Beef Italian Meatballs

2 lbs. ground beef

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 cup parmesan

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp. parsley

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. ground fennel

3/4 tsp. cayenne

Heat oven to 400 F. Beat the eggs, pour in the breadcrumbs, parmesan and water.  In a separate small bowl, mix the spices and then mix them gently with the egg/breadcrumb mixture.  Put the meat in and mix gently.  

Shape into 1.5 inch balls and place in a large cooking pan.  Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until meat is 160 degrees.

Beef Pot Roast

Today I created this pot roast recipe and found it to be delish! Caleb claims that the gravy I made from the drippings is as good as the school lunch gravy...ummm...let's just say, he used to never eat gravy until he tried it once at school this spring and he discovered he liked gravy. He came home from school that day and said, "MOM!!! I like gravy! Can you make it like the school lunch people do?" I knew I would never make gravy like the school lunch kind because it was probably full of sodium and additives, but I promised him one day I would make him yummy gravy. I haven't made beef roast yet this summer because, well, it's kinda hot to be making pot roast. I love to eat it in the fall and winter. For some reason I had a yen for it and decided to make it for Sunday dinner. Here's what I did:

2 lbs. beef rump roast
Olive Oil
Flour
1 cup red cooking wine
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (optional)
1 onion, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into one pieces
2 celery stalks, cut into one inch pieces
3 cloves of garlic
Dried rosemary
Salt and Pepper
2 cups beef broth, reduced sodium
2 bay leaves

Pour enough oil into a dutch oven to lightly cover the bottom. Heat on medium high heat. Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour and sear on all sides until a light crust forms on all sides. Set the roast aside. Caramelize the onions in the oil until soft. Put roast back in pot and make deep slits on the top. Slice up the garlic and stuff and 1/3 of a garlic clove in each slit. Stuff each slit with rosemary. (I like to do this so the meat absorbs the flavor of all the spices. Pour in the wine. I also added a douse of red wine vinegar, but my mom said she thought it made the drippings just a little too sour, so omit that if you want. Put in the bay leaves, carrots, celery and broth. Cover the roast and place in a 300 degree oven for about 3.5 hours. You could also slow cook this.

To make the gravy, remove the roast and vegetables. Mix about 3 tbs. cornstarch in about 1/4 cold water. Slowly pour into the drippings. Slowly heat, stirring constantly until slightly boiling. Boil for about a minute.

Honey Whole Wheat Waffles

The kids were begging for waffles this morning and Caleb loves "yellow" waffles, a.k.a. all-purpose flour waffles. However, to show him whole wheat waffles can be almost as good, I decided to add honey to the batter. The result was delicious! He claims he likes these even more than the "yellow" waffles.

2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour (we used white wheat)
1 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup honey

Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites until stiff and soft peaks form, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix together egg yolks, milk, honey and oil. Mix together the dry and wet ingredients just until slightly blended. Gently fold in the egg whites. Cook on a hot waffle iron.

Easy, Fast Spaghetti Sauce

Tonight I meshed together a couple of recipes to make a super easy, flavorful spaghetti sauce. I guesstimated a lot, but I will put down how much I think I put in of each ingredient:

Homemade turkey sausage: (if you don't want to make it, you can buy a pound at the store, but the storebought stuff is very high in sodium)

1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 lb. lean ground turkey


1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely grated
canola oil
1 28 oz. can crushed tomato, no salt added
2 cans 8 oz. tomato sauce, no salt added
1/2 tsp. dried basil or more to taste
1/2 tsp. dried parsley or more to taste
1 tbs. sugar or more to taste
salt and pepper


To make the sausage: Mix together the first five ingredients. Put ground turkey in a large bowl. Sprinkle spice mixture over the turkey, carefully blending it in with your hands.

Drizzle oil in a large frying pan, enough to coat. Turn heat to medium high. When the oil starts to bubble just slightly on the edges, put in the onion and garlic, stirring until onions or a light caramel color and tender. Put in the turkey sausage, breaking it up with a spatula and cook until brown.

Put in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, basil, parsley and sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about half an hour.

I don't always cook spaghetti noodles since it seems they are harder for my kids to eat. I love to pour this sauce over bowtie pasta, but penne or shells pasta would work, too.

Turkey Pot Pie

I used a couple of different recipes to get ideas on the turkey pot pie I made. I used two cups of cut up turkey that I boiled off the bones of the turkey carcass from our Christmas Eve dinner, frozen peas, fresh carrots, celery and onion and few spices along with my freshly made broth (see my earlier post). I pour all this into a 9x13 pan and topped with biscuit dough. You could easily substitute out any of these vegetables for others.

