A Southwestern Meatball's Chance in....

The view from my front door this morning. ACK!

Well, the prairies woke up to a blanket of snow this morning.  It was pretty wet snow and it melted off the sidewalks pretty quickly so I don't think it will last.  I hope it won't last.  I do enjoy the snow and in fact it looked quite pretty out there this morning.  I am just not ready for it yet. Also, I think I need a new winter coat but haven't had the time to go shopping yet....It also means there were PLENTY of snowballs being thrown out on the playground today!! (And not by me!!)

Tonight is a gym night, it has to be.  I have a headache but I need to go. My local expert tells me it is the best thing to do. When I got home from work I prepared everything to cook dinner. A mise on place if you will. I made the turkey meatballs and placed them in the fridge, cut up all the veggies for the warm corn and black bean salsa.  All I have to do when I get home is cook everything and according to the recipe in the October 2011 edition of Clean Eating Magazine, this will only take 10 to 15 minutes to cook....

Mise en place: everything is ready to go

Turkey meatballs ready for the fridge.

Okay, I am back from the gym and ready to cook.

Southwestern Turkey meatball skillet
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine October, 2011

1 lb ground turkey
2 large egg whites (I used one whole egg)
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I used wheat germ tonight but don't tell Hubby or the Boy....)
1/4 tsp sea salt (I used kosher)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil (I may have used a little bit more...
1 cup frozen corn
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used water because I only had broth frozen in 4 cup blocks....)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1/4 fresh cilantro

I also added
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic

First mix up the meatball mixture.  In a bowl mix together the turkey, egg, crumbs, salt and pepper.  I also added extra cumin to the meat balls but after eating them, they need way more spice.

Heat a large skillet over medium, add the olive  oil, then the meat balls.  Brown the meat balls, turning to a new side as they brown for about 5 minutes.

Once the meatballs have a decent brown going on, add in the onions, green peppers, tomatoes, corn, black beans, broth, cumin, and lime juice. Mix everything up, being careful to not break the meatballs up. (This is where I added the garlic.  I grated it in with the micro plane...I just love garlic and I am glad I added it)

Slap a cover on the pan and let it all get happy happy for about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle on the cilantro and another squeeze of lime juice.

I served this with rice tonight, but the Boy ate his with multi grain tortilla chips.

It really did only take about 15 minutes to cook this dish!! Overall the warm salsa very tasty and I got the approval to make it again.  The meatballs were quite bland and I kind of knew they would turn out that way when I started. We decided however to add more spice to the meatballs. The winners of the spice discussion were smoked paprika and come chili flakes along with more cumin. (Perhaps some crushed garlic as well).

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

Cilantro Lime Rice: Dinner on The Road

Baseball season is in full swing in the Little Kitchen and this means that at some point during each week there is a need to play away games.  I have been quite on the ball (pardon the pun) with dinners on these nights.  (*pats self on back*)  Tuesday night I even was ahead of the game (groan) and got our 'travel dinners' ready so all we I had to do was heat and go Wednesday evening!!  The boy and his team are to report to the diamond an hour before the game starts to get themselves ready.  This means he has to be there for 5:30 if the game starts at 6:30.  At times, the away games are pretty far from home and require a bit of a drive.  For home games this is no problem as we can even drop him off, come back home and then go back for game time.

A bevy of veggies

For the last couple of away games I have had a travel meal ready for Hubby and I to eat at the game.  The game plan is to assemble and store in the fridge, heat up the meals before leaving, arrive at the diamond on time for the Boy to meet the team, Hubby and I enjoy a meal together at the diamond!  You may be thinking at this time "Hey genius, why not just eat at home before you leave?" I will tell you, when leaving at 4:30 for a game, it is too early to eat.  Yet when you realize that the average ball game can easily last over 2 hours....sigh....too early to eat before we go but too long to wait for dinner.  The solution is here.  Planning and prep work are needed! The effort is so worth it and keeps us from having to stop at drive throughs and gas stations to eat.  (BTW, the Boy eats at home right after school, then again in the car, then again when we get home, then again......you get the idea!)

I even chopped up some veggies to have with hummus as a snack for the ride home.  Of course I had to pack the beautifully different coloured peppers separately so the Boy would still eat the green peppers.  Pack it all together and store in the fridge waiting to be added to the cooler.

Cilantro Lime Rice with Beans
For the rice:

• 1 small onion, chopped (I used 1/4 of a large white onion)
• 1 cup bell peppers, chopped (I like using a little bit of each colour, this one was green, orange, red)
• 1 (or two) jalapeno peppers
• Zest of 1 lime
• juice of 1 lime
• handful of cilantro, rinsed and chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil (or butter, or canola oil, or whatever you want to use)
• 1 cup rice (of your choice)
• liquid as per rice directions (I use water but stock or broth would be tasty)

Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil.

Saute the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno until fragrant (NOTE: if you are using a long grain rice, don't over cook the veggies here.  They will cook with in the liquid with the rice and you don't want mushy veggies! If you are using minute rice (because your lovely Hubby did the shopping and the giant box of minute rice was on sale and that is all yo have) then cook the veggies longer as minute rice only takes, well a few minutes to cook.

Add the rice to the veggies and stir it all up.  Now add the water.  Slap on a cover and allow to cook as per any rice package directions and let the rice cook.

Squeeze the lime juice and toss in the lime zest and stir it all in.

Add the chopped cilantro, stir again and enjoy....or spoon into your travel containers.

This rice is just plain yummy.  A bit of heat, lots of lime, and a bit of cilantro...yummy!!!
The beans....now I like just plain old baked beans with this but this time I made some re fried bean type dish to go with it.  These beans were darn tasty (and a bit spicy!) but as the rice was also spicy, I opted to have plain old baked beans with my rice and Hubby had the spicy beans.

Re friedish beans

• 1/2 small onion, diced fine
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 3 or 4 chipotle peppers, chopped fine
• 1 can navy beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup water ( or stock)
• 1 tbsp oil

Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil.

Saute the onion until soft and stir in the cumin and the chipotle peppers.
 
Add the rinsed and drained navy beans, stir it all together.  Let the beans get heated through.

Grab a potato masher and start mashing the beans to your desired consistency.

Serve with the rice. (Or spoon into your travel container with the rice)

Once your containers are full (and everything in the container is piping hot) place the covers on, wrap in a towel and place in a bag. Add another towel if needed to help keep the food hot until eating time!

Note: When making this the night before, make sure you heat up the beans and rice hotter than you think, especially if you are wrapping this up to go.  This way it will stay warm until you eat.

Double up the towel and fold around the hot containers

Tuck a couple of drinks in the bag, some seeds, and you are ready!

Remember to wrap some cutlery in a napkin so you can eat!

 Now as luck would have it, we I packed everything up to go, we even started driving, got on the perimeter highway.  My phone buzzed with an incoming email...the game out in rural Manitoba was cancelled and they would be having a practice at the home field.  The diamond out in Sanford Manitoba is still under water....sigh.  We turned around and came home.
.
We ate our travel dinners at home, then got into the yard (and the glorious sunshine) to get some work done, the boy went to practice....sigh...

With the weather being nothing but rain and wind, (and the baseball schedule) it has been darn near impossible to tend to the lawn so it did look a little like this:

 Oops.....