Chicken Meatballs with Gnocchi

I saw this recipe on FoodTV with Rachael Ray several years ago. It has become a staple and one of our favorites at our house. I love that the meatballs use Chicken (or Turkey) but is full of flavor and not bland at all!

Are you wondering what Gnocchi is? I don't think I had ever had it or tasted it until this recipe. It's a small potato dumpling prevalent in Italian cooking. They are little dumplings of yumminess and cook up in about 2-3 min. You just dump them in your boiling water and when they float to the top they are done! I could find them in almost every grocery store in Arizona, but can only find them at Trader Joe's here in Oregon.

If you can't find it you can substitute with spaghetti, linguini, egg noodles or rigatoni. We've done it before and it worked great. Just make sure it's a pasta that can stand up to meatballs and a hearty sauce. Angel hair would not be a good idea. If you can find them (Trader Joe's ones are only $1.99) I would urge you to try Gnocchi - they ARE that yummy! The recipe I linked to below says gnocchi is in the refrigerated or freezer section. I have never found them there but rather in the regular pasta area and in a little pouch.


Today's Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of ground chicken or turkey (I actually used 1 lb of turkey)
1 tablespoon grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup or 20 leaves fresh basil, julienned
2 tablespoons EVOO
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce
S&P
1 pound gnocchi


First prep some ingredients: Mince your onion, mince your garlic, julienne your basil, chop your sun-dried tomatoes into little pieces


Take about 2 tablespoons of EVOO and saute the onion, garlic and red pepper flakes* together until it becomes nice and soft - about 5-6 min.

*If you have little children or are sensitive to spicy foods then either leave this out all together or just add 1 little shake. I probably only added 5 little flakes to give it just a tich of heat and it wasn't too spicy for my kids. The full 1/2 teaspoon would have burned their mouths.


Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and season with S&P. Once it starts boiling, turn down to a simmer. I like to let this cook down while making the meatballs and cooking the gnocchi. About 30 min.

At this point preheat your oven to 400 (while the sauce is simmering) and start your water boiling for your gnocchi.


Once you have the sauce going mix together the meatballs. Mix together the turkey, grill seasoning*, fennel seeds, sun-dried tomatoes and half the basil.

*Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick is one of the non Penzey's seasonings that I really love. It's nice and peppery and full of flavor. If you don't have this seasoning it's one you won't regret buying. We love to add it to our hamburgers for a nice full flavor and Jordan adds it to Rib-eye steaks that are the best!


Shape into little meatballs. If you have the little scooper from Pampered Chef that's what I used to make mine. They are the perfect little size to go with the Gnocchi and perfect for little kids.


I ended up with about 36 little meatballs. Cook them for 10-12 min. My oven is a little funky and it took about 15 min for mine to get browned. Seriously they are soooo juicy!

Your water should be boiling just about now. Dump the gnocchi in and in about 2-3 min. they'll start popping to the top.


Your sauce should be thickened quite a bit so it's a good time to add the rest of your basil.

At this point you can do 1 of 2 things. Add everything to the pot like I do or leave everything out separately so everyone can scoop their own. In the past I have had it separate and it seemed to get a little dried out so now I just combine everything into 1 big pot.


At this point the sauce is nice and thick, I've added the meatballs from the oven and mixed in the gnocchi. Mmmmmm....I wish you could smell it!

Seriously yum-o! A little side of salad and some crusty bread and you have a full dinner. Isabelle ate the Gnocchi and sauce (she's not much of a meat eater) and Matthew ate some of everything.

Since this is a recipe I can link to, you can find it here.

Crockpot: Five-Spice Pork Sandwiches

I bought this slow cooker recipe magazine since my slow cooker books are MIA since the move. I decided to try these pork sandwiches as something different than the usual pork slathered with BBQ sauce and cooked in the slow cooker (that is really delicious too or even chicken is yummy as well).

Today's Ingredients:
1 2 ½-3 pound pork shoulder blade roast
1 cup apple juice or apple cider
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 ½ teaspoons five-spice powder*
1 ½ – 2 cups shredded cabbage or shredded broccoli slaw - optional
6 – 8 hamburger buns (see recipe below for homemade ones)




A shoulder roast has more fat and a bone and is kindof tough - PERFECT for the slow cooker. Over time in the slow cooker the meat becomes really tender and perfect for all sorts of meals.

