Spicy Chipotle Meatballs

I made these meatballs a couple of weeks ago and just now got to posting about them. Trust me, these suckers are definitely SPICY! But so good!

These meatballs are a slight adaptation of the recipe on Simply Recipes.com.

First, preheat the oven to 450º.

I chopped the uncooked bacon and 1 garlic clove and then combined them in a large bowl.

Using my small chopper, I combined the eggs*, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add this to the bacon and garlic.


*side note about my eggs this recipe. My friend and co-worker, Summer has 3 chickens in her back yard and she brought me 6 of their eggs! I used three of them because they are kind of small. If you're using XL eggs from the store, just use two. It's the first time I've ever cooked with "farm-fresh" eggs before! So cool!!

Finally, add the meat and using your hands, mix all the ingredients well.

Now, with wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.


While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.



When meatballs are done baking, drain the fat from baking dish.


Now, combine the tomato mixture with your favorite tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). And pour the sauce on top, covering the meatballs evenly.



Bake until sauce has thickened, about 15 or 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking a second time, go ahead and start your pasta, whatever kind you like. I used no-yolk whole wheat eggs noodles, which are always awesome. Just follow the directions on the package.

Spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and enjoy!


Feel free to garnish with freshly-grated Parmesan!

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Spicy Chipotle Meatballs
makes approximately 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon chopped into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
1 ¼ pounds ground meat (feel free to use beef, pork, veal, any combination of those three, or even turkey)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
24 oz. of your favorite tomato sauce
1 lb. pasta (whatever kind you desire)


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450º.

Chop bacon and 1 garlic clove, combine in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add to bacon and garlic. Add meat.

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together well.

With wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

When meatballs are ready and drain the fat from baking dish.

Incorporate the tomato mixture with tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). Pour the sauce on top, covering meatballs evenly.

Bake until sauce has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking again, start water boiling for your pasta and follow directions on package.

Once the meatballs and sauce are finished baking, spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and ENJOY!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

So I'm trying to be more healthy these days by eating more veggies and cooking healthier stuff and ya'll are just going to have to learn to live with it. :)

I was standing in the checkout line of my Wal-Mart (HEY! I live in a small town; it's pretty much all I've got.) when I picked up a Cooking Light Magazine and started flipping through it. I ended up buying it because they had some good lookin' recipes in there. And this week's post is one of those good-lookin' recipes.

I try not to cook stuff with pasta too often because of the carbs, but whatever...this looked good, damnit!

As previously stated, I live in a small town, BUT we still have a fresh seafood place! So I went down there and picked up a pound of fresh, raw shrimp. Now I've been to some pretty good seafood markets and see people buy shrimp with the heads on...um yeah no. I will peel and devein shrimp all day long (and sometimes i feel like i have) but I will NOT remove heads. EW! GROSS! So get fresh HEADS-OFF shrimp unless you're weird and want to cut their little heads off.

Peeling the shrimp is the easy part, Deveining them can be kind of gross, but remember that little line of brown you're cutting out isn't really poop - its more like sand and dirt, but sometimes you run into some other nasty stuff. Just buck up! Be an adult and get over it. That's why the good Lord made soap and short term memories.

If you don't know HOW to peel and devein shrimp, here's a handy little video from epicurious.

When finished, they should look like this:

It's a good time to put on your pot of water to boil for the pasta because by the time its boiling, you'll be ready to cook the pasta.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is heated up, roll it around the pan, covering the entire bottom.

Put the shrimp and 1 1/2 tsps of garlic in the pan and saute until the shrimp are done. They will start to curl up and will be the traditional "shrimpy" pink when they are done.



Now, remove them from the pan and place in a container to keep them warm until the sauce is done. I put them in the plastic dish with a lid and wrapped it in a towel.

Keep your pan hot while setting the shrimp aside because you're going to be adding another tbsp of olive oil and 3/4 of a cup of onions. (I recommend having the onions diced and measured out before starting the actual cooking process. There's no real "down" time in the recipe.) Saute the onions until they become soft and almost translucent.

