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...

Pizza Gourmet Express

Gary lives just a block or so East of the adorable heart of University Heights in San Diego, which leads to us trying lots of pedestrian friendly restaurants and bars in the vicinity. One such place is our new favorite "neighborhood pizza joint", Pizza Gourmet Express which hails itself as just that.

I walked over to get a pizza last night, and as I snapped a few pictures I heard, "Oh! Another Yelper!" to which I explained that I wasn't a Yelper, and I had my own food blog, not that being a Yelper is a bad thing, I just already have too much on my plate, ya know?

Pizza Gourmet Express

4615 Park Boulevard
San Diego California 92116
(61...

PEG is kinda like the "Subway" of pizza restaurants, an assembly line of fresh ingredients made fresh to order right in front of your eyes and either taken home to cook yourself, or flash baked in their high speed pizza ovens. Gary and I met the owner, James, who is super nice, awesome and informative. He said he'd stop by and see what I had to say, so... HI JAMES!


We got our old standard, the Vegetarian Pizza, which comes with 4 veggie toppings of your choice. We opted for tomatoes, garlic, artichoke hearts and fresh asparagus, on their thin whole wheat crust, then topped with fresh basil and spices. A lot of times I'll forgo the "whole wheat" options, cuz I don't like eating cardboard, but PGE's 51% whole wheat crust is thin, nutty and still soft which makes it a great camouflaged "healthy" option for those of you trying to watch what you eat without giving up taste. Plus their dough is made and delivered fresh! DELISH!

I also love that they have glass bottled sodas, wines and beers, and even Virgil's Root Beer ON TAP!


Pizza Gourmet Express is also doing their part in the Green Movement and deliver their neighborhood pizzas on a cute red bike! I got mine delivered by a cute bearded man.


We got the pizza home and I immediately began snapping pictures of the deliciousness that was our dinner. A large vegetarian pizza has 8 slices and feeds 2 hungry people with enough left over, for well, left overs and runs you just under $16.



Gary got to eat the rest for dinner the next night.


The month of September has affectionately been dubbed, "Nostalgia Movie Month" so we accompanied our pizza with The Dark Crystal on DVD. GELFLING!?!?

(source.)

Feel free to join us by watching movies from at least 15 years ago that make you say things like, "OH yeahhh!! I forgot that part!"

Up next in our queue is; "The Never Ending Story"

The GM Diet Plan : DAY FIVE

I've lost 5lbs so far!!! YAY!!

and....

TODAY IS BEEF AND TOMATO DAY!!!

HUZZAH! So Kristi and I have been checking out multiple websites regarding the GM Diet plan, and all of them say different things on Day Five, but essentially its the day you get to eat lots of meat and 8 tomatoes. Just so you know, Kristi HATES tomatoes, so today proved difficult with finding recipes that she might like.

Day Five

Take small portions of lean meat or cottage cheese with 6 whole tomatoes. You can make a sandwich out of it. Increase your water intake by 1/4th. The meat / cheese are for iron and proteins and the tomatoes are for digestion and fiber. The excess water purifies the system.

I grew up in a pro-tomato household, so I had a few decent tomato recipes up my sleeve.

We started the day off by going to the store for the goods. We grabbed a bag of vine ripened tomatoes, and some deli lunch meats for snacks, 2 nice sized steaks for dinner and a zucchini. I figured some veggies in there for variety wouldn't hurt.

We went to In-n-Out Burger for lunch as a treat, and we were VERY GOOD. We ordered a double meat, cooked in mustard, with tomato, protein style (which means no bun, wrapped in lettuce) we added light amounts of condiments and some pickles. Give us a break!


For dinner we made steak, my dad's famous tomato zucchini "soup" and broiled Italian tomatoes.

For the "soup", you just need a zucchini, and a can of italian stewed tomatoes. Put it all into a small sauce pan, and cook on low for about 10 minutes.


For the broiled Italian tomatoes, it requires a bit of work. Start with some nice ripe tomatoes...


Slice them in half, and add some butter, we used the I can't Believe it's not Butter Spray (0 calories and 0 fat!) Sprinkle with Italian Seasonings, salt and pepper and top with a bit of Parmesan cheese.


Throw them in the Broiler (or on the BBQ) for about 5-10 minutes, depending on the size. The cheese should melt and be goldeny brown.

We got very lean cuts of beef, and enjoyed a nice big feast. We could barely finish it all, but it was very tasty and even Kristi ate it!

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.

Greek Salad

Not many salads really turn my head. Especially not Greek salads, but I decided to cook dinner tonight and really do it up Greek Style, and what goes better with Greek food, then Greek Salad?

The recipe is super easy, yummy, and decently healthy. This is what you need;



Lettuce, chopped. I used Hearts of Romaine and a head of Iceberg, but you can use whatever types of lettuce you like best. Make sure that you use a lettuce knife when doing a chop salad, or rip it with your hands so it doesn't brown.



Tomatoes, sliced/diced/whole depending on the type you use. I used grape tomatoes cuz they are sweet and delicious and I halved them down the center. Cherry tomatoes will also work and are small enough, like grapes to slice in half or use whole. If you're going to use a larger tomato, I suggest dicing them into bite sizes.

Cucumbers, peeled, and cut into bite size pieces. If you prefer you can half it lengthwise and remove the seeds, or use an English cucumber. I don't mind the seeds, so I just left those puppies in.



Olives, of the Greek or Mediterranean variety. They usually can be found in the deli section of the grocery, or even in the olive section. I chose a green and kalamata mix.

Throw it all into a bowl in that order and it should look something like this...




Next you need to make a dressing, this is where it really sets itself apart from other crappy salads. It's a slightly modified version of a recipe I saw on For The Love of Cooking.





* 6 tablespoons olive oil
* Juice of 1 lemon
* 2 garlic cloves, pressed
* 3 tsp red wine vinegar
* Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
* 1/2 tsp dried oregano

Whisk it all together until it's creamy and then pour over the salad, top with some feta cheese, and toss. Voila!



I made this for my very picky father who actually finished his whole plate and asked if there were seconds. Then he proceeded to tell me that he needs this recipe. So I think it's a homerun!