Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce

I've been meaning to make this recipe for a while now and I had all the ingredients so I decided to make it tonight. Super easy to put together and it tasted amazing. The dipping sauce really gives the meatballs a lot of flavor. The author of the blog I found this on suggested pouring a little of the sauce on top of the meatballs instead of dipping it and I did that and yum! I'll definitely make this recipe again! I added 2 cloves of garlic instead of one because you can't just have one garlic clove!

Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce (4 servings):

*Meatballs

1/4 c panko
1 1/4 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions, chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil

*Dipping Sauce

4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp water
1 chopped fresh scallion

Preheat oven to 500. Mix ground turkey, panko, egg, salt, scallions, ginger, cilantro, soy sauce and sesame oil with your hands until combined well. Shape 1/4 c meat mixture into a ball and transfer to a baking dish. Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

For dipping sauce, mix everything together. Transfer meatballs to a serving dish. Stir sauce, then drizzle meatballs with 1 tbsp sauce. Serve meatballs with remaining sauce. Enjoy!




Ready to be baked...






Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!...

Paula Deen's Meatloaf

Growing up, I hated meatloaf, only because when my mom made it it usually turned out really dry and hard to eat. My best friend made me meatloaf several years ago to make me change my mind and I loved hers. Then I found a sweet-and-sour meatloaf (that I have listed in this blog) and I loved that as well. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was made by Paula Deen so I had really high hopes for it. And it was sooooo good! I didn't have any bell peppers so I used a whole onion. I think I used too much onion and the meatloaf was too moist because it fell apart when I took it out of the pan. Regardless of it falling apart, the taste was so amazing. When I make this again, and I will, I think I'd double the topping. I ate my meatloaf with ketchup, because that's how I've always eaten it.

Paula Deen's Old-Fashioned Mealoaf-A.K.A. Basic Meatloaf (4 servings):

*Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c onion, chopped
1/2 c bell pepper, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 oz canned diced tomatoes, without juice
1/2 c quick-cooking oats

*Topping

1/3 c ketchup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp mustard

Preheat oven to 375. Mix ground beef, salt, pepper, onion, bell pepper, egg, tomatoes and oats together well and place in a baking dish. Shape into a loaf.

Mix ketchup, brown sugar and mustard and spread on loaf. Bake 1 hour.




Ingredients ready to be mixed for both the meatloaf and the topping...






Meatloaf in the pan...






Topping spread onto the meatloaf...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!...

Broccolini with Balsamic Vinaigrette

My original plan was to make Paula Deen's meatloaf (recipe to follow) with the roasted cauliflower on the side but both dishes required about an hour in the oven each and I didn't want to wait that long for dinner lol so I found a recipe on Pinterest for broccolini that was easy to cook while the meatloaf cooked. And it was really good! I used more garlic than it called for, because let's face it, you can never have enough garlic! I also added some lemon zest to the vinaigrette. The only thing I didn't like was that I think there was too much olive oil-when I make this again, I'll use less oil. Otherwise I'd definitely make this again!

Broccolini with Balsamic Vinaigrette (4 servings):

Salt
4 bunches broccolini, trimmed
1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 4-6 cloves)
1/2 tsp pepper
1 lemon (I used about 1-2 tsp of the zest from this lemon)

In small bowl, combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic, 1 tsp salt and pepper; set aside.

In large pot of boiling salted water, cook broccolini until stalks are just tender, about 2 minutes. Remove broccolini from water with a slotted spoon or sieve and place in a large bowl.

Add the reserved dressing and gently toss to combine. Splash with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Serve warm or hot. Enjoy!




Vinaigrette...






Enjoy!...

Baked Brie

My friend Mandi made this several years ago for a girl's Thanksgiving. She made it again this Christmas for the two of us and I realized how much I was craving it so I decided to make it on my own. I didn't let the pastry crust thaw out entirely so when I wrapped the brie it cracked and some of the filling oozed out during cooking, but it still tasted amazing. I made it a again a couple weeks and made it perfectly. I can't finish a whole block but that doesn't stop me from making it lol. Super easy and super tasty! You can use any kind of jam/jelly and any flavor.

Baked Brie (2-4 servings):

Sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 egg yolk
Block of brie cheese
Jelly or jam of your choice and flavor (I used a homemade raspberry jam)
Crackers of your choice

Preheat oven to 350. Slice off the white rind from the block of cheese. I think you could leave it on if you prefer-I don't like the rind so I cut mine all off. Place the cheese on top of the thawed pastry sheet. Spoon about 1 tbsp jelly/jam on top of the cheese. Wrap up the cheese with the puff pastry like a purse. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg yolk on the pastry all over.

