Loaded Turkey Meat Balls

I had been dying for some hearty Italian food, so I finally just made it. You can definitely use ground beef in place of the ground turkey (as usual, I chose ground turkey just because it's too easy of a tweak to make the meal healthier). But I also understand that sometimes.... you just gotta go all out and live a little! Whether you use beef or turkey or a combination of meats, these loaded meatballs -seasoned with lots of flavor and loaded with a molten mozzarella center- will certainly fill you up.


Meatball Ingredients (makes 12 large meatballs, serves 4-6):

• 1/2 large Yellow Onion, finely diced
• 2 teaspoons Garlic, minced (about 3 cloves)
• 1/3 cup seasoned Bread Crumbs
• 1 teaspoon dried Basil (or whichever Italian seasonings or blends you prefer)
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
• a few cranks of ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 large Egg
• 1 generous Tablespoon of Tomato Paste
• 1 lb. Lean Ground Turkey

additional ingredients if making marinara sauce:

• 1/2 large Yellow Onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons Garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup Red Wine (I used Cab Sav, but use what you like)
• 1 can Tomato Paste (minus the Tbsp used to make the meatballs)
• 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 teaspoon minced Garlic
• Basil or other Italian seasonings

Heat extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, then add the finely diced onions. Reduce heat to medium-low and sautee onions until golden brown and translucent (almost 10 minutes). (At this time, remove half the sauteed onion and save for use later when making the sauce). Then add the 2 tsps minced garlic and continue to saute for no more than one more minute. Transfer sauteed onion mixture to a large bowl:

toss with the bread crumbs, allow to cool a little:

Add basil, red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and parmesan cheese. Mix well. 

Then add the remaining ingredients (egg, tomato paste, and ground turkey). Use your hands to make sure it is all mixed together. 

Form into 12 large meatballs. Push a hole into each meatball, stuff with a cube of mozzarella, and seal up the hole again. 

In the same pan as used to sautee onion, heat more E.V.O.O. and sear all the meatballs turning every few minutes until golden-browned on all sides. 

Then transfer to a 400 degree F oven for 15 minutes.

Now use your meatball pan to make your red sauce. Over medium heat, pour 1/2 cup red wine into the pan and scrape all the yummy flavors from the bottom of the pan into your sauce. Stir frequently and allow the wine to thicken. 

Then add the other half of the sauteed onions, the additional garlic, and the remainder of the tomato paste can, stir well. Then continue as with this quick marinara recipe, by adding the crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and basil -or any other desired seasonings. Turn heat to LOW, and let sauce simmer so that it can thicken and all the flavors can marry together. 

Now, nestle the meatballs into the sauce. 

Give them a good stir and keep warm over LOW heat until ready to serve.

A healthier version of such a yummy comfort food, mmmm....

Comforting Southern Jambalaya

This past week was 'Mardi Gras'! Mardi Gras is a large festivity in southern culture; it is a time for celebration and feasting on fatty and rich foods before it is all given up for lent. I found it as a fun excuse to make a southern dish and celebrate with a dinner party, even though I do not practice lent, nor are there any Mardi Gras parades or celebrations in Orange County :) 

Jambalaya is traditionally a spicy cajun dish made up of chicken, andouille sausage, and shrimp cooked in a pot with rice and the 'trinity' vegetables (bell peppers, onions, and celery).  My version of jambalaya is sans shrimp, but you could easily add it in (I will note in the recipe where to add it in if you wish to do so). In addition to this, though Mardi Gras is about fattening feasts, my version of Jambalaya is not such a 'fatty' one. I opted for fat free, low sodium chicken broth and a lean turkey sausage. I wanted to enjoy the rich flavor of southern comfort foods, but without all the fat. This jambalaya is fun, filling, and packed full of flavor!

