Week 6: Well Blow Me Down!

As the wise and wonderful Popeye would say, “Well blow me down!”…
this week’s kitchen adventure came with valuable lessons.

 

First
Green food is not photogenic, especially if it’s made with spinach…EWW!

Second
I really need some better equipment if I’m going get through the rest of the year. My mom always had high-quality enamel, cast-iron pans and casserole dishes, sharp knives and plenty of wooden spoons.
I’ve been cooking with a limited amount of pans, the same spatulas, cookie sheets and baking dishes, etc. for years, just making do. Now I’m realizing it’s eating up time and possibly holding me back. I think a few chef-quality items are in order.
NOTE: Rick, my birthday is coming up and you have my permission to give me cookware without my thinking it’s misogynistic 🙂

Finally
The last lesson I learned was something my mom told me early on, but I ignored this week…
“When cooking, the first step is to read the recipe and directions all the way through. Make sure you have all the ingredients and the proper equipment.
I got a little cocky with my meatball making experience and didn’t read the recipe all the way through. Which resulted in a big gross, wet, green mess.

So… when the directions say, “cook the sausage first” before mixing it with the other ingredients… I recommend you do it.And mom, I imagine you’re chuckling from the grave.

A consummate educator,  my mother took every opportunity to grasp teachable moments.
When asked the definition of a word, she sent me to the dictionary (yes, we still had dictionaries). If I asked about a historical event or famous individual, she often sent me to our complete World Book Encyclopedia set. She’d always ask thought-provoking questions about the books we were reading, or what we were learning in school… Never willing to accept “I don’t know” or “we just did normal stuff” as an answer. Damn, as a kid that was super annoying!
In fact, there were times that I didn’t  show her my homework or school projects because I knew there would be some serious edits or more work in my future.

Now, as an adult, I recognize and appreciate her hunger for learning and teaching. She had a deep curiosity about the world and the human condition.

Yet another reason for me to be grateful… Mom, you had a great and curious mind…thank you for challenging me and teaching me that curiosity is a life-long habit and gift.

Now this week’ recipe
Which by the way I wanted to title “Popeye’s Balls” but I’m resisting the temptation…kind of 😉

The process:
First thing to go was the pork sausage. I don’t eat pork and lean turkey sausage is a healthier alternative.
“Look at the numbers: Pork sausage has 290-455 calories and 23-38 grams of fat per link. Turkey and chicken sausage have 140-160 calories and 7-10 grams of fat for the same amount. That’s hundreds of calories and fat grams dodged”
~ Food Network

I also really wanted to make this recipe compliant with Rick’s low-carb diet. He could eat everything in the recipe except the bread and cheese. I did some research on breadless meatballs and apparently, mushrooms are a good substitute for breadcrumbs. Having had previous success substituting Parmesan cheese with nutritional yeast in the Corn Muffin Recipe, I had my plan: Substitute the bread with mushrooms, and the cheese with nutritional yeast for added health benefits.

It didn’t go as planned for two reasons, 20 ounces of cooked spinach, even when drained and squeezed is super wet. And my failure to read the recipe ahead of time meant that I neglected to cook the sausage before blending it with the spinach and eggs.

The result was a soupy green egg turkey mess.
There was no way meatballs were going to happen.
Not wanting to waste,  I baked the mess up in a baking pan topped with Hemp Seed, and went back to the kitchen for attempt number two.

The baked spinach egg mushroom dish is actually pretty good and totally compliant with Rick’s diet. He’s happy he’s got breakfast for the next several days! I’m happy, because I know he’s getting lots of spinach 🙂

Attempt number two:
I gave up on removing the stuffing mix altogether, but wanted to at least try to make the added carbs heartier.
After doing some research, I decided to substitute the 2 cups of stuffing mix with one cup of toasted sprouted wheat bread and one cup of chopped raw mushrooms. I also eliminated one of the four eggs to prevent the recipe from getting too soupy.

It worked… solid meatballiness was achieved!

Sausage, Spinach, and Mushroom Ball Recipe

Otherwise known as “Popeye’s Balls”

Curious to see if I could make decent Italian sausage on my own, I of course looked it up online and tweaked it….”Mom, I have no idea how you cooked without the Internet!”

Ingredients:

1/2 lb hot Italian Sausage
1 cup of mushrooms
2 10 oz pkgs organic frozen chopped spinach or 2 to 3 pounds of fresh organic spinach cooked, drained and squeezed
3 eggs beaten
2 to 3 pieces of sprouted wheat bread toasted
1/2 C nutritional yeast
2 green onions, chopped

Sausage Ingredients:

1/2 lb lean ground natural/organic turkey
1 clove finely chopped garlic ground fennel seed
2 tsp oregano dried or if fresh, chop the leaves of about three stems
1  tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:
Keep in mind that these directions include making my own turkey sausage.
Skip that part if you’re purchasing hot Italian sausage.

I used my food processor for this recipe, but a blender or vigorous chopping and mixing would be fine.

• Find an amazing handsome, bald kitchen helper to wash the spinach!
  
• Toast the sprouted wheat bread.
• Combine toast and mushrooms in the food processor and “chop”‘until crumbled
• Spoon in the breaded mushroom mixture into a bowl with three beaten eggs, nutritional yeast, chopped green onion and prepared spinach. Mix.
  
  

Making the sausage:

• Use a food processor, blender or vigorous spoon-mixing to combine ground turkey, fennel, oregano, parsley, garlic, Red pepper flakes
• Cook the sausage in a hot pan until it is crumbled and no longer pink, about 4 to 6 minutes
• Add the sausage to the spinach mixture and mix
• You could also combine this mixture in the food processor (I did) but it’s not necessary
• Spoon and form 1 inch meatballs on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake a preheated 350° oven until the outside is a light, golden brown. Approximately 15 mins

Serve hot as an appetizer with marinara or olive oil for dipping, or as a main course with pasta or salad.

The result:

It worked. You can really taste the mushroom which I liked. But truth be told, Parmesan cheese would be a big addition. I just like the added health benefits of Nutritional Yeast. Maybe a 50/50 blend would work.

 

Week 6 Recipe Pick
In honor of Valentine’s Day … bring on the kisses!

Not sure how I can make a meringue healthier, but I’ll give it a try 🙂

See you next week!