Asian Style Turkey Meatballs

We had some ground turkey that I found on sale and I've have been thinking about a fun way to use it.  I thought making meatballs would be a fun activity at the end of the day for the little lady and I.  She said "No thank you. You go ahead."  Maybe on another day...

Connor and I used to make them a lot when he was her age.  He loved rolling out the meatballs and getting to pick the ones he wanted for dinner.  His favorite part seemed to be plopping them into his spaghetti sauce.

These would be great with pasta or rice.  I made rice for the kids and tried to go lower carb for me.

I found a recipe on Pinterest from a website called Chef Savvy that I stayed pretty close to in ingredients.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat the oven to 400

For the Meatballs:

1 lb ground turkey

3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

2 teaspoons minced garlic from the jar

2 green onions, only the green tops

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I forgot to add the egg before taking the picture but it was added in before I shaped the meatballs.  This recipe made 15 decent size meatballs.

Bake for 15 minutes then flip and bake another 10 minutes

For the sauce:

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/8 low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Whisk together these ingredients in a dish that is large enough to also be able to hold all the meatballs. I didn't even warm this sauce and just tossed the meatballs in when they were done to warm the sauce and it helped to cool the meatballs just enough to be able to eat them.  It was perfect.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Sloppy Joes

This is Connor's favorite dinner.  Hands down.  If I ask what we should make for dinner - I can bet that 8 out of 10 times... this is what he'll say.

When he was small he called them Sloppy Jones.  It was so cute that we didn't correct him and adopted that name for them in our house for several years.  I'm not sure when they changed back to being called sloppy joes... but somewhere along the line they did.

Connor isn't a big tomato fan - so this recipe doesn't use a can of tomato sauce and instead uses just a some ketchup.  What I really like about throwing this together versus a sloppy joe can of the sauce is that it's less sweet and feels overall a little healthier.  There's less sodium unless you want to add more and worcestershire is one of those unsung kitchen heros that packs a lot of flavor with little sodium impact.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat the oven to low broil if you would like to toast the buns

I love to toast ours because it always feels like it gives the sandwich a little something special.  We just butter the buns and add some garlic powder to each side and cook them on low broil until nicely toasted.  When I start the preheat as I'm getting started with the meat - we usually end up being done pretty close to the same time.  

Brown until cooked through:

1 lb hamburger

1 small onion, diced

Add to the pot and stir in:

1/3 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon mustard

2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

3/4 cup water (if you do the tomato sauce instead of the ketchup then you might not need this)

Brown sugar - just a touch - maybe 1 tablespoon (I use more like a teaspoon.  You could start with that and add more to your taste to see what's just right for your family.)

I like to mix everything together except the brown sugar and give it a taste before adding it in.  This always makes me think of the Sandwich King.  He says that if you aren't tasting then you aren't cooking.  The idea is that you should be adapting as the recipe moves along and not just one time right before serving.  

Simmer for 5-10 minutes 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Tuna Salad

When I was a little girl, I didn't like tuna salad.  I didn't like pickle relish or mustard and I can't ever remember being a big fan of fish.  It's funny to me how taste buds change as we get older.  I now love pickle relish and tuna salad is one of my go-to comfort foods during the lent season.

To make a perfect tuna salad sandwich you need to make sure you are using the large can of tun and not the smaller cans.  That is how you get the nice sized tuna chunks like in the picture below.  It's also important to me that I have some hard-boiled egg and dice up some celery.  Last - but definitely not least - be sure to allow the proper amount of chill time.  You want that tuna salad to be nice and cold between a couple of perfectly toasted slices of bread.

Let's Get Crafty!
For the creamy part:  
3/4 light mayo
2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
1/2 cup chopped celery 
Salt and pepper to taste (I generally just add pepper since the pickle relish is bringing a good deal of sodium to the party already)

Add in the tuna and eggs:  I like to add these at the end to help them hold their texture.
3 hard boiled eggs, diced up
1 large can albacore tuna

It's good to have a couple hours to chill out in the fridge to be nice and cold when you're top it on some toasty bread.  Sometimes I'll make it ahead on Thursday night so it's ready for dinner on Friday night.

Have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.

Brussel Sprouts in the Air Fryer

These were awesome!  My family doesn't like brussel sprouts, but I really do and wanted to give them a try in the air fryer.  It was super easy and I used the same cooking idea as french fries.

This felt quicker than making them in the oven because we didn't have to wait for the oven to preheat and I also loved that most of them had the super crispy texture.

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat the air fryer to 400

Toss together until the oil is equally distributed
About one pound of brussel sprouts that have be cleaned and cut in half
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Garlic powder

Air fry about 15 minutes shaking the pan every 5 minutes or so.  I like mine extra crispy so I went on the longer side.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day.

Every Plate

Well... I drank the cool-aid and gave Every Plate a try.  This is a meal service kit where ingredients and recipes for a few meals are sent to you each week.  This one seemed fun because we could switch up meals with a couple different options and a few people I know had tried it.  We used a friend's coupon for $20 off so we got 3 meals for a family size of 2 including shipping for less than $20.  I think family size 4 would have been around $40 with the coupon.  If you're looking to try it - I encourage you to use a link from one of your friends because you get $20 off your first box and they get $20 off their next box. 

This felt like worth a try while Mark was working out of town so we could do the family of 2 menu and give it a try for a pretty cheap price.  Other friends that had tried it said the portions were pretty good and that if we needed more we could add a side to go with it to be enough for the kids and I.

Here goes: 

Night 1 - Sausage and Pepper Orzotto with Cheesy Panko Crust
This made a full small casserole dish and was definitely more than enough for the three of us. 

Night 2 - Southwest Beef Bowl with Chipotle Crema, Pico de Gallo and Lime Rice

Night 3 - Spicy Honey Butter Chicken with Zucchini and Roasted Sweet Potatoes
So... I didn't really follow the recipe on this one and did my own thing.  I still roasted the zucchini and sweet potatoes but I also diced up the chicken to cook it in the oven. 

Overall, it was fun to try a few new meals but I don't think we'll do another meal kit.  I felt tied down to a plan because we had ingredients that I didn't want to go bad and the kids were a fan of the night 1 menu but not so excited about night 2 and 3.  These meals also had more hands on time than I've gotten used to with the convenience of our Instant Pot and various frozen meals we keep on hand for busy weeknight meals.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hope you have a great day.