That's a Spicy Meatball!

Made Spaghetti and Meatballs last night. Hy-Vee had 90% lean ground beef for $2.99 a pound so I purchased 2 pounds. I was just going to brown it all and mix half of it with 8 ounces or so of spaghetti and mix in a jar of spaghetti sauce. I ended up making meatballs, actual ball shaped meatballs. You ask what other shape meatballs would be? Usually when I make 'meatballs' I actually just make a couple of big patties and then cut them into bite-size pieces. It's quick, easy and entails less handling of raw meat. Last night though I went all out and used all 2 pounds of ground beef and made a couple dozen meatballs.

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Meatballs ala ec

2 pounds 90% lean ground beef
1 pouch (16g) Good Seasons Zesty Italian Salad Dressing & Recipe Mix
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs

Dump all the ingredients into a good-sized mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Shape into balls (about 2 tablespoons of meat each). I cooked mine on the stove-top in a frying pan, but you could bake them.
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Nothing special about the spaghetti or the store bought sauce. I did add about a teaspoon of Tabasco Sauce and a half cup of shredded cheese to the final product.

They are very tasty, but I think I'll go back to the make into patties and cut into chunks method. It's a lot easier.

As for today? It's my 'day off,' so I'm doing yard work, mowing, raking and all that. Also taking stuff that shouldn't be allowed to freeze from the garage to the basement, and stuff from the basement to the garage that'll be unaffected by freezing. I'll also probably clear off the deck.

Hoppin' John Salad

Made something completely different from my normal cooking: a variation on a Hoppin' John Salad. The original recipe can be found on the USA Rice Federation recipe pages: Hot Hoppin' John Salad. This variation is slanted toward my preferences; however, since I'm not a big fan of beans, peas or other legumes, and cabbage is not one of my favorite vegetables (I can eat it raw, but find the taste to strong when cooked) I'm giving myself points for even trying this recipe. I'm trying to expand my horizons so I decided to give it a whirl.

ec's Hot Hoppin' John Salad 
May be used as a main dish (6 servings) or a side dish (8 servings)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups   rice, cooked
3 oz   thick sliced bacon, minced
6 oz   ham minced
1/2 cup   onion, red, finely chopped
1 tablespoon   minced garlic
1/2 cup   carrots, shredded
1/2 cup   celery, sliced
1 teaspoon   hot pepper sauce
1 can   black-eyed peas, 15 oz
1/2 teaspoon   black pepper
1/4 teaspoon   salt
4 cups   cabbages, finely shredded

Instructions:
Cook rice per package directions and set aside.

Cut bacon into 2-inch pieces and put in bowl of food processor, pulse 4 or 5 times. add a couple ounces of the ham to the bowl and pulse 3 or 4 times, repeat with remaining ham. Bacon/ham mixture should be well blended. Put in 10-inch sauce pan on low heat, cover, stirring occasionally until mixture starts to brown.

Add onion, garlic and carrots to ham mixture. Continue to stir until onion and carrots start to soften.

Stir in celery, hot sauce, black-eyed peas (drain can first), rice, salt and pepper. Heat through, stirring frequently.

Serve on bed of cabbage.

Servings: 8 side salads or 6 main dish servings

Nutrition Facts 
Nutrition (per serving): 267.6 calories; 30% calories from fat; 9.0g total fat; 86.5mg cholesterol; 1432.9mg sodium; 602.9mg potassium; 22.5g carbohydrates; 3.0g fiber; 4.4g sugar; 23.4g protein.

Recipe Type: Main Dish, Salad, Side Dish

Recipe Source: USA Rice Federation

I liked it. It was very flavorful and not overpowered by any of the ingredients. The sodium and fat content is high, that'd be from the bacon and ham. Fiber is good and the sugar isn't too bad. On the whole I'd give this a 4-star rating (out of 5).

