Turkey Meatballs

I do enjoy spaghetti and meatballs. It is so simple but again something that I don't add to the rotation to often, more of a good backup plan in a pinch. And on that I have played around with a few recipes always feeling like they are missing something. So tonight I made a great meatball. A few of my old favorites all combined. Yum!

I made a LARGE batch- I feel with these, may as well go big so we can have leftovers. So now happily in my freezer are about 16 meatballs already and rolled for another nights dinner.


Turkey Meatballs, My Way

Prep- 10 minutes
Cook - 20 minutes + simmering time
Serves - this will make about 30+ average sized meatballs

2 lbs ground turkey, I used 1 lb light and 1 lb dark
2 eggs
1 bunch parsley, chopped very fine
1/3 cup milk
2 slices bread
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper

option- ricotta cheese. I would add about a 1/2 cup. I love ricotta and wish I had some when I was making these. They would just add some more awesomeness to these awesome meatballs.

Add 1 tbs of olive oil to a skillet. Saute your onion and garlic. While sauteing add a good heaping teaspoon of salt to your onions. That helps them sweat.
While those are sauteing about 5-7 minutes go ahead and soak your 2 slices of bread in the milk. You may need a bit more milk- but you want the pieces to to be "covered" not soaking. Give those a good 4 minutes or so in the milk.
While you are sauteing and soaking go ahead and start tossing all your other ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
When you onions are done, give them a few minutes to cool down then add them.
Take your bread, gently squeeze out any excessive milk. Then crumble your bread up into your bowl too.

Now get to mixing. You can try doing this with a spoon, but really what's the point. Get your hands in there and mix it good.

Turn oven on to 400.

Get a baking sheet and start plopping meatballs. You can put them pretty close together because it's not like they are going anywhere.

If you want to freeze some too get a plate out and fill up your plate. I stuck the ones for the freezer in my freezer on the plate for about 15 minutes to firm them before putting them in a freezer bag.

Once your baking sheet is as full as you would like them throw them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Now, I simmered mine which I will explain in a second- if you plan on doing this I would say pull them out even if they aren't "cooked" all the way because you will be cooking them more. If not doing it this way cut one open and make sure they aren't pink and are cooked all the way!

If simmering go ahead and get your sauce ready and water on for your pasta to boil. Place meat balls in your pot with your sauce and get the heat on a medium-low. I simmered mine in the sauce for about 30 minutes.

I served these over whole wheat spaghetti and a loaf of homemade Italian bread!
It's amore!

Buffalo Tacos w/ Homemade Tortillas

I love tacos. I am not sure why I don't add them to the menu more often. Sometimes I get so wrapped in the new recipes, literally I think sometimes I spend hours looking for recipes! Yikes! So in my quest for some familiarity tacos were added. Buffalo tacos, because they are yummy. I am also making guacamole and homemade tortillas! Oh my, I am hungry now and dinner is still 6+ hours away!


Ok so I am trying homemade tortillas and am really looking forward to it!

Buffalo Tacos-

lets get real. I am a mom. A mom with a tiny baby. Ok well she isn't so much "tiny" as she is little, cute and oh so cuddly. So my buffalo tacos consisted of: 1 lb ground buffalo and 1 packet of Simply Organic Taco Seasoning! and there you have it ladies and gentlemen - Buffalo Tacos!

Next up Homemade Tortillas

Simple, few ingredients and so good. Don't you love when you make something from scratch for the first time as to have always buying it at the store and you are like WOW! That happened to me again. I love that when that happens.