Shopping List (for 4 large servings):

• 1 lb spicy Sausage (I used a lean Turkey 'Hot Italian sausage', but you could go for the more traditional Andouille pork sausage or any other sausage you wish)
• 8 Chicken cutlets (2 per person, so add accordingly if you are cooking for more)
• ground Black Pepper, to season chicken
• 1 large Bell Pepper, diced (it traditionally uses green, but I used red because it's sweeter and I like the sweet contrast in my spicy dishes-- you can use whichever you like)
• 1/2 large Yellow or White Onion, diced
• 2 or 3 large Celery stalks, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced Garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1 can Diced Tomatoes
• 4 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 cups long grain Rice (I used white, you can certainly use brown)
• Grape Seed Oil, for browning and sauteeing (I like to use grape seed oil because it has a higher flash point and it is almost flavorless in comparison to olive oil, but you can use any oil you prefer)
• ***Optional: peeled shrimp, additional cayenne or red pepper flakes for more spice.

If your sausages are precooked, then you can just slice them and skip this step. If your sausages are raw, then heat some oil in your pot to brown the sausages and allow them to cook through so that you can slice them.

Add more oil into your pot and heat it up so you can continue to brown your sliced sausage.

Once your sausage medallions are browned, remove from pot, add more oil, season your chicken with black pepper, and brown the chicken in the same pot. (they will pick up some of that nice spicy flavor that the sausages left behind).

Once your chicken is all browned on both sides, remove from pot and add all your diced 'trinity' veggies. Let them saute together over medium-low heat for a few good minutes until they are sweet, soft, and translucent:

After your veggies are all done, add in the can of diced tomatoes, the minced garlic, and the cayenne pepper. Give it a good stir so that all the flavors are mixed together :)

Then add the sausage and the chicken back into the pot:

Add your 2 cups of rice, and 4 cups of chicken broth:

Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then fit tightly with a lid, turn the heat to LOW, and let it cook covered for about 20 minutes (If you wish to add shrimp, add it into the pot here during the last 10 or the 20 minutes that the rice is cooking). Then turn off the heat and let it sit for another 5 minutes with the lid ON so that the rice can complete cooking and soaking up all the yummy flavors.

After your rice is done, remove the lid and look at the beautiful, bright, and flavorful dish that you have made! 

In addition to super easy cleanup, one of the benefits of a 'one pot meal' is that none of the flavors are lost; all the flavor stays in the same pot and seasons the whole dish! The spicy sausage that was browned in the beginning successfully shared its sesonings with everything else added into the pot after it, and then the rice got to soak up all the yummy flavors while it cooked :) Hardly any additional seasoning was even necessary.

Stir it together and plate up a big yummy serving! 

Mama's Lasagna

This is my mama's lasagna. Our family grew up with this as one of our favorite dinners, and it continued to be one of my favorite comfort foods to cook when I went away to college. Now, it is one of Peter's favorites that I get to cook for him! I have only made a few minor alterations to the original version I was given. My mom and my dad are VERY different when it comes to their food preferences. My mom enjoys healthier foods, and my dad prefers the 'fully-leaded' versions. However, this lasagna is the PERFECT balance. Mom figured out how to make some easy, healthy substitutions that taste great, and Papa still gets his meaty, cheesy, delicious lasagna. 


Recipe: 

• 1/2 lb (1/2 16 oz. box) Lasagna Noodles (you can use whole wheat pasta to make it even healthier), cooked & drained
• 1 lb lean ground Turkey (instead of red meat)
• 16 oz. shredded Mozzarella Cheese (low moisture- part skim for lower fat content)
• 16 oz. fat free Cottage Cheese (instead of ricotta-- if you're not a cottage cheese fan, DON'T WORRY- this does not taste like cottage cheese and you won't even know it's there! For proof, Peter can't stand cottage cheese, but loves this lasagna.)
• 2 eggs (remove one or both yolks to reduce cholesterol)
• 1 jar of Red Sauce, or 1 batch of homemade pasta sauce
• Parmesan Cheese for topping (about 3/4 cup)

**Nutrition Noteworthy: Among cheeses, part-skim mozzarella, nonfat cottage cheese and parmesan cheese rank as some of the best for being lowest in calories, fat, and cholesterol. Part-skim mozzarella and parmesan also rank fairly high for their calcium levels. However, all cheeses are generally high in sodium, so proceed with caution (especially if you have high blood pressure, heart conditions, or compromised kidney function.)