Pot Roast

I made a pot roast last night (Thursday). I bought the stuff for it Wednesday on my way home from work planning on throwing it into the slow cooker before going to bed. I wasn't feeling very good Wednesday and by the time I got home it was after 9 and since I had to leave for work in 12 hours I decided to leave it until after work Thursday. Felt worse Thursday morning, but somehow got myself into work. Worked for three hours and had to leave. Tried to read when I got home but headache was too bad and so I went to sleep simply because being unconscious seemed the simplest solution. When I woke up I decided I'd better get the pot roast going or put the roast in the freezer. The thought also occurred to me that a pot roast in a slow cooker was about the easiest thing I could actually cook. Except for bacon and eggs, which to be honest didn't appeal to my stomach.

I put 8 oz carrots, 8 oz celery, 1 lb cubed Yukon potatoes, 6 oz shallots, 3 lbs beef roast (browned), 1 (10 3/4  oz) can cream of mushroom with roasted garlic condensed soup and 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce into my slow cooker. Why shallots instead of onions? I'd never used them before and was curious of how they'd work.

I had some raw veggies (carrots and celery I had on hand for some reason) and saltines for dinner. I then read for awhile and wondered what time it was. I expected it to be something like 1am, but it was only coming onto 9pm. I was too tired and groggy to do much and too rested to go back to sleep. What to do What to do...

Hmm, isn't this what the internet was invented for? I decided to surf for a while. I also worked on my Lunch reference page for "The critter @ home". Look for the Lunch Time link under pages. After a couple of hours I was ready for bed.

This morning I opened the slow-cooker and divided the pot roast and veggies into a couple of storage containers and put it in the fridge. I did try a small bowl and it tasted great! The roast itself is falling apart and the veggies were flavorful. I'll have more for lunch; here at home since I have today off.

A day off, mostly wasted since I'm still sick. Why can I made myself work (usually) when I'm sick, but on my day off I'm lucky if I can force myself from the bed to the recliner? There are a dozen things I should do today and I know I'll be luck to get just a couple of them done.

Black Bean Brownies Version 2

Made the Black Bean Brownies again yesterday. Changed the recipe a little in an attempt to make them less crumbly. The changes were mostly successful and the ones that weren't didn't hurt anything. The brownies were less crumbly and were moist and more melt in your mouth than chewy. They were not especially more chocolaty or sweeter. The peanut butter also was not especially evident, I could smell it more than taste it. All in all, I'd raise it about 1/2 point.

ec's Flourless (Black Bean) Brownies Version 2
Tags: Desserts, Snacks, Beans, Bake, Low Sugar
No flour and no sugar but still tasty.

Ingredients
15 ounce can Black beans
3 large Eggs
1/2 cup Butter melted
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
2 tablespoon Torani Sugar Free Classic Caramel Syrup optional
1/2 cup Simply Jif peanut butter or your favorite peanut butter
1 cup Splenda
1/2 cup Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1/8 teaspoon Salt
Cooking spray

Instructions
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Spray a 9" baking pan or one of them new-fangled brownie pans.
Put dry ingredients into a bowl and stir a little to mix.
Place the black beans, eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract, caramel syrup and peanut butter into the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a few times to start blending. Add about a quarter of the cocoa powder, Splenda, salt, and baking powder to the bowl, pulsing a couple of times before adding more, blend until smooth.

Bake the brownies for 30 to 40 minutes, or until they are set in the center. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Yield: 16 Servings

Version 2 change history: added 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Simply Jif - 1/2 the sodium and 2/3rds the sugar), increased the Splenda from 3/4 cup to 1 cup, increased the cocoa from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup, removed the walnuts (I'm just not that fond of walnuts baked into things. I love them straight from the package) and added 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. Also added 2 tablespoons Torani Sugar Free Classic Caramel Syrup at the last minute, just because I've been looking for some way to use it up.

