Veg-full meatballs

I made these incredible meatballs tonight: 16 ping pong sized meatballs baked at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Mix:

- 1 pound 80/20 ground beef

- about 1 cup chopped kale

- about 1/2 cup chopped zucchini

- about 1/2 cup diced peppers (mixed colors)

- about four tablespoons parsley

- about 1 teaspoon garlic pepper

- about 4 ounces crumbled Bulgarian feta

It was a little wet so I added 1/4 cup breadcrumbs. 

Turkey spinach meatball

We made a batch of turkey spinach meatballs tonight to serve open-faced on white Italian sliced bread.

I made chicken gravy from my homemade chicken stock to get that soggy white bread comfort food sensation. I made the gravy in the pan I baked the meatballs in. So the dried turkey drippings and chicken stock mixed with some Italian seasoning and a pinch of flour equaled my gravy.

The meatballs were one pack of Jennie-O lean ground turkey, too much garlic powder, about 2 cups raw spinach, parsley, one tablespoon fresh ground pepper, and about three tablespoons ras el hanout.

I wanted 20 meatballs but only got 12. And they were small. And yummy.

Must make double batch next time.

Early dinners

Since I've worked all weekend, and closing shift, we've had hot meals earlier in the day to get "real food" into me before I head to Target café.

Yesterday we had an early lunch of leftovers, including eggplant, green beans and vegetarian piggies in the blanket. For dinner, at 4 before I headed off, my husband made spaghetti and meatballs.

We froze some meatballs for later use.

Today, at noon, we're enjoying vegetarian and gluten free channa dal from a package to which I added loads of spinach and hearty brown rice. The beverage was Very Vanilla Silk.

Speaking of Target, I finished my work on time last night for the first time in ages. The dishwasher has been broken for about a month and washing piles of dirty cast iron pizza pans has been fun to say the least.

But last night I got done on time and could buy some household items. Sadly Target had no more canning lids.

But I did pick up the following:
- ocean spray 64 ounce bottle of cran-raspberry juice, on sale for $2.39
- Market Pantry pasta sauce, one traditional and one garden vegetable. $1.32 each. I have no intention of eating them. I don't use jarred sauce. They are for my father-in-law who read in Consumer Reports that the Target brand is the best spaghetti sauce. After he told me this four times, I'm buying him some.
- archer farms organic hibiscus tea, $2.99
- Tazo decaf chai tea bags, $2.99
- archer farms sea salt caramel hot chocolate mix, $4.49 (splurge but the child has to have something yummy for the occasional crisp fall morning)
- sugar, $2.69
- Silk vanilla almond milk, $3.19
- Silk very vanilla soy milk, $2.99
- Breyers waffle cone burst ice cream, 2 cartons on clearance for $3.07 each

Total: $30.51
Minus team member discount: -3.06
RedCard: -1.37
Tax: 12 cents
New total: $26.20

Meatballs Fortano/First school lunch

Today was the first day of school.

For my daughter, we packed:
- peanut butter and blackberry jam on homemade cinnamon raisin bread
- banana
- white grape raspberry juice in a thermos with the same juice made into ice cubes to keep the thermos cold. They were Christmas tree ice cubes.
- About ten animal crackers
- a banana
- two Swedish fish

We packed something similar for my and my husband's lunch. Except we had cupcakes instead of Swedish fish.

For dinner, I got some tomatoes and basil from the garden and made bruschetta before I left for school.

When we got home, I got two everything bagels out of the freezer (last two). I thawed and toasted them, put the last of the cheddar cheese on them, and melted it. I stirred some grated romano into the bruschetta and piled the bruschetta on the bagels.

I got the leftover basil-mango-meatballs from the freezer and served them with the bruschetta bagels.

My daughter called this meal, Meatballs Fortano. She said the bagels reminded her of forts.

Mango Basil Meatballs

Looking at the week ahead, I opted for some red meat for dinner. Local beef from a nearby dairy farm, but hamburger nonetheless. Meatballs. Served as? Not sure. But it won't involve red sauce or pasta since we had that for lunch and it's too late in the game to make brown rice.

Betty Crocker's Meatball recipe is this:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 egg

Mix. Make 1.5 inches balls. Cook in 13x9x2 inch rectangular pan at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

But we all know I can't follow a recipe. I swapped the rectangular dish for my Le Creuset skillet.

Here are my ingredients:
- 1 package (I hope it's) 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup crumbled Matzoh
(now my meat was frozen and I thawed it in the microwave and it got juicy, then the Matzoh was too big, so I tossed it all in and improvised)
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup mango coconut pepper sauce (to replace the milk, but I misread the amount)
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- 10 leaves fresh basil from the garden, torn
- 1 egg

They "feel" "right."

Will keep you posted.

They were incredible!

Mommy's meatballs

• 1/2 cup mixed Italian vegetables, smashed
• about 1 cup hamburger
• about 3/4 cup cheddar cheese cubes
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs from homemade bread
• 3 small cloves roasted garlic
• 6 ounces tomato paste
  

Smoosh vegetables and garlic with pastry blender. Add all ingredients except cheese. When everything is mixed, fold in cheese.

I'm going to fry them in the Le Creuset skillet in the extra virgin olive oil from Forks Mediterranean Deli.

Okay, so I based this on a recipe from about.com and I noticed it didn't include egg. My meatballs don't appear to be binding. I don't know if it's because I'm frying them and turning them too much or because of the egg. Or because of some of my strange ingredients.

I finally smashed them all and added the sauce to the frying pan and let it all simmer into meat sauce.