It’s the fourth and final week of the Hungry Family, Healthy Menu series with Dinnerella. If you want to keep getting her tasty, healthful, family friendly recipes, you’re gonna have to subscribe to her meal planning service.
Or beg her to become a regular contributor to DudeMom so we can have her creative recipes delivered to our inboxes every week for the rest of forever!
Either way.
Because I cheated a little on my diet this week needed to buckle down on my food intake and give up couscous like a bad habit, I wanted to try something more protein packed and less carb loady. Dinnerella came through like always!
Ingredients:
- ground turkey, 1 lb
- green onions, 1 bunch, trimmed
- (sweet) potatoes, 2, cut in wedges
- zucchini, 2 small
- broccoli, 2 cup florets
- mushrooms, 8 oz, stemmed
- fresh parsley, ½ bunch, chopped
- garlic, 4 cloves, minced
- egg, 1
- Parmesan cheese, ½ cup
- quinoa, 1 cup
- bread, 2 slices, finely chopped in foodprocessor, yield ½ cup breadcrumbs (y’all know I didn’t food processor my crumbs and used the canned kind)
- curry powder, 1 tsp
- olive oil, 4 tbsp
- kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 425ºF
Step 2: Rinse quinoa under running cold water. Heat a medium saucepan and add the quinoa. Cook on medium, until it starts to toast. Add 1.5 cups water, 1 tablespoon curry powder and a pinch of sea salt and pepper. Bring to boil, cover and simmer 15 minutes, turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.
Step 3: In a large bowl toss the sweet potatoes, broccoli and zucchini with 2 tbsp olive oil and half of the minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large baking sheet, cover with foil and place in oven for 10 minutes.
Step 4: Toss the green onions (save 2 for later) and mushrooms in same bowl and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Step 5: After 10 minutes, remove foil and turn vegetables. Add the mushrooms and place back in the oven for 7-10 minutes.
Step 6: In the meantime chop the remaining green onions and mix with the ground turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, remaining garlic, half of the parsley and ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper. Mix in with 1 tbsp water and 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese. Shape into small meatballs.
Step 7: Coat a skillet with some olive oil and heat over medium heat.
Step 8: Brown the meatballs and cook for an additional 5 -6 minutes until cooked through.
Step 9: Serve the meatballs with the vegetables and more Parmesan on the side. Sprinkle generously with the remaining parsley.
Week 4 Healthy Recipes of the Week:
Monday: We are eating at Mimi’s house because school is out, but you can try this: Chili Dogs with Coriander Salsa. Just know that if you’re on Medifast or really any other diet on the planet, you should maybe skip it (or use a turkey sausage and chicken chili and low fat cheese, all of which will alter the flavor explosion). I stared at the photo for an entire figure skating routine (I was watching the US Championship when I wrote this post, and some of the girls, sigh, so sad).
Tuesday: Asian Salmon in foil. Served with brown fried rice and roasted broccoli on the side.
Wednesday: One pot Mexican Quinoa. Note from a seasoned cooker of Mexican food married to a real life Mexican person: quinoa is not found in any of mama’s homemade meals, but it will do in a I-need-to-lose-this-7-year-old-baby-belly-and-also-eat-cheese moment.
Thursday: Turkey burgers. I buy everything in bulk which means I have plenty of ground turkey laying around. Might as well use it before I have to freeze it.
Friday: Chicken Teriyaki Kabobs. Made on my stovetop grill (because I’m not hauling my BBQ out in the snow) to celebrate Friday (something about food on a stick just screams party).
Saturday: Sweet Potato, Sausage & Kale Soup. Although, if we get this snow we’re expecting earlier in the week I might need to mix things up a bit. (To tone down the calories, I got the less fat Cajun style chicken sausage).
*Disclosure: Ruth, the creator of Dinnerella, is a contributor to DudeMom.com, providing healthful, family friendly recipes for budget conscious families. If you are interested in learning more about her service and gaining access to her library of recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, and more, please check out her awesome site: Dinnerella.com!
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