Mushroom Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Turkey
1 lb Ground beef   (Or any combination)
1 Medium Sweet Onion
10-16 oz Mushrooms (I use portabella or cremmini including stems)
1 tbs olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup Sherry or wine (Tio Pepe makes a Great kosher Sherry)
1 handful Celery leaves or 1/2 tsp celery seed (replace with basil if you don't like celery)
1 1/2 tbs Italian seasoning blend
2 tsp mustard powder
fresh ground pepper
pinch red pepper flakes

Chop onions and mushrooms. The smaller the chop you get on these, the easier it is to hide the veggies from kids or other suspecting eaters. It doubles the volume of the meat and keeps them moist.

Optional: Saute onions and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat - for 12-15 minutes or until they start to caramelize. (Add some salt to speed up process and a bitlater pepper and some of the herbs) If you do this step, you'll want bigger veggies. Then you can either run your knife over the cooked veggies or you can pulverize in an electric chopper/blender etc.

Add mushroom mixture to ground meat, along with splash of the sherry, remainder of spices and egg. Combine, but don't over mix.
Divide and make into balls - size will vary cooking time - brown (and cook in pot or place in oven-safe dish) in same pot as used for mushrooms and onions, adding sherry/wine to deglaze any time the pot gets too brown.
Alternately, set the oven to 350, place shaped meatballs into a pyrex or on a baking sheet and bake 25-30 minutes (or cover in a sauce and bake until ready to serve).

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Banana Zucchini "Muffins"!

Such a HIT!

Chocolate Chip Banana Zucchini "Muffins"!

I have to admit, these didn't rise. I didn't use the baking soda (only powder) and also, there is not a lot of gluten in the recipe to make it rise ... but in their dense goodness they were delicious, and only received rave reviews and cravings for more.... so they could be bars, or biscuits or sconish things but their fruity, chocolatey goodness and I'm headed home to make more in about 3 hours... once I do, I'll add in a picture also.

Preheat oven to 360 degrees.

2 cups Zucchini from 1 large Zucchini (grated/shredded or liquefied by immersion blender, I did the latter)
2 med bananas (over ripened and mashed)
3 large eggs
1 cup brownulated sugar (Easy pouring & storage. Plain brown sugar does the trick too.)
2 tbs vegetable (or grapeseed) oil
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1-2 tbs baking powder
1/2 tbs baking soda
16 oz chocolate chips

Spray muffin tins (I used liners and then spray). Bake for 25 minutes or until center sets. Let cool. Enjoy.

Spice, Flare - Chicken Pot Stickers to Swear by!

I made this meal for a crowd of 10 who still rave about them all the time. Anything in a wrapper is amazing, and you'll find me sharing a lot of different variations on wonton fillings. What's great about this one is the extra meat/filling can be made into a meatball or tossed into a stir fry. Mmmm. I've got to make these again soon so I can add a photo.

Spicy Chicken Pot Stickers

This was so well received at a meal that I hardly needed a main course. Delectable. Try and find an all natural or pure chunky peanut butter, because you don't need hfcs floating into this dish.

1 pound ground chicken
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Thai hot chili paste or use chili oil (which is easier to find)
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped
30 wonton wrappers

In a hot pan saute ground chicken, garlic, ginger and shallots together until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Drain off the excess fat

Transfer chicken mixture to a bowl and stir in the peanut butter, brown sugar, chili oil, and basil.

Chill the mixture (if time allows) then wrap in wonton wrappers.

Bring the edges into a corner or simply fold into triangles, using a dab of water to "glue" the edges.

In a pot fitted with a steamer basket, bring 1 to 2 inches of water to a boil. Steam the pot stickers in the steamer basket for 8 to 10 minutes until the wrappers are translucent, and serve with a dipping sauce of your choice.