In a small bowl, combine apple juice (cider), soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and Five-Spice Powder. Pour over meat in cooker. Set to low and in 8-12 hours, this meat will be nice and juicy and have just a touch of Asian flavor. Once done, take out of cooker and let cool slightly. Shred and add in juices if needed.

I have had this Penzey's Chinese Five-Spice for awhile and haven't really used it and it was perfect. Here is the recipe for a Five-Spice blend you can make yourself, but if you don't have some of these ingredients (like me) it might be easier to just buy a Chinese Five-Spice Blend (cheaper too).

*Homemade Five-Spice Blend
In a blender or spice grinder combine:
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
6 star anise or 2 teaspoons anise seeds
1 ½ teaspoons fennels seeds
1 ½ teaspoons whole Szechwan pepper or whole black pepper
¾ teaspoons ground cloves.
-Cover and blend to a fine powder. Makes about ½ cup.


I am NOT a lover of coleslaw in fact I hate it, but have come up with my own that adds a nice cooleness and crunch to BBQ sandwiches. You take either a broccoli or slaw mix and add in a little of your favorite buttermilk dressing and viola yummy coleslaw. Try it once and I'm sure you'll love it (Jordan was very skeptical the first time but loves it). I make mine with a little milk, light sour cream and Penzey's Buttermilk Dressing base and it's so good!

I also like to make homemade buns most of the time. They are denser than ones from the store and help make the meal more filling, they are oh so yummy and freeze well IF you have leftovers. My picky kids usually eat everything separate and love bread so this works well for their meal.

Homemade Hamburger Buns
1 cup milk
½ cup water
1 egg
¼ cup butter
4 ½ cups white flour or 2 cups wheat and 2 ½ cups white
1 pkg instant yeast
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt

1. If using a breadmaker, then layer ingredients in order and place on dough setting and skip to step five.
2. If making with a mixer or by hand then do the following.
3. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water, and butter until very warm.
4. In a large bowl, mix together 1 ¾ cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture and then mix in egg. Stir in remaining flour ½ cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 min. Cover in a bowl and let rise for about an hour.


5. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape into smooth balls, and place on a greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly.


Cover, and let rise for 30-35 min.


6. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.


To serve, arrange meat and cabbage. Serve cooking juices in individual bowls for dipping. See that little salad, I'll be posting about that soon!

Five-Spice Pork Sandwiches
Click on the link to open a PDF recipe. Once the link opens click on print and it will ask you what you want to do so tell it to open and then it will open in PDF. You must have Adobe Reader (free to install from Adobe's website) in order to print the recipe.

Chicken Caprese

I had this entree at Olive Garden several years ago and loved it and eventually found it on their website. I've tried to cook lighter in the last year or so to be healthier and while on my weight loss challenge. The original recipe had huge amounts of caloriesso I decided to try and figure out ways to lighten it up. The original recipe calls for using heavy cream which I WAS going to use (why it's pictured) but decided to see if half & half would work - it does!, lots of parmesan cheese - which I cut down and mozzarella which I cut out completely. I think most recipes at restaurants can kill you with the amount of cheese they want to use. This recipe also called for the chicken to be dredged in flour and fried in 1 cup of oil. I lightened it up by grilling it instead using the flavors from the original recipe.

Please note that you'll need to prep and let the tomato mixture sit for at least 1 hour (preferrably more) to marinate. Don't be intimidated by the ingredients, it really is a pretty easy recipe. This serves 6 and made a ton for our family so I will half it next time.

The Stars of the Show:

8-10 Roma tomatoes, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces
Black pepper for seasoning
30 medium basil leaves, julienned
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp of EVOO
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
3 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, divided
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 pound angel hair pasta

Tomatoes:

Core the roma tomatoes and slices into 1 inch pieces. I cut them smaller than that as I like them littler. Make sure your tomatoes are juicy. You could use regular tomatoes too, just make sure you get all the seeds out.

Stack the basil

Roll the basil lengthwise and then cut into strips to julienne them.

Add the tomatoes, basil, 2 tbsp of minced garlic, 1 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning, 1 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of EVOO in a bowl.

Mix together and set in the fridge for at least 1 hour.


