Meatballs

Another savory dish!  Can you believe it?  I made up this recipe as I went pulling ideas from different recipes I've made before and it worked!  They were really good meatballs and I was able to keep the calories pretty low.  Enjoy!


Italian Meatballs

1 1/2 lbs Ground Beef (or whatever type of meat)
1 egg
2 slices  Bread (I use a Healthy Life wheat... it is a low carb, high fiber bread)
1/3 c. Broth
1/2 onion grated
1/2 TBS Braggs (or Worcestershire)
1 tsp mustard (regular, spicy, brown)
1 tsp onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil (or whatever spices you'd like)
2-3 garlic cloves grated

1.  Soak bread with broth and whisked egg.  After a minute or so of soaking, mash up bread so it is no longer in pieces.  Mix in ground beef and all other ingredients.  Don't over mix the mixture.

2.  Roll into meatballs and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until cooked based on the size you make the meatballs.

I was able to get 21 meatballs and each meatball was about 65 calories. These can be served with your favorite pasta sauce.  I took a small can of tomato sauce, a can of fire roasted tomatoes (both no salt added), fresh spinach, and some Italian spices to make a sauce.

Orange Marmalade Chicken

Finally, something other than a dessert!  When I'm not making dessert I'm trying to take meals and make them healthier.  I know I'm either one extreme or another.  I can't help it I have a sweet tooth and I need to make up for it somehow!  Trust me I'll be hitting the gym a little more this week because of that pie and cake! 

Usually by the time I get home from work and go to the gym its rather late cooking dinner, which isn't a problem because D has class at night anyway.  So during the week I'm looking for quick cooking no fuss meals.  We had some low sugar orange marmalade left over from some homemade BBQ sauce so I decided to finally put it to use on this recipe I found on Eating Well and then modified slightly... mostly just nixing the olive oil and shallots (which I would normally sub in onions but I was too lazy to chop!)  Below is my modified recipe and if you'd like the original follow the link by clicking on the name of the dish below.

Orange Marmalade Chicken (Modified from Eating Well)

Ingredients
• 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade (I increased to 3 and used the low sugar kind)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 pound chicken cut into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Whisk broth, vinegar, marmalade, mustard and cornstarch in a medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat sprayed with cooking spray. Add the chicken and cook until golden. Transfer to a plate.

3. Whisk the broth mixture and add it to the pan. Bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer; cook until the sauce is slightly reduced and thickened. Add the chicken; return to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is heated back through, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and serve.

Note:

• The sauce thickens even more when sitting, by the time D got home to eat his the sauce was much thicker and coated the chicken much more than when I ate.
• This would be really good served with rice (but we avoid that carb) or tofu shiratki noodles since they are such a great noodle swap.

Cake decorating week 4: cake #3

This week we learned the basket weave and also using color (of course I would pick purple!!).  We learned two various color techniques, the first we used for flower and involved striping a color with white in the pastry bag.  Then we played with which direction the tip was to give different color effects.  Then we did another striping technique with various shades of green for our leaves.   After playing with colors and various tips, I was too lazy to change back to the basket weave tip so my cake this week did not feature it... I want to try it next week just so I can make sure I can actually make it look nice on a cake.

Here are some pictures!

Showing off my new plate....  

Carrot Cake

With all the cakes being made for cake decorating class, I got a request for carrot cake.  My typical carrot cake is made in a bundt pan and I wasn't sure it would work as a layer cake, so I started a search for a quick easy carrot cake.  This cake was quick to put together (except for the grating carrots) and tasted just as good as my other one!  Next time, I will just use the food processor to grate the carrots!  I was just too lazy to get it out, but in the long run it would have been less work!  


Carrot Cake (Adapted from Baking Junkie, visit the link for the original)


2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (I didn't fill the cups completely full)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8  to 1/4 tsp ginger, all spice, nutmeg, cloves  (I added these to the original recipe)
3 cups finely shredded carrot
1 cup vegetable oil
2 oz crushed walnuts (or more, another addition of mine.)
4 eggs


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of mixer beat together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and spices. Add in carrot, vegetable oil and eggs and mix with mixer. Pour into two well greased 9 inch round cake pans (I used 8 inch because that's what we need for class). Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Daring Cooks: Cevieche and Papas Rellenas

On to our 2nd Daring Cooks’ challenge! On to March’s challenge! This month was two classic Peruvian dishes, Ceviche and a Papas Rellenas.

