{"id":777,"date":"2010-07-30T09:59:23","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T16:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiddy.wordpress.com\/?p=777"},"modified":"2010-07-30T09:59:23","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T16:59:23","slug":"meatballs-childhood-dish-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/?p=777","title":{"rendered":"Meatballs – Childhood dish with a twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week has been a little stressful. “Little” would probably be an understatement, but I’m trying not to go all drama llama queen on this blog, hah! I just feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to fit everything in. I know things will slow down a bit, but until then, it’s cook when I can, grab healthy on the go alternatives the other nights.<\/p>\n

Growing up I had a list of favorites that my Mom made and Porcupine Meatballs<\/strong> (My Mom’s name for them) were one of my favorite dishes. She used white rice and just added bread, egg, seasonings and tomato soup. I decided to switch things up a bit to make a new Foodiddy version. The porcupine name came from the way they looked with the rice sticking out of the meatballs, making them look\u00a0spiky.<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1 lb. lean ground sirloin – I used 7% (Could easily be made with ground turkey)
\nFresh baby spinach – chopped – as much as you want – I used the entire bowl (about 2 cups)
\nBrown Rice – I used 2 servings – Trader Joe’s frozen – cooked it before adding to the meatballs
\n1 Large Shallot – diced and\u00a0saut\u00e9ed\u00a0with 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper
\n1\/2 cup shredded Parmesan Reggiano
\n1 Egg
\n1 Can Tomato Soup
\n1 Tablespoon dried parsley
\n2 Teaspoons garlic powder
\n2 Teaspoons Italian Seasoning
\nSalt
\nPepper<\/p>\n

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I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I then got the spinach chopped, the shallots\u00a0saut\u00e9ed, the brown rice cooked and everything besides the tomato soup added into a big mixing bowl.<\/p>\n

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I used a spoon and then my hands to get everything really mixed up.<\/p>\n

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I made 15 fairly large meatballs and placed them into a glass baking dish. No need to coat the dish.<\/p>\n

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I poured the tomato soup into a glass measuring cup and added a can of water per the soup instructions. I then poured the soup contents on top of the meatballs.<\/p>\n

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No need to cover the meatballs. Just place them directly into the oven.<\/p>\n

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Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. I checked them at 15 minutes and\u00a0ladled\u00a0sauce over the tops of each meatball. While they were finishing up in the oven, I broke out my veggie slicer. I sliced 2 zucchini to create my pasta bed for the meatballs. I added them to a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil and garlic salt and then put them on my plate.<\/p>\n

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The zucchini noodles were perfect since there was already brown rice in the meatballs. I loved the texture – the onion and added spinach and softness of the brown rice really worked well together.<\/p>\n

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Dan thought the meatballs were too centered in the first photo, LOL… so I added the second. He gobbled them up (minus the zucchini pasta) – woohoo, another dish to add to the rotation. On the days that I don’t post, it’s more than likely that I’m enjoying something I’ve already posted.<\/p>\n

Thanks Mom for all of the amazing childhood food memories, I loved sitting down to dinner as a family.<\/p>\n

Good times, good food and lots of laughs.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week has been a little stressful. “Little” would probably be an understatement, but I’m trying not to go all drama llama queen on this blog, hah! I just feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to fit everything in. I know things will slow down a bit, but until then, it’s cook … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,19,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}