Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Spicy Turkey & Veggie Meatballs

There’s just something comforting about meatballs. A good bowl of spaghetti with classic ground beef meatballs, tomato sauce and melty cheese just warms our hearts.  Here’s a meatball recipe that’s a twist on the classic version.  This recipe switches up ground beef with chicken or turkey and adds a kick of spice with curry paste.  Swap curry paste for Hoisin sauce if you can't handle the heat. Top a bowl of noodles or spaghetti squash with these delicious bit-sized beauties or just snack on them as is.  You won’t be disappointed.

Recipe

1lb ground chicken or turkey

1 red pepper, diced

½ large yellow sweet onion, diced

½ cup ground large flake oats

2 tbsp red curry paste (Hoisin) 

1 tbsp soy sauce 

1 tsp cumin

salt

pepper

Directions

Dice red pepper and onions into small pieces.

Combine thawed chicken or turkey with diced veg, about a ½ cup ground large flake oats (just grind in a blender until flour consistency), curry paste, soy sauce and spices.

Roll into balls sized to your desire.

Bake on a sheet lined with parchment paper at 350 F for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

Commence taste test once slightly cooled. Or burn your tongue and regret it later. You all know which road we'd take...    

Most importantly, now you have food for the week!!!!!!!

Chilli for a Chilly Day

Every lazy cook needs a crockpot.  Good food isn’t always easy to prepare.  As busy students, we tend to cook easy and quick meals and save the complicated foods for the pros.  Here’s a recipe for an easy and delicious chilli that will leave you full and prepared for future meals (yay leftovers!).

Ingredients:

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup barley

½ sweet white onion

2 cloves garlic

1lb ground turkey meat

1 tablespoon chilli powder

salt & pepper

1 tablespoon garlic salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 can (549 fl oz) black beans

1 can (540 fl oz) chickpeas

1 can (284 fl oz) mushroom bits and stems

1 can (796 fl oz) diced chilli tomatoes

1.5 cups (or more) medium salsa (I like Old El Paso Restaurant Style, medium)

1.     Bring 1 cup chicken broth to a boil and add in 1 cup dry barley. Let simmer for 10 minutes while you prepare the meat mix.

2.     Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Roughly chop onion and garlic and saute in pan for 1-2 minutes. 

3.     Add ground turkey meat to the frying pan. Fry until cooked through. Drain out excess water/fat. Add in spices, stir. 

4.     Add the barley mix to the crockpot (barley won’t be fully cooked but will soften overnight).  Add your meat mix to the crockpot.  Add all the canned beans and veggies. 

5.     Top up crockpot with salsa.  Add as much or as little salsa as you like. 

6.     Cook on low overnight.

Just had to sneak pic before I left it for the night!

7.     To serve, top with ALL THE TOPPINGS (sour cream, tortillas, shredded cheese, avocado, whatever yummies you have) and devour.

and... Dinner is served! Definitely not without a huge dollop of sour cream and cheese :)

This recipe is very modifiable. Add ingredients or change up the types of beans, just adjust the salsa in order to make this chilli as thick or thin as you'd like.

Eat All the Noodles

“ _________ -fest “. Insert any food category into the blank and you better believe we will attend.  Yesterday was Noodlefest at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa and we knew this event was quite possibly what dreams are made of.  We literally were looking forward to this event for a good two weeks before. Go look at our text message history and count how many times one of us sent a “NOODLES" text.   We take this stuff seriously.

The event was 19+ with a cash bar.  There was a good selection of vendors. About 8-10 serving noodle mains, a bubble tea booth and 3 dessert vendors.  Dishes ranged from $3 to $5. Our game plan was to try food from every vendor.  Side note: We are smart, just not smart enough to know when to stop eating.  Some of our fave dishes were  served up by Green Papaya (http://www.greenpapaya.ca/home). Chicken curry on a pad thai-type noodle and a chicken with glass noodles dish.

Both of these dishes had a nice heat to them and full of flavour. We will definitely be checking this restaurant out in the future.  Another fave was a torched seafood on udon-style noodle by Miso Japanese (http://misorestaurant.ca). Sounds weird. Was weird. But it worked in a good way.

There were vegan or vegetarian options offered by pretty much every vendor (although we tend to be carnivorous and opted for the meatiest dishes...don’t hate us, herbivores). In our habitual “must finish with dessert” decision, we opted  for a yummy looking “ice cream” stand.  We questioned why “ice cream” was in quotations but went for it anyways. Turns out this vegan “ice cream” was the perfect finisher to a noodle-heavy night.  Our Winter Berry Cheesecake and Toasted Coconut Caramel sundaes looked so pretty and weren’t half bad. Turns out the “ice cream” is made from oatmeal, hence the company name (https://oatandmill.com).  There is definitely a different taste to this dessert but you can feel a little less guilty about indulging and still enjoy a sweet treat, so we are all for it.

Overall, we give this event 3 stars out of 5 and a happy belly full of noodles. 

   

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