Destination Anywhere

These spicy little meatballs turned out very tasty! I used ground white meat turkey, but of course you can use anything you want. I loved the ginger, mint and curry seasoning, and they were perfect with Trader Joe's Mango-Ginger Chutney as a dipping sauce. The meatballs can be prebaked, and reheated in oven or microwave before serving.

Ginger and Mint Mini Meatballs

Makes around 40 mini meatballs. Can be frozen.

1 pound ground turkey
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon or to taste Salt
1 Tablespoon minced Ginger
1 seeded, finely chopped jalapeno chili, seeds removed
2 finely chopped Scallions with green tops
1/2 cup finely chopped (save 1 tbsp. for garnish) Mint leaves (fresh)
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1 teaspoon Lemon juice (fresh)
1 egg, beaten
Cooking oil spray

• In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients except spray oil. Mix very well.
• Wet your hands so the meat won’t stick. The mixture will be quite soft. Form into very small meatballs.
• Spray a baking sheet with oil. Place the meatballs on the sheet so they don’t touch each other.
• Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, or until browned. Turn meatballs over, and bake another 5 minutes so the other side browns.
• Serve on a plate with toothpicks, with Trader Joe's Mango-Ginger chutney for dipping, if you wish.

(approx. 20 calories per meatball if using ground white meat turkey)

A bit of a walk down memory lane--I picked up my grandmother's copy of Jewish Holiday Cooking, and her handwritten recipe for cabbage soup fell out. It was a shock to see her loopy, slanting handwriting after so long. Nana was obviously telling me "you're sick! You need soup!" So of course I had to make the soup. I cut down on the meat, used broth instead of water to compensate, and added some balsamic vinegar for the sweet-sour taste so I could cut down on the sugar. Nana wouldn't mind. If you're freezing some of this, leave out the potatoes--just cook some in boiling salted water, and add to the portion you won't be freezing.

Now all I need is the wide, chipped mismatched china bowl.
And I'm still looking for her date ball recipe.

Nana’s Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

1 pound brisket or boneless short rib, most fat removed, cut into small pieces
2 onions, chopped
5 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 boxes low sodium beef broth
1 large can ground tomatoes
2 cups water
1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1-3Tbs.lemon juice
1 tsp.sugar
2 Tbs.balsamic vinegar
3 Tbs. chopped dill
salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, brown the meat. Sprinkle with some salt. Add the onions, carrots celery and parsnips.Stir around. Add the tomatoes and broth. Simmer for 1 hour.

Add another 2 cups water and the cabbage. Simmer for another 1 1/2 hours.

Add the potatoes, simmer another 1/2 hour. Everything should be very "tendah." Add the rest of the ingredients, and taste. It should have a pleasantly sweet and sour taste. Add more balsamic or sugar and lemon to taste.

Let sit in fridge a day before serving for best flavor. Eat with bread, and a dollop of sour cream if you wish. Send everyone home with leftovers.

This week's SSB ingredient was mushrooms. I use a lot of mushrooms in my cooking these days, so I was looking around for something new to do with them for an appetizer besides stuffed, grilled or sauteed. I'd had vegetarian dumplings in Chinese and Japanese restaurants and dim sum parlors that were mostly mushroom, so started looking for recipes. I wanted the emphasis to be on mushroom, and also wanted to use shiitakes, since they're my favorite and they're used in dried form in the Chinese recipes I found. Here's what I came up with, adding a bit of shredded carrot and chopped cilantro to brighten up the earthiness of the mushroom filling. You'll need something to steam the dumplings in, either a steaming insert or just a skillet with tight lid and an inch of water. Serve with a dipping sauce of soy, chili, sesame oil, ginger, etc.

These were delicious! The goyza wrappers I used were 120 calories for 8, and the mushroom filling is extremely low cal.This recipe made upwards of 60 dumplings, but the recipe is easy to cut in half.