BigOven -- Easy to use recipe organizer for Windows

Homemade Brownies

Last week I made Pillsbury's Sugar-Free Chocolate Fudge Brownies. It made me want more! This week I decided to try to make some brownies from scratch. While browsing the web for sugar-free brownie recipes I stumbled across a couple of different recipes for Black Bean Brownies. The idea intrigued me so I made up my own recipe using Splenda instead of sugar. I think the recipe still needs some work, but it was good. It just needs to be a little more cohesive. I expect that if I'd made it with sugar, or even Splenda Sugar Blend, it would have had more cohesion. Next time I make it I think I'll add another 1/4 cup of Splenda and another egg (to give it more of that cohesion). I hope. Recipe link for ec's Flourless (Black Bean) Brownies.

From Public

ec's Flourless (Black Bean) Brownies

Lunching with Mr Bento episode 02

This is my second entry about Mr Bento and the lunches I put through him. My first one was the entry: Today's Lunch with Mr Bento posted September 9th.

First, who or what is Mr Bento? Made by Zojirushi, the Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar (SL-JAE14) consists of a stainless steel, vacuum insulated, outer container with 4 microwaveable inner bowls, included is a forked spoon with snap-on cover and a zippered carrying bag. The size of the various inner containers are: Main Bowl 15.2 oz., Large Side Bowl 10.1 oz., Small Side Bowl 6.8 oz., Soup Bowl 9.5 oz. The company offers several lunch jars with this one being the largest. You can see how some people use it in the the Flickr group: Mr. Bento. I've added a Flickr Slideshow at the bottom of this page to make it easier for you.

My second Mr Bento lunch this month (Monday, September 13th) consisted of Blackened Chicken Strips on Pasta with Cajun Sauce from the BigOven recipe site. Apple sauce, the end of last week's Brownies, and some Blue Bunny No Sugar Added Reduced Fat Ice Cream Vanilla. I put the ice cream in Mr Bento's soup bowl and yes it does stay frozen. Well, it takes a little preparation and forethought but it can be done.

The Blackened Chicken on Pasta was good. Not 5-star but a solid 3.5. I may at some future time play with the recipe a little to make it more suited to my personal preferences. As mentioned above I found it on the BigOven recipe site. I mention this because recently, most of the recipes I've found really interesting I've found on TasteSpotting. This is sort of a best of the best food blogs site. Members of TasteSpotting submit images/links from around the web and the submissions are reviewed and the best served up complete with the most delicious images.  Everything there looks great, even the things I know I wouldn't like. I've added a Feed roll at the bottom of the column to the right for those of you who'd like to see the most recent additions to TasteSpotting's site.

Today's Lunch with Mr Bento

This morning I broke out my Mr Bento and, for lunch, filled it with left-over Curried Ground Turkey and Potatoes, apple sauce and a brownie from Pillsbury's Sugar-Free Brownie mix. As food photography goes this isn't a great picture, but it is what it is.

If you're wondering how I got a round brownie I used two 4" springform pans and then put the rest of the batter in a loaf pan. I purchased the 4" pans mostly to use when cooking for my Mr Bento. In addition to the usual baked goods I've used them for meatloaf which fits nicely into the two larger containers in the Mr Bento.

    

Tried a New Recipe Last Night

As I've mentioned I'm addicted to RSS feeds. Right now I'm subscribed to around 80 feeds about food and cooking. One of these feeds is Simply Recipes, their recipe Curried Ground Turkey with Potatoes caught my eye a couple of days ago. I made it last night, ate a small bowl and I have to say it is good. I used to know a lady who made great curries. She didn't use any recipe, usually she just looked at what she had on hand and made it up as she went. I can't do that, at least not with curry.

I'm writing this during my lunch, which is left over curry! I let a co-worker try it and she did NOT like it, but she'd never had curry before.

Hmm, have to call around and see if anyone wants to go the Great Indian Restaurant. I haven't been there for a while and could use a fix of their Chicken Tikka Masala.