I made these a couple of days ago when my new roommate moved in ( that’s where I’ve been!). I wanted to make a meatball that was light ( wait a minute; it has brown rice in it. How can it be light?), and can hold up in a sauce. Well, I made these and they turned out great! These meatballs have a surprisingly light texture, and great flavor.
Serve these as you would regular meatballs; with tomato or marinara sauce over pasta, or in brown sauce with sour cream over noodles ( Swedish meatballs). This also makes a great meatloaf* as well.
Makes 14 to 18 meatballs
You will need:
food processor
knife
cutting board
mixing bowls
measuring cups
measuring spoons
gloves for handling ground beef
*meat thermometer
sheet pan
spray oil
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chicken ( do not use breast meat for this recipe)
4 ea. baby bella ( cremini, or button) mushrooms
1 ea. small onion
2T. chopped garlic
2 T. olive oil
2/3 cup cooked brown rice
1 egg ( or 1/4 cup egg substitute)
1 T. dried parsley
1/2 t. pepper
2 slices stale bread
1 1/2 t. sea salt
2 T. milk
1/4 c. grated parmesan
Slice and chop the mushrooms and onions in the food processor until finely chopped. In a saute pan over medium heat, add olive oil to pan. Saute the onions, mushrooms, garlic and seasonings ( salt, pepper, parsley and italian seasonings) together until all liquid is absorbed and onion mixture is done. Take onion mixture and cool completely. Crumble stale bread and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, mix together ground chicken, brown rice, egg, crumbled bread, Parmesan, milk and onion mixture. Mix well. Set aside and chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour. Wash hands thoroughly.
After chilling; either use gloves, or spray cooking spray onto hands lightly. Spray sheet pan with cooking spray. Shape meatballs into small balls and place 1/4 inch apart onto sheet pan. Place meatballs in oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until bottoms of meatballs are brown.
Make sure all surfaces that came into contact with ground meat are washed thoroughly with soapy hot water ( including your hands).
* For meatloaf: shape into rounded loaf, and cook in oven until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees ( or about one hour)
Tags: chicken, dinner, entrees, pasta, poultry, rice
Origin food labels to begin
5 Octpicture courtesy of http://recipesofthedamned.blogspot.com
According to the Associated Press, new regulations regarding labeling of food will take affect over the next six months. Produce companies issued origin stickers for years on their items, and now all meat slaughtered in the U.S. must be labeled as such.
There is one stipulation, however. Food in its natural state will be required to have an origin date. Once processed in any way, the food is no longer required to have any origin labels.
Example: raw lamb ( origin label); lamb stew made from that same lamb and served at a hot food bar ( no origin label)
Whole cantelopes. grapes and pineapple ( origin label); fruit salad made from the same fruit ( no origin label)
Frozen or fresh shrimp ( origin label), shrimp salad sold in market ( no origin label)
You get the picture, right? Some places will label their processed food, but it is not required by law. keep that in mind if you intend to only buy foods from certain places.
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Tags: commentary, dinner, food, food news, food safety, recipes, salads, seafood