Heat your grill now and start the water boiling for your pasta and cook pasta until al dente and drain and set aside until ready to assemble.


Chicken:

Season the chicken well with S&P and Italian Seasoning. This actually ended up not being enough seasoning for me so season well.

Sauce:

Once you have your chicken grilling start working on the sauce. Heat 1 tbsp of EVOO in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp of minced garlic and saute for approx. 1 min. Do not brown. Slowly add 1 tbsp of flour and stir to combine. Add your white wine or chicken stock and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 min.

Remove marinated tomato & basil mixture from refrigerator. Drain tomato mixture and set aside from the liquid. Add 1/2 cup of marinade liquid and saute for approx. 1 min. Add the heavy cream or half & half, lower the heat and bring to a simmer.

Add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese. If you can afford the calories you can add up to as much as 1 cup of Pamesan cheese.

To assemble everything add the cooked pasta to a bowl and cover with sauce. Add in the tomato mixture. Alternatively spoon a little sauce over the pasta and mix together and then add pasta to your plate, cover with a little more sauce and then pile with the tomato mixture. I mixed everything together this time, but will do the alternative way next time.

Once you take off the chicken from the grill let it rest for about 5 min. to keep the chicken nice and juicy.

Serve the chicken and pasta together. Yum-o!

Chicken Caprese Recipe
Click on the link to open a PDF recipe. Once the link opens click on print and it will ask you what you want to do so tell it to open and then it will open in PDF. You must have Adobe Reader (free to install from Adobe's website) in order to print the recipe.

Casserole: Baked Beef Ravioli

For the most part we eat really healthy around here. Every now and then we do eat something a bit more fattening. I tried this today for my son who is so picky and hasn't liked any dinners lately. We recently discovered he will eat Ravioli (and I refuse to feed him the canned stuff) so I thought this would be right up his alley and it was. Yay!!

I think it's really kindof a grown-up version of Ravioli from a can, but much, much better. If you have picky kids I really think they would like this recipe. At the very bottom of this post is the link to download the recipe already typed out.

Today's Helpful Hints
1-Use a garbage bowl. Rachael Ray introduced me to this concept through her shows and it really is a timesaver. I have a bowl in my cooking area that I put all the food garbage in (onion skins, ends from vege's, fatty parts from meats, etc. At the end of prep I dump it all out at once. Saves me time from going back and forth to the garbage can.

2-Build upon not what's only in your pantry but leftover items that need to be used from your fridge. I'll let you know in each of my recipes what my leftover items are. I really want to make sure my money is stretched and every possible scrap of food that can be used is.

Today's Recipe stars (in other words THE INGREDIENTS):
2 9-0z. packages refrigerated cheese-filled ravioli
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef*
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 tsp. basil, crushed
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 1/2 cups shredded mozarella cheese (6 oz.)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (2 oz.)


*Please notice my ground beef in the upper left hand corner. We have a food saver and buy meat when it's on sale and food save it. This helps it last longer and doesn't get freezer burnt. I only had 1 lb. packages and it seemed like plenty of beef.


Preheat your oven to 375 then dice your onion.


Then mince your garlic. If you have a garlic press you can do that as well. I like to mince mine with a knife as it gives it a bit more substance.


Cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic on medium heat until the ground beef is cooked through and the onion is softened (undercooked onion can ruin a recipe and become an overwhelming flavor, soft cooked onion just helps accent the beef and give it some good flavor).


While the beef is cooking, cook the ravioli according to the pkg (about 4 min) and drain and set aside. I happened to have 1 pkg of ravioli already that was a tomato, basil, mozzarella ravioli and then I bought a cheese pkg today. I just cooked them together and it worked well together.


After the beef is cooked then drain off any fat if necessary and stir in the undrained tomatoes, tomato soup, basil, and oregano.


Gently stir in the ravioli. Ravioli is really tender and can break easily so be really gentle.


Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 pan and sprinkle with the mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 20 min., until heated through or until mozzarella is browned (I really like browned mozzarella, but you might like gooey mozzarella so do what's best for your family).