Pot Pie Sauce/Filling

A couple tablespoons oil
2 cups cut up carrot
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup frozen peas
1 large onion chopped
6 tbs. butter
6 tbs. flour
2 cups fresh turkey broth
1 cup milk
2 tbs. dried parsely
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 cups cut up leftover turkey
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 450. Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Cook the onion until tender. Add carrots, celery and peas and a little of the broth. Cover, lower setting to medium and steam for about five minutes. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Whisk in flour. Slowly add the remaining broth, whisking the whole time to prevent any lumps. Bring to a light boil for about 5 minutes while the sauce thickens. Slowly add the milk, whisking the whole time. Add the parsely, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Boil for a few minutes whisking the whole time. Pour in the vegetables and turkey. Turn stove to low and let this sit while you make your pie pastry or biscuit topping.

I used biscuit dough for our topping, but you could also make a pie pastry.

Here is the biscuit recipe I use:

Biscuits

1/2 cup shortening
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender or forks. Stir in the milk just until moist.

Pour the vegetable/turkey mixture in a 9x13 pan. Drop biscuit dough across the top. Bake in 450 oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the biscuits are light brown.

Turkey broth

We had a turkey for Christmas Eve dinner and I decided to use the leftover turkey for additional meals besides just turkey sandwiches. This led me to look up leftover turkey recipes. I found this recipe to use the turkey bones for broth at CheapCooking.com. Tonight I used the brother to make turkey pot pie and I was surprised at how much better the pie sauce was using the freshly made broth. Here is the recipe:

Turkey Broth and Other Leftover Turkey Recipes

Do NOT throw away that turkey

carcass. Pick all the meat you can off of it and make skillet turkey and rice or turkey enchiladas or a turkey casserole or at least turkey sandwich mix. If you don't want to deal with it now, chop it up and freeze it in 2 cup portions. If you don't want to make the broth now, you could freeze the carcass as well, if you have room in your freezer. Or make the broth and freeze that and make the soup later.

• 1 turkey carcass
• water to cover
• 2 cloves garlic (optional)
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 2-4 peppercorns
• 1-3 tsp salt
• a few shakes of pepper
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion, halved

Put the turkey carcass in a big stock pot and cover with water. You can break up the carcass a bit to fit the pan. Add everything else. You don't have to peel or neatly slice anything. Just break it up into chunks. And don't worry if you don't have something; broth is very flexible! Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer (with barely a bubble breaking the surface) for a few hours. Simmer

longer if you have time, but it will be good after a few hours. Strain the soup using a colander or cheesecloth or whatever you have around. Pick out all the meat that you can and use in the dishes mentioned above or reserve for soup later. Pour the broth into a large jar (I pour it into a big pickle jar) and refrigerate it overnight.

In the morning or the next evening when you go to make soup, the fat will have solidified at the top so you can just spoon it off. Generally, the broth will be quite thick and jelly-like. This is good. When you heat it to make soup, it will be great! Keep the broth 5 days in the fridge or freeze it for soup later. I like to freeze it in 2 cup and 4 cup portions.

Chili and Cornbread

Here's our family chili recipe. It's a good basic recipe that I mostly got out of my old Betty Crocker cookbook, but I modified it about 30% to make it more to our liking:

Chili con Carne

A couple tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely grated
2 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. red pepper sauce
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. allspice
2 tbs. brown sugar
1 28 oz. can low sodium crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz. crushed or diced low sodium tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 15.5 oz. low sodium cans of any bean of your liking, such as black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans (I actually cook my own from dried beans to lower the sodium and to increase the flavor.)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. When you start to see bubbles add the onion and garlic. Saute until the onion is slightly soft, add the meat and brown. Pour meat mixture and rest of ingredients into a crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours. Or you could bring to a simmer on the stove and cook for about 2 hours.

Cornbread

I got this recipe four years ago off the America's Test Kitchen website. When I went to link you to it, it now asks you to sign up for a free trial membership. Hmmm....I hope I am not breaking any copyright law or anything, but here's the recipe, and if you want to check out their site go here:

1.5 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 c. cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 cup buttermilk (Or put 1 tbs. vinegar in 1 cup of milk)
2 large eggs
1/2 c. butter or margarine melted and cooled

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with non-stick spray. Whisk all the dry ingredients except the sugar in a medium bowl. In a food processor or blender, process brown sugar, thawed corn and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.

Using a rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces and serve.

Editor's note: I know it's not the healthiest version of cornbread due to the high amount of butter. It is moist and has a good sweet corn flavor, however, and can be eaten plain and is totally delicious. I need to experiment with ways to lower the fat content. If and when I do, I will repost. If you have any other cornbread recipes that you really like that are moist and sweet but healthier feel free to let me know, I am open and willing to try something different.