Chalk this one up to a learning experience. Yes, it ended up pretty well but I really was questioning whether this meal would end up in the trash part way through. To start at the beginning, my friend at work whose son is a month older than T was giving me tips on different solids to try. One suggestion was meatballs. I ended up taking her general recipe as an idea and made my own concoction. Note at this point that I had never made meatballs, meat loaf, or anything of the sort because I'm just not a fan. I'll eat it, but it's not something I crave. This is something that occurred to me when I got to the point of actually baking the balls.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (I prefer Jenni-O 97% lean)
1 large patty pan
1 head of cauliflower
1 packet of Archer Farms steamable brown rice
I started by chopping up the patty pan and cauliflower, steaming them in the microwave (separate of course), and blending them (separate again) in the baby bullet. Next I took the rice packet (lesson #2 of this post), tore the top to vent, and microwaved that. As you may recall from a prior post, I don't eat rice and do not really know how to prepare it. Luckily Archer Farms (Target Owned Brand) makes a great option that you just toss in the microwave. Seemed to turn out well! Our goal was to attempt rice for T soon, because daycare suggested we start working more grains into her diet.
After everything was blended, I took the ground turkey and separated in half, each in a separate bowl. I did the same with the brown rice, then added patty pan to one bowl and cauliflower to the other. Note you will have some of each veggie left over. Mix with your hands until everything is consistent and sticking together. As my mom pointed out afterwards, the rice was my "bonding agent", acting similar to ketchup in meat loaf. But much more healthy! It shouldn't be too runny, so only add as much veggie as you can before it gets too soft.
I made them into 1.5" or 2" balls, fitting about 16 on each cookie tray. Then I baked them for approximately 30 minutes around 350F. This is lesson #3. I started off at 400F, and the outsides got brown very quickly but the insides were still liquid. After several more attempts and repeated heat reductions, they were finally done. Of course at this point I consulted my mom and learned what to look for to ensure they're cooked through. Have I ever mentioned my mom writes cook books for a living and is a pretty awesome resource? No? Well I should know by now to always start with her. She's better than Google!
T loved the smell of the meat balls so much that she wouldn't even wait until dinner to eat them! She finished one off as a snack, then two more while I prepped dinner. So far she's only had the cauliflower version, but hopefully the patty pan version is as big a hit. This recipe made about 35 meatballs and I froze them in a freezer bag for easy portioning later.
No comments:
Post a Comment