Macaroni and Meatballs

Just finished a DELICIOUS dinner. I had 1 lb of ground turkey leftover in my freezer so I decided to make my 2nd batch of turkey meatballs. I chopped up 1/3 of a white onion, garlic, a small jalapeno, and mixed it with the turkey. Added salt, pepper, paprika, chili flakes, soya sauce, and the secret ingredient: one egg. The egg helps the lean turkey become juicy on the inside since there's not much fat to start off with.

Formed them into 1 inch diameter meatballs and powdered them off with potato starch for a nicer crust when you fry them. Turned my stove on high and pan fried the meatballs, flipping them onto uncooked sides every so often. Added Classico spinach and cheese sauce along with some canned diced tomato and simmered the whole thing for another 5-10 minutes until no longer pink inside. 

Voila.

It was DELICIOUS. 1 pound of turkey made 15 meatballs, of which I've only devoured 5, so lots of yummy leftovers :)

Here's the recipe:

Meatballs:

1 pound of turkey

1/3 white onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small jalapeno

1 egg

salt

pepper

paprika

chili flakes

potato starch

Sauce:

Classico spinach and cheese tomato sauce

1 cup of canned diced tomatoes (including juice)

Directions:

1. Combine meatball ingredients together, season to taste (though don't eat any of the raw turkey, duh)

2. Pan fry meatballs on high, adjust to med-high if needed

3. Turn meatballs once each side is browned

- the pan frying should take 6-8 minutes

4. Once all sides are browned, add sauce (to prevent burning) and turn heat down to medium

5. Cover with a lid and cook until done (another 6-8 min...I just cut them open to check for non-pinkiness)

Enjoy.

The Weekend Meals aka Leftovers

So I finally cooked an omelette correctly (I turned down my super-powerful stove to medium for most of the cooking time). I still got to learn how to flip them over in one piece though. This picture is a little deceiving because I use two whole eggs and I add egg white...so it's quite a big meal. This one was a mushroom and broccoli omelette I believe. 

I began to finish the fresh food stored in my fridge, and that included shredded chicken (how I miss thee), baby carrots, and leftover rice. I threw it all together and added barbecue sauce (can't beat the Ribfest-bought sauces) and it didn't turn out too bad. Whenever I eat a dish, I try to eat the stuff I don't like first (aka carrots) and the stuff I like last, so I can enjoy it. In hindsight, I should've chopped up the carrots and softened them with heat for longer.

I didn't feel like prepping any meat for this meal, so I grabbed cottage cheese for the protein, and for the awesomeness that is cottage cheese. I suppose I got all artistic with this one...makes up for the butchered omelette presentation.

Still having problems with steak on the stovetop...it burns too fast when I have it on high...but it feels so weird to be cooking steak on medium. The middle was still raw after 2 min/side on high so I ended up deglazing the pan with water for about another 3 min. Added sauteed mushroom/onion/cilantro (have you heard how much I love cilantro? and I'm out right now D: ) and olive bread from the St. Lawrence Market back in Toronto. Also running out of good bread. Who thought it could be so depressing?

Finally, we come to tonight's dinner. I didn't want to think too much so I grabbed two cans of tuna, a can of Campbell's mushroom soup, a bag of snap peas and spaghetti. Softened the peas in mushroom soup + half can of water, combined, voila (I'm getting really lazy with the descriptions aren't I...well its not that hard....seriously). Made enough for lunch as well (other half of steak turned into a sandwich today). This is quite an important point: double your dinner portion for lunch the next day - less cooking, cleaning, more How I Met Your Mother. 

Thanks if you read this far!