Place the pastry filled cheese on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is hot. Serve with crackers. Enjoy!




Raspberry spooned onto cheese...






Brie wrapped up in the pastry crust...






Enjoy!...

Italian-Style Pot Roast with Gremolata

So for an early Christmas present, when my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, they bought me a chest freezer. I've been wanting one for a while now so I could prepare my own freezer meals. And start cooking a lot more, putting any leftovers in the freezer. I found this recipe and it sounded good and it made a lot, so I knew I could freeze the leftovers. I'm not sure if I liked it a lot but it was decent and the gremolata added some needed extra flavor. I froze half of so I'll definitely eat it when I'm hungry for it. The only thing different that I did was that instead of using all-purpose flour, I used gluten-free flour (tastes the same). I found this recipe in the Cuisine Tonight magazine.

Italian-Style Pot Roast with Gremolata (8 servings) (Cuisine Tonight):

2 tbsp olive oil
1 (4-5 lb) boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed, seasoned with salt and pepper
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 c flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp anchovy paste
1 tbsp beef base (bouillon)
1 c dry red wine
1 (14.5 oz) can whole tomatoes in juice, quartered
2 dried bay leaves
1 tsp dried rubbed sage
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lb small white potatoes, halved
4 carrots, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
12 oz pearl onions, blanched, peeled
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
2 tsp minced lemon zest

Heat oil in large skillet over med-high until it shimmers. Brown roast on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer roast to a slow cooker.

Stir chopped garlic, flour, tomato paste, anchovy paste and beef base into skillet and cook 1 minute. Deglaze skillet with wine and reduce by a third, scraping up any browned bits. Add tomatoes, bay leaves, sage, rosemary, nutmeg, salt and pepper flakes; bring to a boil and cook until thick, 3-4 minutes. Pour wine mixture over roast in slow cooker.

Add potatoes, carrots and onions to the slow cooker. Cover slow cooker and cook roast until fork-tender on high, 4-5 hours, or low 8-9 hours. Transfer roast to a platter. Using a slotted spoon, arrange veggies around roast. Strain sauce; skim off any fat from the surface. Serve sauce with the roast.

Combine parsley, minced garlic and zest for gremolata. Garnish roast with gremolata. Enjoy!




Roast browned and smushed into the crockpot...






Sauce being cooked...






Veggies piled on top of the meat and sauce...






Cooked and ready to serve...






Pot roast sprinkled with gremolata...






Enjoy!...

Salted Caramel Bark

I had family in town for Thanksgiving and I wanted to make a dessert that could be eaten throughout the weekend. I love making desserts but I only like making them if I can share them because otherwise the majority of it would go to waste. This made way too much as it is but it was really really good. The recipe calls for a bag of dark chocolate chips and a bag of milk chocolate chips. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate so I used a bag of semisweet chocolate chips. Everyone seemed to like it but the only thing I wished I had was more of a coarser salt. All my aunt had was the fine sea salt, which worked, but I had to use a lot of it and it still wasn't enough. I also think I should have melted the caramel without the water because when I went to break up the bark, the caramel was still really soft. I found this recipe on Pinterest.

Salted Caramel Bark (20-30 pieces):

11.5 oz pkg of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips (or semisweet chocolate chips)
11.5 oz pkg of Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips
11 oz pkg Kraft Caramel bits + 2 tbsp water
Coarse ground sea salt

Rip off a piece of wax or parchment paper and cover a cookie sheet. In microwave-safe bowl, microwave caramel bits with 2 tbsp water for 2 minutes. Then stir and microwave for additional 30 second intervals until fully melted.

Place both pkg of chocolate chips in a separate bowl and melt in the microwave or place on the stove with a double broiler and stir until melted and glossy. Spread the melted chocolate with a spatula on the wax paper, making sure the chocolate goes all the way to the edges.

With a spoon, drop dollops of the caramel. Take a spatula and swirl it into the chocolate in an up and down motion across the pan creating swirled ribbons. Sprinkle the salt across the top. Don't be stingy with the salt.

Place your cookie sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Take it out of the freezer and break the bark into pieces. Pull off the waxed paper and layer in a container with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!




Chocolates melted and spread into pan...






Caramel and chocolates swirled together...






Liberally sprinkled with salt...






Enjoy!...