What's for dinner? (recipes) (2)

[Emily]

Taco Meatballs

Ingredients:

1--4 oz can chopped green chiles (I used fire roasted)
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey (can use beef, or whatever you like)
1 cup shredded mexican cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (I just stick a slice or two of bread in the food processor to make the crumbs)
1/4 cup milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups crushed nacho chips (I used Doritos, and put them into the food processor to crush them to a course crumb..not too big though..about the texture of panko bread crumbs)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spray rack for baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Soak bread crumbs in the milk.
3. Mix together egg, seasoning, and green chiles. Mix breadcrumbs and milk into mixture. Stir in cheese.
4. Gently mix the seasoning mixture into the meat, making sure to mix evenly, but don't overmix it or knead it, or the meatballs will be tough.
5. Form into meatballs about 1 1/2 inch diameter, and roll in the nacho crumbs.
6. Place on rack in baking pan.
7. Bake on center oven rack about 20 minutes, or until meatballs reach about 165 f.

You could make these smaller, just cook for less time. Would be great for a party, put toothpicks in them and serve with sour cream and/or taco sauce. Would also be good on a taco salad. Would be fun served in tacos in fresh corn tortillas, esp if you make the smaller ones...

If you like spicy, you could replace the green chiles with a small can of jalapeno. Or you could add a little cayenne or chipotle powder to the mix.

[Overcome]

Yum!!

[FreedomSong777]

Sounds like some flavor!

[Loved]

How nice!!!

[Chained Rage]

I like the sounds of that meat lasagna Shae. I may have to give it a try.
I am going to try something with some day after Easter discount chocolate I bought. I want to melt it, put it in molds, let it harden, put a layer of peanut butter, then another layer of the chocolate. Since peanut butter cups don't survive very many hours in my home...I just seen it as a win win. I would have simply bought leftover reeses, but either the store didn't have any left, or people beat me to it.

[Catie]

Your chocolate-peanut butter experiment sounds yummy. Hope you love the results.

[Emily]

Cool idea making your own pb cups CR. Hope they're nice.

[Emily]

A lot of times in summer, my whole eating routine changes...I like to eat pretty seasonally.

I've still been eating those banana muffins that I posted the recipe for, for breakfast.

And lately, I've been hooked on having a nice cool smoothie for lunch lately. I used to do them for breakfast (a bit different than this one), but like easier for breakfast, so I make the muffins and freeze them so they're ready to go). I usually throw in some frozen berries/fruit, chia seeds that I've soaked in coconut milk, a little more coconut milk, almond butter, yogurt, and a little honey. It's quick and easy, and the chia and almond butter make it really filling.



Also, last week, I made pulled pork bbq. It was awesome. I used a bottled north carolina style (vinegar based) bbq sauce, because it was easy).

Basically I put a dry rub on some boneless pork sirloin chops. They're a tougher cut that works well for braising. A pork butt (which is actually pork shoulder) roast would also work great).

The dry rub that I used was:

1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika (you could use all one kind, or substitute all or part of one with hot paprika)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1-2 teaspoons salt (go by your own preference..we try to reduce sodium, but some level of salt is really important for flavor for me. I used about 2 teaspoons. But I reduced the cooking liquid after to put back in to keep the meat moist, the concentration made it just a little salty for my taste, so I'll use less next time...maybe 1 and a half teaspoons.. Was fine for others in the house.)

This was enough for 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of boneless sirloin chops. The recipe could be doubled and probably be good for a 5 or 6 pound pork butt. I put the dry rub on the meat the night before, put it in a ziploc bag and put it in the fridge overnight. I took it out, browned it in some olive oil in a pan (this step is unnecessary, but I think makes for better flavor), and then put it in the slow cooker.

I was going to braise it with beer. But I had some cinnamon apple hard cider in my cupboard that I bought a while back, and was thinking that hard cider would be perfect, because it would go so well with the pork. It was great. Once I"m out of the cinnamon cider, I think any hard cider would work fine. I bet pear would be nice also. Beer would work. If you don't cook with alcohol, I think even just water would be great with this, because it's so flavorful, or you could do a half cup maybe of apple juice or apple cider with some water...more than that may make it taste too sweet. I put in about a cup of the hard cider, and then added enough water to come up to the "shoulders" of the pork.

I cooked it for an hour on high, and then turned the slow cooker to low for I think about 4 or 5 more hours. If doing a large roast, it of course would take longer. But you could check it after 4 hours and see how well it's cooking and go from there. I think a roast would take 8 to 10 hours on low probably.

The pork was so flavorful, it didn't even need the bbq sauce. We added sauce because our plan was for bbq pork sandwiches. But it would be great over rice, or even could braise some potatoes with it, or roast some veggies to serve with it.

[clover]

wow, you are quite the busy cook!
I am trying to get back into the kitchen and trying really hard to get our nutrient needs met more effectively .... such a hit and miss undertaking for me ... blah
Thanks for the recipes! gonna have to give them a try

[Emily]

I do love to cook clover. I love trying different recipes. Though I usually don't follow them exactly. lol.

[clover]

ahh ... the creative genius at work

[Emily]

I found this great recipe online in a list of meals to prep and stick in freezer to then cook in slow cooker later.

Butter Chicken

Ingredients:
--2 pounds boneless skinless chicken, thighs or breast, cut into bite-size pieces (I recommend thighs, they don’t dry out as much in the slow cooker)
--1 can diced tomatoes (15 ounce)
--1 can coconut milk (I used light, because it's what I had, but full fat would work too)
--3 cloves garlic, minced
--1 onion, diced (I used 1/2 tsp onion powder instead)
--2 teaspoons Garam Masala
--1 teaspoon curry powder (I used 1/2 tsp Penzey's Sweet Curry and 1/2 tsp Penzey's Now Curry--Whatever your favorite is will be good)
--1 teaspoon salt
--1 teaspoon pepper

Pretty much put it all in slow cooker, and 5 to 8 hours on low. (Breasts will cook faster and get dry if overcooked)

The one thing that I decided to do differently is this: I mixed together the onion powder, garam masala, curry powder, salt, pepper and the minced garlic and tossed it with the chicken the night before. Then in the morning, tossed that into slow cooker with the tomatoes and coconut milk.

I serve this over a combination of brown rice, and riced broccoli/cauliflower

[Catie]

Anything curried is delectable to me. Sounds yummy, Emily!

[Emily]

It is really yummy Catie. I actually add a bit more Garam Masala and curry powder to mine. But it's great. When it's finished, it has a lot of sauce. It's great for soaking into the rice...even more than necessary really...but then Ilike it saucy, so I was ok with that. And it's super easy, just throw it in crockpot and it does the work.

[Catie]

I always put more curry-ish spices than recipes call for, too. (For that matter, I probably put more of almost any seasoning.) And sauce is the best! The more, the better, always.