January 24, 2012: Homemade Meatball Stew Recipe

Last year I shared an easy meatball soup recipe that uses convenience food items. I decided there was no excuse for being lazy and remade that recipe using homemade ingredients and keeping the calories as low as possible.

Homemade Meatball Stew

1 cup crushed Saltine crackers

¼ cup fat free half and half

1 egg

¼ cup ketchup

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. Italian seasoning

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. dried parsley

1 pound 93% lean ground beef

1 cup baby carrots, cut into small pieces

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into thirds

1 large Russet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 celery heart, rib, greens and heart thinly sliced

1 cup canned corn (or fresh)

1 carton beef stock

1 cup water

2 cups dry macaroni or farfalle (bowtie) pasta

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine crushed crackers and half and half; let sit for five minutes to soften crackers. Add egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Mix in ground beef with your hands. Shape into small balls.

Spray a Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place meatballs in the bottom of the Dutch oven and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from oven and remove meatballs with a slotted spoon.

Add vegetables (with the exception of canned corn) to Dutch oven. Sauté for 2 – 3 minutes, scraping up bits of meatballs from bottom of pan. Add beef stock and water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; boil gently for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add reserved meatballs and corn. Cook for an hour, until vegetables are soft.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to meatball stew just before serving. Add water, if necessary, to thin stew.

Serves 6

October 25, 2011: Baked Meatballs Recipe

I’ve recently figured out that there’s an easier way to cook both bacon and meatballs – and that’s by baking them. Cooking these meats on a baking sheet in the oven results in less mess and actually should be healthier because you can drain away all of the grease.

I had a large jar of leftover homemade pizza sauce recently. In order to transform it into spaghetti sauce, I thinned it down with water and added these baked meatballs to give it extra Italian flavor.

Baked Meatballs

1 T. dehydrated minced onion

1 T. Italian seasoning

1 t. garlic salt

1 slice of day old sandwich bread, torn into small chunks (the heel works great)

¼ cup milk

1 egg

1 T. ketchup

1 pound 80% lean ground beef

Combine onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, bread cubes and milk in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Let stand for five minutes to rehydrated ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and mix with thoroughly with your hands.

Shape balls out of the meat mixture (make them small or large, depending on your preference. Mine were medium-sized and I made about 13 of them with this recipe; you'd get about twice as many by making them walnut-sized or half as many by making them the size of tennis balls).

Place on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven about 20 minutes, or until completely browned. Add to spaghetti sauce during last half hour of simmering.

 Note: You can also use a half pound of ground beef and a half pound of Italian sausage, if desired.

July 2, 2011: Pasta Ponza Recipe

Recently I bought a container of beautiful miniature heirloom tomatoes at the grocery store. They just looked so colorful and yummy, I knew I had to come up with a special dish for them. I found this one, which I adapted, online at the Food Network website; it’s one provided by Giada de Laurentis.

Tip: The one thing I would do differently next time is not roast the tomatoes as this process turned them into mush. I think using them raw and adding freshly toasted bread cubes - use my recipe for homemade bread crumbs here - would be better. Tell me what you think.

Pasta Ponza

½ pound penne pasta
2 cups small tomatoes (grape, cherry, baby heirloom, etc.)
1 – 2 T. olive oil
½ t. kosher salt
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. dried minced parsley
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions, drain and reserve half cup of cooking water.

Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half. Toss with olive oil, salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Place in an 8 inch square baking pan. Top with bread crumbs and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for half an hour, until the bread crumbs are golden and crispy.

Toss together the cooked pasta, the baked tomatoes, parsley and Parmesan cheese. Add a bit of the reserved cooking water if it seems too dry.

June 13, 2011: Italian Pasta Salad Recipe

Here’s a filling pasta salad (don’t even try to count the calories!) that pairs wonderfully with grilled fish, chicken, or hamburgers. Serve it on a bed of greens for extra nutrition and garnish with croutons, if desired.

I used radishes instead of red onion in this pasta salad.

Italian Pasta Salad

1/3 cup light mayonnaise
1/3 cup light sour cream
1 t. lemon juice
1 t. Italian seasoning or finely chopped fresh basil
1 t. sugar
½ pound bowtie (farfalle) pasta, cooked according to package directions, drained and cooled
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange), roasted, peeled, and diced*
2 thin slices red onion, minced

Combine sauce ingredients (mayo through sugar) and mix thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and toss gently. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

*To roast the pepper, cut in half and remove seeds and veins. Coat skin sides with olive oil. Place both halves directly over flames on a grill, skin side down, until skin is completely charred. Remove from grill and place in a plastic bag. Let “sweat” for a few minutes, then take each piece out of the bag, one at a time, and remove peel. The peel should come off easily.

May 3, 2011: Slow Cooked Round Steak with Mushrooms Recipe

One of the better values today in regards to meat is round steak. Being a cheap cut of meat, it requires a cooking technique that doesn’t make it tough as shoe leather. Outside of pounding it thin and cooking it quickly, like my fried round steak recipe, the best method of getting tender round steak is to use a crock pot.

This recipe is an original of mine that is somewhat similar to Stroganoff; if you wished to, you could certainly add a cup of sour cream right before serving.

Round Steak, Stroganoff style

Slow Cooked Round Steak with Mushrooms

1 pound round steak, sliced across the grain into pieces approximately 2” long
2 T. flour
Salt and pepper to taste
2 T. olive oil
2 t. Italian seasoning
Garlic
½ can stewed tomatoes, diced
1 small can mushrooms, undrained
1 packet dry onion soup mix
½ cup water

Sprinkle the steak strips with salt and pepper, then toss with the flour. Add the olive oil to a crock pot heated to high heat. Add the flour-coated meat and stir occasionally, just until slightly browned on all sides.

Add the remaining ingredients and turn heat to medium. Cover and cook for about 6 hours, until tender. Serve over hot buttered rice or noodles.

Serves 2 - 3