Sunday, June 9, 2013

Savory Roasted Vegetables

Tis the season of summer bounty! Yay fresh veggies!! This will take about an hour to prepare and cook. The most time consuming part of this recipe is chopping up all of the vegetables.

Roasting veggies can be done in big batches with little effort and can be stored for a week. They can be served hot or cold, as a side dish or part of the main meal. I have served the veggies over rice or in a homemade tortilla flat bread. But also in a sandwich with hummus, on a pizza or in a quesadilla!

You can use whatever veggies looked good at the market, were on sale, or you had extra laying around! I used oregano because I like that herb, but you could also use parsley, thyme, basil, etc.  Also, the amount of oil will change based upon how many veggies you are cooking and need to cover.

PS Someday I will invest in a better camera beside my phone and I will work on my presentation skills! I swear this was tasty and I will be making it again!




Roasted Veggies
Serves 3 (as a main dish)
 
1 zucchini, circle slices
1 med eggplant, sliced into sticks, salted and let sit in a strainer for 30 minutes, rinsed
~1/2 cup Carrots, sliced into sticks
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 orange pepper, sliced
~1 cups chopped broccoli, large chopped
1/4 lg onion, large dice or sliced

1/4-1/2 cup Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
1/4 tsp Oregano (optional)
1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine olive oil, salt & pepper to taste, oregano, red pepper flakes (optional).

Toss veggies in olive oil. Spread onto a cookie sheet in one layer.  Use more than one sheet if necessary. Roast in oven at 425F for 20-35 minutes. They should start to get a little crispy but not burning.

If you want the veggies to be softer and are at the amount of "crisp" that you want, continue to cook at 350F.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Tangy Asian Meatballs (Baked not Fried)


This is a great no stove top recipe. I was looking for slow cooker recipes, however many recipes need less then 6 hours, but more then 4 which is not ideal for a work day. So I took the meatball recipe from  here and baked it instead of 3-5 hours on low in the slow cooker.

After combining all the ingredients I thought the meat mixture was a little wet (i.e. not like cookie dough)... so I called my Dad! He said that meatballs are supposed to look like that and it would be fine once they are cooked. He was right! So if your meatballs don't quite look right, they might cook up just fine! He also recommends lining the baking dish with tin foil. This makes for a fast clean up and prevents all the sauces from baking into the dish and never coming off the pan.

I made a few changes, I used ground turkey instead of ground pork and I omitted the plum sauce since I didn't have any in the house. I was worried the ground turkey would be dry, but I didn't miss using pork (or a mix of meats) at all! These were very moist and flavorful.

If you use fresh ginger, you can peel the rest of the piece of ginger and freeze it in a zip lock bag. When you are ready to use it you can grate what you need and then store it back in the freezer.

Panko breadcrumbs are bigger flakes of breadcrumbs. You can use whatever plain breadcrumbs you have on hand.

I would make these again and freeze a few to see how they and I can pre-make them.  

PS It is easy to grow fresh scallions too. When you buy scallions from the grocery store, cut them down to just above the white part with the roots. Plunk it in about a half inch to an inch of water and keep place it in a semi sunny to sunny location. They should start growing in days!
 



Lil meatballs waiting to be cooked
YUM!

Tangy Asian Meatballs (Baked not Fried)
Makes approx 18 golf ball sized meatballs
 
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
3 scallions, white and light-green parts, chopped
1 large egg
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 9x13 glass baking dish with tin foil.

Combine turkey, breadcrumbs, scallions, egg, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a large bowl; mix until just combined – don’t over mix! The meat will look wet and not meatball like yet. Scoop into 1-inch balls and place onto the lined baking dish.

In a small bowl, whisk together barbecue sauce and hoisin sauce; put a spoonful over each meatball using up all the sauce.

Bake for 20-35 minutes, depending on the size of the meatball. They are done when the inside is no longer pink!

Served with rice and some roasted garlic carrots.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Cilantro and Garlic Lemon Pasta

You may have seen my previous post for Garlic Lemon Egg Pasta, and since then I have made this several times. We are trying to use up a big bundle of fresh cilantro - so you will see lots of cilantro in the next few posts! 

The cilantro adds a nice flavor and lightens up this pasta dish

Happy eating!

Cilantro and Garlic Lemon Pasta

makes 2-3 servings

1/2 box of pasta noodles
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup white or red onion
5 cloves of garlic, smashed in the press
a few dashes of Salt and Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Lemon (1/3 cup lemon juice)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Cilantr, chopped
3 eggs (3 egg whites, 2 yolks), "beaten in preparation for scrambling" 
1/2 bag of baby Spinach

Cook pasta according to directions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain but reserve about a cup or two of the pasta water.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a pan on medium. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Once onion is translucent lower pan to med low and add in eggs, cilantro, and lemon juice. Stir and let the eggs get to a soft scramble stage. Feel free to add in a small bit of butter at this point too. This should get wet puffy egg mixture. Add in spinach and wilt for a minute, it will continue to cook down once you add the pasta. Combine with pasta and add in a little pasta water to thin out the sauce.
Combine with pasta and add the pasta water a little at a time until the sauce is the consistency you want.