Italian Turkey Meatball Subs
Since I did not cook last weekend and ate frozen meals for dinner most of the week, I knew that this weekend I definitely had to cook something. One of my favorite recipes from Skinnytaste that I have made is the Skinny Italian Turkey Meatballs (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/12/skinny-italian-meatballs-turkey-1-pt.html) and it has been a while since I last made them, so I decided that today would be the day.
The recipe makes 6 servings of 4 meatballs, which is perfect because between me and my sister we have dinner taken care of for 3 nights. For me the recipe takes longer than it is supposed to according to Skinnytaste (I started at 3:45 and finished at 5:10), but it is pretty simple. The sauce has crushed tomatoes, garlic, a little olive oil, oregano, fresh basil, salt, pepper, onion, and a bay leaf, and you just let it simmer while you prep the meatballs. For the meatballs, you just need 1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey, seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, egg, garlic, salt, and pepper. Since it makes 24 meatballs, I weighed out the meat to make sure that all of the meatballs were the same size, and it came to exactly 1 oz per meatball. The recipe says that the meatballs should take about 20 minutes on simmer, but on my stove it takes about 45 minutes. I'm not sure why there is such a large discrepancy, but if you are making them just make sure that you check the meatballs after 20 minutes, as they probably will need more time.
You can choose to eat these with pasta or some other side, but my sister and I prefer to make them as meatball subs. I found these really great subs in Gristedes, Calandra's Italian Rolls, which are really big and only 90 calories! The package comes with 6 subs, which is perfect for the recipe. To make them even better, I follow the package directions and re-heat them in the oven for 10 minutes (wrapped in foil so they remain very soft and fluffy).
After I took my first bite, I remembered why this was my favorite recipe. The meatballs are very juicy and flavorful, and the sauce is really delicious as well. Having it on the sub is definitely the way to go, especially when you heat it up, because it tastes like it is fresh out of the oven. The sandwich is extremely satisfying and filling and it is hard to believe how healthy the recipe really is! While there are a lot of recipes that I love to make, most of them pale in comparison to this one. If you are looking for a lighter way to satisfy your craving for meatballs or a sub, definitely check this recipe out and i'm sure it won't disappoint!
June 11, 2013
Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken
One of my new obsessions has been cooking in the crock pot. It is so easy to just put all the ingredients in the crock pot, turn it on, and then come back after a few hours to a fully cooked meal. So, when I find an easy and healthy recipe that can be cooked in the crock pot, I get super excited.
Sunday is usually my day of cooking so that I can have dinner in the fridge for a few days, but this Sunday I was pretty busy and didn't have time to stand over the stove for hours and cook dinner. Then, I remembered this delicious recipe from skinnytaste.com for Sesame Honey Chicken (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/02/crock-pot-sesame-honey-chicken.html) and immediately decided to make it. All I had to do was put the ingredients in the crock pot (which took about 15 minutes) and return after 4 hours and take everything out. The sauce that the chicken cooks in pretty much just has honey, low sodium tamari sauce, onion powder, some water, garlic, tomato paste, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and some cornstarch that you add at the end. The original recipe calls for some sriracha sauce, but I omitted it because I tend to stay away from spice. After the 4 hours, you just shred the chicken (which is super easy because the chicken is very tender), coat it all in the sauce, and add some sesame seeds and scallions on top. Each serving of chicken is about 1/2 cup (on skinnytaste.com it says each serving is 2/3 cup but when I made it there was less than that), and I served it with 1/2 cup of brown rice and some steamed broccoli.
The sauce on the chicken is really delicious and it is very fragrant because of the sesame oil. There is enough of the sauce that when you mix it with the rice, it coats the rice as well, which reminds me of a dish you could find in an asian restaurant, just much healthier. My sister recommended that for next time, I cut the broccoli into bite sized pieces and mix that into the sauce with the chicken, which sounds like a great idea to me.
This dish is super easy to make and is really delicious. It is also healthy, which is just an added bonus! And, if you don't have a crock pot, I recommend investing in one because it makes cooking dinner so much easier! I have the Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker that I ordered from Amazon for a little under $50 (http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967-6-Quart-Programmable/dp/B001AO2PXK), and trust me it is worth the price!
June 7, 2013
Bali BBQ Chicken with a Japanese Sweet Potato and Steamed Broccoli
Yesterday was a Whole Foods Day for me because my lunch and dinner both came from the prepared foods section at Whole Foods! In addition to shopping for lunch options on my recent trip there, I was looking for some dinner items that I could eat on a day where I didn't feel like cooking or having a frozen meal. So, when I saw their Bali BBQ Chicken, I thought that it was a perfect option. It is really just a simple piece of grilled chicken with a light coating of some BBQ sauce, which I like since I usually eat pretty plain chicken. On the side, I had some steamed broccoli and half of a baked japanese yam. I like the japanese sweet potato better than the regular one because to me it has a sweeter taste. When shopping for one, the skin has a more purplish color before it is cooked, so it is easier to tell it apart from the other sweet potato varieties. The inside is also a yellow/whitish color instead of the usual bright orange color.
This was a perfect and easy balanced dinner for me. It heated up in under a minute, and was so good and filling. Next time I would probably just get some sauce on the side to dip the chicken in because it was a bit bland even for my taste, but it was still pretty good.
This is why I love Whole Foods so much! You can get some really great meal options that can be thrown together in under a minute, and they are all healthy and delicious. It also makes it look like you spent hours cooking!
June 3, 2013
Baked Chicken Parmesan
Since I do not eat any seafood and rarely eat red meat, I usually end up eating some sort of chicken dish everyday. While it is sometimes a struggle to keep things interesting, this Baked Chicken Parmesan is definitely one of my favorite chicken dishes to make. It is very easy, super tasty, and you would never even know that it is actually healthy!
I never really ever ordered Chicken Parm in a restaurant partly because I knew how unhealthy it was (since it is usually fried) and partly because I have never been a huge fan of large amounts of cheese. But, when I started cooking more often and found this recipe from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/04/baked-chicken-parmesan.html) my opinion for the dish has totally changed. {And just as a side note, skinnytaste.com is my absolute favorite source for healthy and delicious recipes. She has such amazing recipes posted for every different food category and meal, and she even posts the nutritional info and the weight watchers points for each dish. I have made probably at least 20 different things from her site, and everything that I have made so far has turned out great and they were so easy to follow. Highly recommend this blog if you are looking for healthy, delicious, and easy recipes!}
Anyway, back to the chicken parmesan...this is my second time making this dish and it was just as good as I had remembered. The cutlet is baked in the oven on very high heat which allows the outside to retain its crispiness without being fried, and each piece gets 1 tbsp of sauce and 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese which is more than enough. It is the best to eat right when it comes out of the oven because that is when it is the crispiest and the cheese is the most melted. But, since it makes 8 portions (I halved it to make 4 instead) the leftovers are still just as delicious.
I had mine with 1/2 cup of penne with1tbsp marinara sauce, and some steamed broccoli. The overall meal is extremely filling, delicious, and healthy which makes it that much better! I highly recommend trying the recipe (follow the link above), and checking out the recipes on skinnytaste.com. Trust me, you will love them!
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