Cooking for Health

Turkey Meatballs and Veggies

This whole post was very clear in my mind last night while I was cooking until I fell into a meatball coma. During the cooking process I felt like I was on a cooking show. I thought of so many funny and informative things to say in my blog. Now you are just going to have to laugh to humor me since I have forgotten it all.

After a nice long walk at chambers bay after work yesterday it was time to decide what to eat. Most days I am on my own since my husband comes home from work after I am already asleep. I am not much of a cook but definitely love food. My husband won me over by cooking me candle light dinners and he can cook some amazing food. Sometimes I do take the easy way out and get some already prepared food from a store that is as healthy as I can find. It is always better to prepare your own food since stores usually add a lot of unnecessary ingredients. I stopped by Trader Joe's on my way home (now at this point I was already hungry, not recommended unless you have lots of willpower). I was really in the mood for turkey meatballs. They didn't have any already made and after walking around the store forever I just said forget it I will make it myself. Walked out with ground turkey, 1 eggplant, 1onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and tzatziki (a cucumber yogurt dip).


Now take into consideration here I am a beginner cook. I am no Rachel Ray and cooking is not exactly my favorite thing to do but I have made improvements in it over the years. Maybe if someone was available to clean up the mess for me after I wouldn't mind it so much.

I started off browning the meatballs. I really didn't put much in the turkey other then some spices but I did threw in some onions and mushrooms to saute in the pan with the meatballs. I just sprayed the pan with pam in order to not get too much fat from a whole bunch of oil.

After browning the meatballs a little I transferred them to a baking pan and poured the sauteed onions and mushrooms on top. Preheated the oven to 350 degrees and baked for 20 min.

Next was time for the veggies. I have never cooked eggplant but I saw some grilled eggplant in the frozen veggies section so I decided to try and cook it myself. I threw in some eggplant, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and collard greens in a pan with a little olive oil. Let me say collard greens is something that is hardly tolerable by itself but what I have found is if you mix in just a few with something else you don't even really notice. One of the most important things I have learned is you want a variety of colors in your food. Each different food has different nutrients. Diversity is very important when it comes to diet.

Now for the finalized meal. Really didn't turn out bad at all for not looking at a recipe. Spices I used were Italian spices, allspice, garlic, black pepper, cinnamon, celery seed and nutmeg. No rhyme or reason to how much I threw in the food. I did add a little tzatziki dip for the meatballs. No I did not make this one myself I would of been up until midnight. I also added a little feta cheese on the veggies.

One of the key points here is your are worth knowing what is in your food. You can still enjoy food and make it healthy. Sometimes you have to let a few household chores go by the waist side and dedicate that time into yourself. There is not always enough time in the day for everything but we do what we can with what we have. Have you found any delicious healthy recipes lately?