Recipe: Italian Turkey Meatballs

Tonight I made a delicious recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Parmesian Orzo with Meatballs.

As much as I love the recipes in this book, they often call for pre-packaged or frozen ingredients.  For economical as well as health reasons, I prefer to make things fresh and from scratch.  So when the recipe called for a bag of frozen meatballs, I set out to figure out how to make them!

I found this recipe and altered it according to what I have, as well as what I preferred.

I will have to add photos of the preparation process in the future, as I got too busy and forgot to take them!

But here's the finished product:

And here are the meatballs with the Parmesian Orzo.

...and the recipe!

You will need:
1 lb ground turkey
2 T Italian seasoning
1 T Basil
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 T milk
2 mozzarella cheese sticks

Combine all ingredients except the cheese sticks in a medium bowl.  Cut the cheese sticks into rounds about 1" long (about 15 per stick).  Use a soup-sized spoon to portion out amounts of meat--about 1 T each, maybe a little more, eyeball it!  They should be roughly the size of a ping pong ball. Put 1 piece of cut cheese into the meat and roll it into a ball.  Place each ball onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes about 30 meatballs.

These came out very juicy and delicious!!!

Meal Idea: Homemade Chili & Cornbread

As I learn more and more about cooking and food, naturally I want to try and create some of my own recipes. So today, I decided to experiment with chili!

A day like this... definitely calls for such a hearty, hot meal.  What a chilly start to May! (no pun intended :D )

Ingredients:
1 15-oz can each of Pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, and great northern beans.
1 28-oz can organic fire-roasted tomatoes, diced, with liquid
half of a yellow onion, diced
4-5 garlic cloves, diced
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 TBSP chili powder
1 cup of water (based on cook time of 4-5 hours)

Throw it all in a crock pot on high for 4-5 hours.  If you need it to cook longer, add some extra water, based on the consistency you prefer your chili.

This is the oh-so-delicious result:

This chili, as I prepared it today, is "kid-friendly".  It wasn't at all spicy, but it was VERY flavorful!  I'm going to attempt to give it some more "kick" next time. :)

I also made homemade cornbread!  I got the recipe here, but for your convenience I will repost it.  I just want to give credit where it is due!

1 cup of corn meal
1 cup of flour
2-4 TBSP sugar (I used 2 and it was perfect!)
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil (I used canola)

whisk the corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk and oil.  Then add the wet mixture to the dry and stir together until JUST combined.  Then pour into a 9x9 baking dish.  Bake at 425 for 15-20 mins or until a golden brown.  Tastes great plain OR with a bit of butter!

This is the perfect meal for a late spring stormy day or in the fall/winter!

Idea: Need Input!

Today as I was driving home I had an idea for a potential side business.

During the day at work, many people get hungry and order in food for lunch, or go out to eat.  Often times these meals aren't very healthy, and certainly not as delicious as home-cooked food.  Even the healthier options can be quite costly.
People also don't always have the time and energy to put together a delicious, nutritious, homemade meal for lunch at work the next day.

What if there was an option for a healthy, homemade meal to be delivered to you?

This meal might be something hot, fresh-cooked.  Or it could be a more traditional lunch, consisting of a sandwich and side items, for instance.

The ingredients would be homemade, organic, and/or all-natural.  The food would of course taste delicious and have the healthiness of eating at home.

I haven't done the cost research yet, but the goal is to find a way to prepare these meals that is a good value to the customer--not too expensive, but enough to cover food costs and the expense of delivery with a small profit.

I also had the idea that this might be lucrative for dinner as well!  Sometimes families are in a hurry or don't have much time or energy, but they don't want to succumb to eating out or ordering in constantly--these are not the healthiest options.  What if they could order a truly homecooked meal to be delivered?

And this wouldn't just benefit families... I personally have single friends who aren't very adept at cooking, and/or are too tired at the end of a long work day to prepare something very desirable that doesn't just go in the microwave.

Having been told repeatedly how delicious my food is, I know I could provide quality food.  I also have ideas as to how to make this work logistically. But to begin with, I want to know if people would be interested! I want to know others' thoughts on types of foods that would appeal to them in this format.  And any other thoughts that might arise!

Please respond, and feel free to share this idea with others so I can get some input! Thank you! :)

Dinner Idea: Southwest Mac n Cheese

Tonight I cooked and served up my most original recipe yet: Southwest Mac n Cheese.

I LOVE mac n cheese. So when I saw a recipe with a similar title in a cookbook I love, I just HAD to give it a try.  Problem was, I didn't appreciate that recipe enough. :)  It had ingredients I didn't think were wholesome enough, and it seemed kind of... boring. But the IDEA was excellent!

So, I took my own regular homemade mac n cheese recipe and added a bunch of delicious things to it--black beans, corn, chili peppers, and bell peppers.  I also added chili powder and just a bit of seasoning salt to bring out the flavors.  In the end it needed a bit more flavor from the spices, but this recipe was a great start!

I was just playing around with it tonight, in terms of quantities, so I didn't take any accurate measurements.  I'll make this recipe again in a few weeks and actually measure things, so I can post a recipe for everyone to enjoy!

Meal Idea: Homemade Mac N Cheese

I LOVE macaroni and cheese. Well, I love pretty much anything with cheese. It's heaven in my mouth.

So you can imagine my horror when I dared to look at the nutrition info and ingredients of a box of mac n cheese from the store one day. YIKES. I knew I loved mac n cheese too much to give it up... and yet I wanted to eat something healthier. Even the organic boxes didn't seem healthy enough.

So one day, I decided to make my own!

It's actually not that difficult. I followed a basic cheese sauce recipe and added it the the noodles. I start boiling the water for the pasta (medium-high, covered) before I begin the cheese sauce. I prefer using mini shells, but all sorts of noodles work just fine!

The following amounts are enough for about 12 oz of pasta.

2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour (basically, just keep equal portions of each if you increase or decrease the amount you make)
1 cup milk

1 cup cheese (I find sharp cheddar is the most flavorful without having to add salt. It's also fun to add different kinds of cheeses. Mix it up!)

First melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Then mix in the flour until it's thoroughly combined. Gradually add the milk, about 1/4 cup at a time. Once all

the milk is in, stir continually until the mixture boils.

Once the water for the pasta has boiled, take a quick break from stirring (or wrangle a helper!) and add the pasta.

When it just starts to boil, remove from the heat and stir in the cheese! (a note: you can add more cheese if you like, it just increases the thickness. It does NOT increase the flavor to add more cheese.)

If your pasta is ready, go ahead and drain/strain it. Then add it to the cheese sauce. YUM!

My favorite pairing of side dishes with mac n cheese is broccoli and sausage. I like smoked kielbasa, although most recently we tried a new apple-flavored natural sausage that was DELICIOUS. This meal is sure to be a hit with

kids--it was my favorite growing up! :)