Leftovers I utilized from my fridge:
Shredded mozzarella from making pizza the other night
Refrigerated ravioli

This was a new recipe that we won't make every week but maybe once a month. It was good and would be excellent with a green salad and some good french bread if you can handle any more carbs. :)

If you are looking for ways to cut more fat/calories from the recipe you could:
1-Use ground turkey or chicken instead of beef - beware of the fat content of the turkey/chicken as sometimes it can be as much as the beef.
2-Use 1 lb instead of 1.5 lbs of beef/turkey/chicken
3-Cut out the parmesan and use less mozzarella. I couldn't taste the parm and probably won't use it next time.
4-Use a mushroom/other filling rather than 4-cheese ravioli. I'm going to try something like spinach ravioli next time. I can sneak in a little extra vege's that Matthew won't notice.

Click here to print out the recipe

You must have Adobe Reader in order to print this recipe out. It will open in a tab and then click print and it will ask if you want to download. Say yes and then a PDF file will open and you can print the recipe.

Spaghetti Squash with Sausage and Greens

Every day I work with a cast of characters that shape my meals. Today's cast is pretty easy, simple and good for you. First of all let me say a few things about cooking:

-Prep is everything! When I take the time to read the recipe and prep all the ingredients then my cooking goes smoother and I run into less problems.
-Don't be afraid to experiment. Sure you might make a few duds or meals you might not completely love, but if you don't experiment you will never know what meal might turn into one of your favorites. I really found cooking to be a chore when I kept cooking the same things. Once I started experimenting with new recipes and new cuisines (Thai, Indian, etc.) then my enjoyment of cooking really expanded. I'll definitely be sharing some of those recipes here too. Don't be afraid to try them!!
-I'll try and suggest alternatives in the recipe for items you might not have.




Today you'll need:
1 spaghetti squash (about 3.5 lbs)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
12 oz. sweet Italian sausage
1 bunch spinach, stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
S&P
Olive Oil

First cut the spaghetti squash lengthwise

Scoop out the seeds and discard.

Turn them upside down and place on a cookie sheet that has a lip and fill it with about 1/2-1 inch of water. Cook on 375 for 45 min.

When you have about 15 min. left with the squash cooking start cooking the sausage with just a little olive oil. I happened to have sausage in casings. Remove those first if using. I used mild sausage, but you could also use hot sausage depending on the spice level your family can handle. Cook for about 6 min. or until your sausage is cooked through.

*If you happen to want to try ground chicken or turkey instead of the sausage you'll just need to use some more olive oil so you don't dry it out. If you like the taste of sausage but don't like to actually eat it then Penzey's - my favorite spice store (you can order online too) has breakfast sausage and italian sausage seasonings. You use these with ground chicken or turkey and it tastes almost the same but with less calories.


After the sausage is cooked add the spinach and red pepper and cook until spinach wilts - about 2 min. I added a whole pkg of baby spinach and it looked like way too much and then quickly wilted down into nothing. It balances out the sausage really well in this recipe.

*If you have little kids or sensitivity to heat then leave out the red pepper flakes. A little goes a long way and you don't want to burn anyone's mouths. I did leave it out this time because of the kids but will add it next time since they didn't really eat it anyways. We like things hot and spicy around here!

Once the spaghetti squash is done take it out and then rake it with a fork and it will split apart like spaghetti and add to a bowl. Watch the squash as it can overcook too much. I have found that a bit firmer is better than too mushy.


Mix the parmesan cheese into the squash and season with s&p.

*A good parmesan cheese makes all the difference. I have come to really like parmesan cheese because of the saltiness it adds, melts quickly and it lasts so long in the fridge.


Layer the spaghetti squash and then the sausage and spinach over the top. A really great way to get your veggie fill and super tasty.

Enjoy and let me know how you liked it!! It was new for us and will be added to our regular dinners. It's a Rachael Ray recipe and you can print out the recipe below.

Spaghetti Squash with Sausage and Greens

1 spaghetti squash (about 3.5 lbs)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
12 oz. sweet Italian sausage
1 bunch spinach, stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
S&P
Olive Oil

1. Place spaghetti squash (halved and cleaned) face down on a cookie sheet with an inch of water and cook for 45 min. at 375. Once it is cooked shred and mix with parm cheese and season with s&p.

2. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and cook sausage until no longer pink, about 6 min. Add the spinach and crushed red pepper and cook until wilted about 2 min. Season with S&P. Serve on top of the squash.