Add to the pan, the last tbsp of garlic, the crushed red pepper, basil and oregano and STIR CONSTANTLY. It will burn quickly, if you don't. Cook for about a minute.



Next, add tomato paste and lemon juice, cooking for an additional minute or so. The whole mixture will start to brown a bit. (Feel free to add an extra tbsp of oil here, if you need to. I did. It seemed too "dry".)

Finally, add in crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and salt. Cook the whole sauce down until it starts to thicken, stirring frequently. This took about 5 -7 minutes and is a GREAT time to go ahead and put the linguine in the water that should be boiling by now.

The sauce should be the consistency of a thin paste, now. So go ahead and put the shrimp back in the pan.

Give the whole thing several good stirs to mix it all up and continue to cook it for about another 2 or 3 minutes. Just long enough to bring everything to the same temperature and mix the flavors well.

By now the pasta should be done, so drain it and put some on a plate or in a bowl because it's time to add the sauce and shrimp!!

VIOLA!


The only change or footnote I would add to this recipe the next time around is adding more shrimp. I love shrimp and I think it could have used a 1/2 pound+ more. I guess it depends on what size shrimp you're using though.

Anyhoo! Here are the nutritional facts on this little guy. As to what they consider a "serving size" I haven't a clue. ENJOY!!


Calories: 477
Fat: 10.7g (sat 1.4g,mono 5.3g,poly 1.7g)
Protein: 33g
Carbohydrate: 59.4g
Fiber: 5.4g
Cholesterol: 172mg
Iron: 5.4mg
Sodium: 552mg
Calcium: 121mg

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Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Ingredients:
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 oz. uncooked linguine
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 ½ tbsp minced garlic, divided
¾ cup diced onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh, lemon juice
1 ¾ cup canned, crushed tomatoes
¼ tsp salt
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained

Instructions:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic and the shrimp; sauté for 3 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add remaining 1 tbsp oil and onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until softened.

Stir in remaining 1 tbsp garlic, pepper, basil, and oregano; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in tomato paste and lemon juice; cook 1 minute or until slightly darkened.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, salt, and diced tomatoes; cook 5 minutes or until thickened.

While the sauce cooks down, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; keep warm.

Return shrimp to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Serve over pasta.

2 recipes, 1 post...

Here are two of the promised recipes - the third is coming tomorrow!

I'm gonna go in chronological order. So first up - POTATO CROQUETTES!

I made this recipe on a night i so totally did not feel like cooking, and i wanted some type of comfort food - potatoes seemed like a good choice. Unfortunately, i didn't have all the necessary ingredients and ended up improvising. So i'm going to tell you how i made them, and then post the recipe for how they are supposed to be made.

You need two cups of mashed potatoes to start this whole recipe, so i took a few potatoes, washed, skinned and then sliced them. Throw those in a pot of boiling water and then drain them once tender. Then put the drained, sliced potatoes into the pot with a stick of butter [yes, a stick] and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk depending on how creamy you like your potatoes. I wouldn't make them too thin b/c you're going to be making patties soon enough. Ok now get to mashin'!! I mash the hell out of my potatoes - in fact, i honestly get a little pissed off if i see lumps and its a good way to take frustrations out. MASH THEM FOOLS!

Alright, enough mashing of the potatoes. Now is when my making of these croquettes strayed from the original recipe. See i didn't have the cilantro, red chili, or spring onions...i just completely left them out which i KNEW would make them a little bland, but i wasn't too concerned that night.

So i put 2 cups of mashed 'taters in a bowl along with an egg , grated cheese,low fat mayonnaise, sesame seeds , breadcrumbs (enough to bind everything together), and salt & pepper to taste and mixed it all together until a good consistency for making patties.

At this point, the recipe said to put the mixture in the fridge for 30 mins, but i was HUNGRY and didn't care to wait - so i didn't. I made little silver dollar-sized patties while my oil heated up over medium heat.


