Chickpea and Turkey Meatballs

I had one of those nights where I just DIDN’T know what to make for dinner. As I was doing some blog reading, I came across Teresa’s recipe for Turkey Chickpea Burgers and knew I’d hit the jackpot! I adjusted her recipe a bit and made meatballs instead:

Ingredients:

• 15-oz can low sodium chickpeas, drained
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a food processor, combine chickpeas, Worcestershire, onion, cumin and water and pulse until smooth.

In a bowl, combine chickpea mixture, turkey & panko. Form into meatballs a little smaller than a golf ball (I got approximately 16 meat/bean balls). Place a cookie cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and spray with pam (see picture here). Bake for ~20 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with vegetables or pasta and sauce.

 

AND…I finally got the Christmas tree decorated. Notice the tilt to the right…I kind of love that its totally not perfect :

Matzo Balls & Christmas Fun

How was your weekend? Ours was was really wonderful, but so busy! Friday night, we did a family & friends dinner at Josh’s parents house. His Mom put out a great spread of salad, shrimp & meatballs. Delicious!

Saturday, we had a group fitness member appreciation event at the gym and then I ran lots of errands. When I got back, I got dressed up for a party at our group fitness managers house.  I brought a simple appetizer and some cookies (unpictured):

My group fitness manager & I wore the same skirt in different colors, so we had to get a picture or two

It was a silly and awesome time.

Sunday, we went and got our Christmas tree! It was exciting to take Kay for the first time (even though she won’t remember it one bit ).

The rest of the day was spent on stuff around the house and changing up my choreography for classes this week.

For dinner, I made matzo ball soup! Its Secret Recipe Club time!! As a part of the club, each month you’re assigned another Secret Recipe Club blogger to make a recipe from. If you want to join, click here to sign up.

This month, I was assigned Gluten Free Judee. Judee is (obviously), GF, but she is also a vegetarian! She had a lot of fun recipes (I plan to make her crockpot falafel next), but I ended up going for her matzo balls. Instead of using GF breadcrumbs, I used panko. The result was yummy, but next time I want to add a little something something (spice) to it.

Ingredients:

• 2 T vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 t salt

Directions:

In a small bowl beat eggs and oil and set aside
In a separate bowl mix bread crumbs and salt.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend well with fork.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes ( this step is important)

Remove batter from refrigerator. Divide batter into just slightly smaller than golf ball size balls- I used my cookie scoop to make the balls (should make about 8-10) .

Put up an 8qt pot of water and bring it to a boil with a little salt if you like. When water comes to a boil, drop in balls one at a time into the boiling water. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 40-50 minutes.

I also made a throw together soup of vegetables, ground chicken, broth, tomato sauce & spices.  The steps & results:

 

Thanks Judee!