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites--Asian Mushroom Dumplings" »

Another Gratitude Friday, with gratitude to Diana. http://creativestructures.blogspot.com/

A few items I have been very grateful for during the past six months I've been getting healthier:

Exercise resistance bands. These are nifty little things. A set of handles connected by stretchy rubber tubing. They come in three different levels of resistance, to be used in various ways. As you stretch them your muscles are working, and as you release while still holding, the muscles are still working against the lessening resistance. They've done amazing things for my upper arms. They are light and portable, so you can throw them into a suitcase. It takes a bit of practice to learn how to use them, but there are plenty of DVDs, websites and books with clear instructions.

Trader Joe's 0% plain Greek Yogurt. Tastes great, non-chalky, and much cheaper than the Fage. I eat it every morning with fruit, a bit of Stevia, and cereal. I mix it with salsa for a dip. I marinate chicken breasts in it with spices and lime juice. And while we're talking about TJ's, I've also been grateful for their low sodium organic chicken broth, salsas, Kosher chicken, ground white meat turkey, Joe's O's cereal, and 21-Salute salt-free herb mix.

Stevia. This is a natural plant-based sweetener with very few calories. I've found that using more than just a bit gives a slightly bitter aftertaste; but its great to use in sweetening hot drinks and yogurt without chemicals.

Costco. Yes, its a big box store. (But at least from what I've read, does well by its employees and sources locally from small producers as much as possible). What I think it excels in is produce. My weekly shopping list from them includes tiny green beans, spinach, lettuce, raspberries and strawberries in season, mini cucumbers, mushrooms, hydroponic tomatoes; and seasonal treats like chantrelle mushrooms, Tuscan melons, figs, persimmons. They also carry organic chicken, big tubs of Sabra hummus, their Kirkland brand of egg substitute is much cheaper than Eggbeaters, do a very decent store-made lime and chipotle marinated shrimp, and a huge roasted chicken for $5.00. It's interesting to compare our grocery cart to the others in line.

Kalyn's Kitchen. http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/ This website, while focused on recipes for the South Beach Diet, has a lot of fantastic recipes, and links to many others. I've gotten so many great ideas and delicious meals from her site. Very strong on vegetable recipes.

Kirkland egg substitute. The Costco brand of eggbeaters. One cup is equal to 3-4 eggs, has 120 calories, and 24 grams of protein. Makes for a huge frittata with sauteed spinach and tomato, and is often my lunch.

FitDay. http://www.fitday.com.I use this website to track my diet and exercise, it has a pretty good calorie counter, and you can graph your weight loss.

The treadmill and DVD player, and my NetFlix account. I've caught up on years of movies as I've sweated.

Russo's Market, Watertown. This is a wonderful produce store, carrying all manner of the usuals plus lots of Asian, Latin, Middle Eastern, and Italian items. Where I go from everything from cauliflower and swiss chard to long lavendar Chinese eggplants, jicama, and Armenian lavash bread.

Spray cooking oil. I use this instead of pouring on the oil for sauteeing, for roasting vegetables, for making sure food doesn't stick to the grill.

Fiber Gourmet pasta. http://www.fibergourmet.com/default.aspx This is great stuff. A pasta that's loaded with extra fiber, which brings the calories count down. It certainly isn't as marvelous as an imported pasta, but it's really very decent. One cup is only 130 calories, with loads of fiber. It isn't carried in many stores, so I order directly from the website.

Humn. I'm sure there are more, but I'll do another post with them at some point. Hope this is useful to someone!

This has become a staple in my house.

Sweet and Spicy Grilled Eggplant

Eggplant, sliced (I prefer the long lavender Chinese eggplants, which I slice on the diagonal)

Mix the marinade:
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. honey
1/2 tsp (or more) chile powder
salt and pepper to taste (no salt if you've salted the eggplant)

Brush the marinade on both sides of each eggplant slice. Let rest for 15 minutes. Grill until lightly charred and soft. If the eggplant begins to burn on the outside but isn't soft enough yet, put those slices into a metal or foil pan on the grill so they can finish cooking. Sprinkle with basil or parsley and serve hot or at room temperature.