp or ? Soup

This is really a kind of stone soup - there are basic ingredients, but most of them can be mixed and matched, used or not.  It is by far my favorite soup, and it can be vegan, vegetarian, or chock full of meat of sordid types.  One of my favorite ways to make this is with mexican chorizo and shrimp!

The Basics
1 onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced (or minced, but not ever, ever, never pressed)
2 tbs tomato paste
1 cup white wine (or not)
4 cups stock or broth (vegetarian, beef, chicken, veal, ?)
Water (if cooking lentils in soup, you will need additional liquid
1/2 tbs cumin
1/2 tbs rosemary
salt and pepper

Additions
2 cans White Beans (cooked) or Lentils (2 cups cooked or 1 cup not, adjust time in soup if raw and add 2 cups water to recipe) or ?
1 head Kale, off stem and sliced thin, or 3 big handfuls of spinich or whatever leafy green vegetable you have
1 lb italian sausage, or kielbasa or chorizo, or polish sausage or ham or even ground beef.  Or heck, why not, all of them.
1 lb raw, shelled shrimp

Recipe

If using meat, brown (but do nothing with shrimp yet)
Add and saute onion, celery, carrot and potato (in 1 tbs olive oil if not using meat) over medium heat.  Cook till onion and celery are soft - the carrot and potato will still be fairly raw.  Add salt and pepper
Add garlic, cook for 2 minutes
Add tomato paste, cook for several minutes - you want to get the paste to turn a darker color, but not burn
Add wine - cook down to half the volume
Add stock, spinach, lentils and water (if raw), white beans.  Cook for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender.  If using cooked meat add at this time.
After 30 minutes, add lentils if  you are using lentils that are already cooked, cook until hot
If using Shrimp add and cook till done ( 5 minutes is more than enough)
Adjust seasoning
Serve - bread would be great, a salad fine.

If you need to boost the vegies even more, add some green beans.

Sausage and Spaghetti - Healthy Style

There are a number of dishes that are difficult to make in a healthy manner.  Sausage and Spaghetti is one of them.  Combine high fat sausages with high carb spaghetti - the perfect one-two punch to ruin your diet.

Yet, I grew up with it, and I don't want to live without it.   So with that in mind...my version.  

Caveat - adjust amounts for  numbers your feeding.  Below is for 4 people.  Or 2 with leftovers.

Ingredients

1 Onion, diced medium

1 med zucchini, diced medium

8 oz fresh mushroom, quartered if large, halved if small

Archer Farms (Target brand) Chicken and Spinach cooked sausage - leave whole or slice

1 jar spaghetti sauce (Bertolli) - try for something with limited fat and sugar.  If using no sugar sauce, be prepared to add some sugar or other sweetener - it is often to acid without

1 box Rozoni Smart Taste Pasta - 2 oz per person - or less!

1 bag frozen green beans

Cooking instructions

At the same time….do the following three things

1) Saute with 1 tsp oil - onion, zucchini, mushroom, sausage.  You can cook separately if you pan is not large enough - that has the added benefit of cooking them to their preferred doneness.  If you have vegetarians in the house do the sausage separately and serve on the side.  

2) Nuke green beans

3) Cook pasta (don’t over cook), drain

When all are cooked, mix all together in the pasta pot (after you drained out the pasta) with the jar of pasta sauce.   Heat and serve.  Serve with salad if you like.