And then i fried them until golden brown on both sides. Just keep an eye on them, it doesn't take too terribly long.

And Voila! my fairly bland potato croquettes. lol In fact, they were very good, but i ended up dipping them in bbq sauce! YUM!



Potato Croquettes:

Ingredients:
2 cups of mashed potatoes
1 egg
¼ cup grated cheese
1 sprig of cilantro - chopped
1 red chili - chopped
2 spring onions - chopped
2 tbsp of low fat mayonnaise
2 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds
Breadcrumbs (enough to bind everything together)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Form into small patties and set aside in the fridge for half an hour before frying.

Heat up a little bit of oil over medium heat and pan fried both side until golden brown.

Serve warm.

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Next is a Sarah Original! I was sitting at work and REALLY wanted spaghetti bake for dinner b/c i'd seen it at a restaurant the weekend before and it looked really good. I could have looked up a recipe, but who needs a recipe for something like that if you consider yourself a cook? Honestly?!

So here's my version of the SPAGHETTI BAKE

First i browned a lb. of ground beef, adding a couple teaspoons of garlic and salt & pepper.

While your browning the meat, go ahead and get your water boiling for the spaghetti noodles. I normally like the thin spaghetti, but i got the regular spaghetti noodles and i broke them up into thirds. You know how spaghetti bake always has short, fat noodles - well this is how you get them! Then just cook the pasta according to the directions on the ole' package. Also go ahead and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Once the meat is done browning, i put it in a colander, drain it and run hot water over it - try to get some of the natural fat off the meat, plus it makes everything all greasy :P yuckers. I usually wipe out the pan with a paper towel as well to get the majority of the grease out of the pan too.

Put the ground beef back in the pan. Now this is where i kinda messed up - see, instead of throwing the meat directly into the pan, i should have waited and sauteed the veggies a bit first - but i forgot and didn't. Everything came out well since you end of baking the whole thing which gives the veggies some extra softening time - so SCREW IT - i never messed up - forget i even mentioned it! lol

So meat in pan. Now add the jar of pasta sauce [or your own homemade sauce, you snooty bastards!], onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and a little extra garlic b/c its awesome!

At this point, the pasta should be done. So toss it in the pan as well.

Mix everything together really well and put into a greased baking dish. Once its all in the dish, cover the top with cheese b/c cheese RULZ as the kids say. lol Stick the whole shabang in oven for about 15 to 20 mins - just check on it every once in awhile to see if the cheese is good and melty.

I threw together some quick garlic bread too. Melted some butter on the stove and added minced garlic then spread it over the bread. And added a layer of parmesan, put it on a baking sheet and tossed it in the oven with the spaghetti. EASY PEASY!

And its so purty when it comes out of the oven!

Let it cool just for a minute or two - then scoop into a bowl or onto a plate and serve with the bread and a salad if you like!


Sarah's Spaghetti Bake:
i'm not going to put any real quanities in this recipe. You adjust it to your needing - whether its the 5,000 or just the two of you!

ingredients:
1 - 2 lbs. of ground beef
traditional spaghetti noodles
jarred spaghetti sauce [any flavor you choose]
medium yellow onion - diced
canned diced tomatoes [sometimes i get the italian flavored ones from publix]
sliced baby bellos
grated parmesan
minced garlic
salt & pepper
italian cheese mix [they should have this at the grocery store. its normally parm, romano, etc... all together in one bag]

instructions:
preheat the oven to 350°F.

cook spaghetti according to directions on package, but break noodles into 3rds.

brown ground beef and add garlic and salt & pepper to taste

Once the meat is done browning, i put it in a colander, drain it and run hot water over it

Put the ground beef back in the pan. Now add the jar of pasta sauce, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and more garlic if you like.

Now add the cooked pasta, mix everything together well and transfer into baking dish. Cover top with cheese and put into oven for 15 - 20 mins until cheese melts well. Once its done, pull it out of the oven and let cool for a bit.

Serve and Enjoy!