Tortillas

prep 5 minutes, plus 20 for rolling balls out
cook 15 minutes
makes 12-15

3 cups all purpose flour, I used a hearty stoneground flour
6-8 tbs shortening, I would use 8+ tbs shortening and maybe only 6+ of lard. I used shortening and definitely imagined how different the flavors would have been with lard
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 - 11/4 warm water

Mix flour, salt and baking powder together. Add in shortening and mix well with a pastry cutter ( I am not a "gadget" person, but I love my pastry cutter) Cut it all in and mix well. Go ahead and roll up your sleeves a bit and starting adding water- SLOWLY! I think I used just a little over a cup. Mix it really well. Feel free to flour your hands good so you aren't so sticky. You don't want your big ball to be over sticky.
Next roll the big dough ball into 12-15 smaller balls.
Let those sit for at least 10 minutes but longer is fine.
Now for the fun part...
Lightly flour your work space and rolling pin. They actually make cute tortilla rollers, of course. But I don't have one of those so I just pulled out my big old wooden rolling pin. Actually I let my 8 year old do most of this. But when rolling it out I needed to take over.
Take it slowly. You want them to be thin, but that also makes them able to rip easier. I would roll one way, turn it over and roll the other way.
Ours were all sorts of shapes. I think we had a heart, a rectangle and no circle anywhere!
Get your skillet nice and hot. Throw one it at a time, unless your skillet it big enough to fit two.
I would say it takes close to 1 minute on each side. I watched for those little brown spots to show up. Flip and watch for more little brown spots to show up!
I had a plate with a kitchen towel and hid them in there, except the one that went in my belly until dinner was ready.

YUM!
I will say the thinner ones were more taco like. The ones that didn't get so thin reminded me of flat bread.

That is it for now! I will try to add photos soon and will also be posting my yummy guacamole too!

xo

Buffalo Pot Roast

*Please note this is my first recipe post, and it may not be perfect yet still trying to figure out the picture thing!

Lets start with Buffalo. If you eat red meat and have never tried buffalo – GO get some NOW! It is a great cut of meat and very lean. It doesn’t taste gamey either, if that is what you were wondering. I also got the meat on sale this week at our local Whole Foods Market- so it was an easy addition to our menu for the week.

Ingredients

2-3 lb Buffalo Pot Roast

5-6 yukon gold potatoes, roughly peeled (meaning I quickly ran a peeler over the potatoes and so yes there is still skin on some!) You can use other potatoes if that is what you have on hand. I like yukon golds as they taste like butta!

4 carrots, cleaned off and sliced. I don’t peel ‘em just rinse um good as the skin is the best!

2 yellow onions, sliced in half then quarter the halves

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 cups beef broth

3 tbs flour

2 bay leaves (optional)

Alright, first thing is first. Get out some salt and pepper and cover your pot roast really good. I like to use the celtic salt, those really nice big chunks. Cover the top, bottom and sides. Turn your cast iron skillet on- this is where it gets fun and smelling good! Put about 2 tablespoons of oil in your skillet- get it really nice and hot. Then take that nice hunk of meat and stick it in your skillet-

Hear that sizzling...

hear that sizzle… That seals in all the juices on the roast.

You want to end up with a nice golden brown crust all around your roast.

See the nice golden crust its getting..

After that is finished go ahead and set that in your crock pot. Now if your cast iron is big enough you can add your carrot s and potatoes to it to soak up a little of your oil that you cooked your roast in, if not no worries just throw them on in the crock.

However I would go ahead and add your onion and garlic to the pan, saute those for a few minutes. While they are cooking in the oil (add a few more tablespoons if you need to) go ahead and add your flour. Stir that up really good in the oil, onions and garlic. Once that is mixed good really good and you have a nice little simmer going on turn off your stove and empty your skillet right into your crock pot.

See how nicely it fits in there!

Feel free to add a bay leaf or two now, if you like them. I like them but just forgot them and that is ok! See how it all fits in there so nicely!

Turn the heat on high and cook about 6 hours or on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Yum

Ok, now get out your big pretty bowl and scoop out those vegetables and some broth. Get your meat out and put right on top, careful that meat is so tender it just falls apart and you don’t want to leave any behind.

If you are feeling up to it you can make a gravy with some of the juices from the crock. I added 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of flour into my cast iron and mixed them well. Then just ladled in some sauce and kept stirring and adding more juice til I got it the consistency that I wanted. Add a few good shakes of salt to this too!

I also made Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls to help sop up some of those juices, but thats for another day!

This served 4 with a small container of leftovers.