While your noodles are boiling, brown your ground turkey in some extra virgin olive oil.

When the meat is browned and cooked through, add the red sauce and let simmer. (optional: I also added 2 chopped zucchinis and a couple good handfuls of spinach leaves into the sauce as well. It may look like a LOT of spinach, but it will wilt down to nothing in the sauce. This is a great way to sneak in some veggies for your picky eaters.) Stir all together and let simmer over medium-low heat.

**Nutrition Noteworthy: Spinach is a nutritional powerhouse; it is a GREAT source of Iron, Calcium, Vitamins C & A, and Folic Acid... in addition to many other vitamins and health benefits. 

See how much the veggies have reduced!

 While your sauce is simmering, mix together the cheesy filling: Cottage cheese, mozzarella, and the 2 eggs.

Helpful Hint: Spread some of the red sauce and/or some extra oil on the bottom of the pan before you start layering, or else the noodles on the bottom will bake hard onto your pan, and it won't scoop out nicely.

Then drain your cooked noodles and start layering your ingredients as follows: 

1. Noodles
2. 1/2 of cheesy mixture
3. Noodles
4. 1/2 of red sauce
5. other 1/2 of cheesy mixture
6. Noodles
7. other 1/2 of red sauce
8. Top with parmesan

 Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until it is heated all the way through and the parmesan is golden and bubbly on top.

Also, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes before you try to cut in to it. This will let it firm and set up. Otherwise you will try to serve it onto a plate and it will run apart kind of soupy. Trust me, it will still be hot, but it will look much nicer for serving if you do wait a few minutes.

Leftovers pack easily, and reheat well in containers to take to the office for lunch.

It also freezes well; I like to cut leftovers into individual serving sizes and freeze the portions in ziplock baggies. Then, if Peter is home alone, or if I don't have time to make dinner, there is always some homemade lasagna ready to step up to the plate!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

This night, I had every intention of making something completely different for dinner. I had a whole menu planned, but plans changed after I browsed through the grocery fliers that had come in the mail. When I saw all the beautiful produce items featured in the mailer, I decided that I would make a recipe to  use those ingredients instead. These beautiful and SUPER HEALTHY stuffed bell peppers were the result.

Recipe List (for 2 large servings):

• 1 large Red Bell Pepper (or 2 medium Bell Peppers)- Our bell peppers weren't that big, so it needed the extra half of our second medium bell pepper... Peter didn't complain :)
• 1/2 medium Yellow Onion, diced
• 1/2 lb lean Ground Turkey
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Lemon Pepper
• 1 cup Rice, precooked
• 4 tbsp (or 1/4 cup) of either tomato sauce or tomato paste
• 1 large Roma Tomato, diced

First, preheat your oven to 350 degress F. Then, saute your diced onion in extra virgin olive oil:

Then add the ground turkey, minced garlic, and seasonings:

When the turkey has browned and cooked through, add the rice and tomato sauce/paste and mix well:

Then gently mix in the diced tomato:

Now grab the bell peppers that you have cut in half and deseeded:

Stuff them with your rice mixture:

Top with some parmesan cheese:

Fill a shallow oven-safe dish or a jelly-roll pan with water until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Stand your stuffed peppers in the shallow water. 

Bake in a 350 degree F preheated oven for 25 minutes or so, until the bell pepper looks soft and sweet and the parmesan is golden on top:

 

Plate it up with a side that will compliment these tasty and nutritious stuffed peppers

 

Alterations: 

• I have seen some other versions where the bell pepper halves are blanched before they are stuffed. This will give them a little head start on the cooking process and will result in even softer and sweeter peppers. I might recommend this for those who aren't big bell pepper fans (I used to not be a bell pepper fan at all... a seemingly cardinal sin as a Nutritionist; when I was in college, all the nutrition majors would show up to class with water bottles and baggies of home-packed snacks: celery sticks, carrots, and bell pepper slices... I wanted to fit in, but I wasn't a bell pepper fan yet). 
• You can also follow this same recipe, but use it to make stuffed zucchini or stuffed tomatoes!
• You can make this healthy recipe even healthier by substituting brown rice for white rice :)