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

D and I have always wanted to try Ceviche but both of us were completely scared! We aren’t the biggest fish eaters in the first place and for it to only be cooked with lime juice is scary. We went on a hunt to find some decent looking fish at the grocery store so that we would feel more comfortable not cooking it with heat. We luckily found some Cod to use. For the ceviche we sliced the fish up small and placed it into a food saver bag with some onions, the juice of some limes mixed with some chili paste.

We left this sealed up in the fridge until we finished making our Papas, I think it was about 30-45 minutes?? D made me try it first before he’d try it. The fish tasted ok… well it tasted just like lime; however, neither of us could get over the texture. So unfortunately we threw it down the drain. Luckily, we suspected we would do this so we only used one small piece of fish.

Now on to the Papas Rellenas... First, you pretty much make mashed potatoes and add an egg.

Now, for the filling, the original recipe included raisins and hard boiled egg in with the ground beef. Well, D and I have had a bad dinner experience with ground meat and a sweet element… so we wanted to stay away from raisins in our meat. Also, D is not a huge boiled egg fan. With the meat being the filling in a potato dish, Shepherd’s Pie popped into my head and wouldn't go away. We took some onion, celery, carrot, peas and mixed that in with our ground beef along with some spices.

Next you take your potato mixture and stuff it with the meat and form the potato shapes.

These are then breaded using flour, egg, and then Panko bread crumbs.

Finally, they are fried to a golden brown.

Now its time to eat!

These Papas were delish! These are something I’d like to try to make again with different fillings and probably baking them instead of frying them to make them healthier.

If you'd like to try either recipe go here!  You can also see what the other Daring Cooks accomplished!

Sour Cream Apple Pie

I may not like pie crust much, but I like pie fillings.  My grandma's pumpkin pie is my all time fave, but this sour cream apple comes in 2nd.  It reminds me of being a kid and having pie at my grandma's house.  I love making things that remind me of being a kid with my family.

Sour Cream Apple Pie

Filling:
1 egg
1 1/2 c. sour cream
3 TBS flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 c. sliced apples - McIntosh or Northern Spy preferred (I used golden delicious)
Large Pie Plate
1- 9" pie crust (see My Grandma's Pie Crust)

Topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. butter
1/3 c. flour

Beat egg, stir in sour cream, 3 TBS flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Add apples and mix. Pour filling into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 375 deg for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Mix brown sugar, butter and flour until crumbly.  Sprinkle over top of pie.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 deg and bake for 15 minutes.


I'm sharing this post at Prairie story check out the other recipes.

Grandma's Pie Crust

I don't even like pie crust... or pie for that matter.  Talking to D... he doesn't really like pie crust either.  I do know that my Grandma's pie crust is better than any other pie crust, but I still never really ate it.  My mom always loved pie crust.  Especially when my Grandma would take the extra and make cookies with it.. sprinkling the dough with sugar.

Pie was on my mind and I wanted to have it.  So off I went on the adventure to make pie crust.  I talked to my mom and she told me that she uses a pastry cutter to cut the shortening into the flour.. I don't have one so I attempted to do it with 2 knives, I think it actually worked out.  A little more difficult then pastry cutter.  Next, she told me after I added the water to not handle it too much... I'm pretty sure I handled it too much.  I had trouble rolling it.  However, I did get a pie crust into my dish and a pie in the oven.  And... I finally admit it... I LOVE THIS PIE CRUST!!

My Grandma's Crust

2 cups Sifted flour
1 tsp Salt
3/4 c Shortening
Cut shortening into flour using 2 knives (or a pastry cutter).
1/4 c. water

Bring together handling as little as possible.  Next roll out the crust to fit into your pie pan.  This recipe will make 2 crusts.

This is what the mixture looked like when I was cutting with 2 knives.