Meatballs! (A Pin a Day #5)

My family loves meat. We are 100% total meat eaters and you would be hard pressed to find another family who loves meat as much as we do. Half of us also love fruits and veggies, so I think it evens it out. In fact! Charlie can not even fathom a meal without meat, he even puts bacon on his grilled cheese (which is really good BTW). I am always on the look out for different ways to prepare the same old chub'o'burger that I buy at the store and always have on hand in the freezer at a moments notice (that reminds me, add chub'o'burger to my shopping list...)

I came across this meal while trying to figure out what I would make for dinner for the #5 blog post. These meatballs looked too delicious to pass up, and trust me, I looked through A LOT of meatball pins...

Taco Soup

Yet another suggestion from Brian and his family! The original un-tweaked recipe can be found here at RecipeZaar, but mine is a bit different.

When I first looked at the soup recipe and saw the calorie content in that sucker I was incredibly hesitant to try it. I ran down the list of ingredients and figured I could make a lower calorie version of this without much effort and decided to give it a go. My tweaked version can be found below.


Ingredients



* 1 1/2 lb ground turkey
* 1 white onion, diced
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can corn
* 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans ranch style beans
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 ounce taco seasoning
* 1 ounce powdered ranch dressing mix
* 1 tsp paprika
* 6 ounces diet cola, I used Coke Zero, but Diet Dr Pepper will also work
* 1 tsp garlic powder
* 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and added whole
* 1 tsp oregano
* 1 tsp cumin
* 1 tsp seasoning salt

I started off by browning the turkey with the onions. You can also opt to add the garlic at this point. The whole cloves were an after thought for me, so I didn't add them until later, but if when I do this recipe again, I would add them now.



The best way to dice onions is to cut in half, and then make long slits without going through the onion entirely. It makes it much easier to keep the onion from slipping around and you get a nice uniform cut.



While that cooked up, I added everything else into the crock pot, starting with the canned items. Beans, corn, tomato sauce and tomatoes, and then the special secret ingredient...



Yes! 8 ounces of soda. The original recipe called for regular Dr Pepper or Coke, which adds an extra 100 calories to the dish. If you don't like diet, or soda, you can also use beer, the alcohol will cook off I swear. I didn't even taste the diet soda in the soup honestly, but it did add a nice sweetness.

Next I measured out the spices in my little kitchen scale.



Below are my tweaks and additions to the soup; fresh garlic, oregano, seasoning salt, and cumin.



Next I drained the grease from the mean and onions (there wasn't much on the turkey, but I can imagine how much there is in the beef version), and added it to the soup, stirring and mixing it all in the crock pot.



I let it simmer for most of the day on low for about 6 hours, and served it with mini pepper jack quesadillas on the side, which are very easy to make and just require some cheese, and 2 corn tortillas. They were great for dipping.

Ye Olde Spaghetti Factory

There used to be this restaurant in San Diego called "The Old Spaghetti Factory" (they are everywhere if you can still find them). It was cheap, good, and always hit the spot. My family had a boat in the harbor, and we would always eat there after a day of sailing. Nothing fills you up quite as good as pasta, meat and a hearty sauce.

Several years went by, and the Gaplamp Quarter area of downtown was growing. Empty lots turned into parking garages, parking lots turned into lofts, and lofts turned into baseball fields. Rent sky rocketed. Stores moved to less expensive areas of town. Restaurants closed down. It was a sad time for all us born'n'raised types.

The saddest thing was that "The Old Spaghetti Factory" was closing its doors after how ever many years of operation due to, their lease being up, needing to renew, and the fact that pretty much even if they were open 24/7/365, without raising prices to astronomical heights, they couldn't afford to be there anymore. Now the closest one to me is about a 2 hour round trip up north in Vista. If I'm in the area, I'll stop, but I doubt I'd be making a special trip.

The building that it was once housed in is now a Hard Rock Hotel and some ritzy fancy schmancy Indian place I think. I'd like to try it, but on principle I feel like I should just pass.

Just the other day at Costco we discovered heaven. The Old Spaghetti Factory has gone the route of others such as Cheesecake Factory, TGIFridays, and Marie Calendars and started selling their sausages in select locations! Yay!

So for dinner I started with this...


Iceberg lettuce, carrots, red cabbage, and cucumber slices with 1 tsp of oil and vinegar dressing and 1tsp of balsamic vinegar. Basic salad.

and finished it off with this...



I was so overzealous with hunger that I forgot to take a before picture until I had torn into the pasta and sausage! But I promptly pulled it out and snapped a few shots. That's about a cup of regular out spaghetti noodles, nothing fancy, and some doctored sauce. Onions, garlic, spices and then topped with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. And next to it in all its fatty, meaty glory, a single lone Spaghetti Factory Sausage. The calorie count is likely to be astronomical, so I think I'll skip that part.

I will say that they weren't half bad, and actually tasted pretty authentic to the taste I remember growing up. This is definitely a "treat" and not something I even normally have on a regular occasion, but it was there, so I partook.

I'm curious about better ways to eat pasta, besides whole wheat, or even just good suggestions for a decent, non gag inducing whole wheat brand of pasta I can pick up at the store. Let me know.