Healthy Snack Wednesday – Baked Arancini & Veggie Patch Giveaway!

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

Today’s Healthy Snack Wednesday theme is….are you ready….wait for it….SPINACH!! What? No firecrackers and confetti? What’s the problem? Spinach is a great ingredient and can add fantastic nutritional value to so many meals. (Oh yeah, don’t forget to read to the bottom for today’s giveaway!)

I always end up using frozen spinach, because it keeps longer, duh. But I do love the fresh stuff. Interesting fact, the older fresh spinach is, the less nutritional value it has. True story. So you are almost better off with the frozen stuff. Plus, with the frozen variety you will never bite into any dirt pellets, not fun. But whether fresh or frozen, spinach works great in spaghetti sauce, omelets or quiche, in dips, salads or just sautéed in a little olive oil and garlic. It really can blend in nicely to almost anything you are trying to add some nutritional value to.

BUT, for our Healthy Snack Wednesday challenge this week, Lara and I decided we had to use spinach in a new-to-us snack recipe. This is not always as easy as it sounds. However, for some reason I have been craving arancini all week, and this proved to be the perfect Healthy Snack Wednesday challenge! So I present to you….Baked Spinach Arancini Snacks!

Baked Spinach Arancini

Ingredients

  • 1 cup White Wine (I used Avia Chardonnay)
  • 2 garlic cloves (crushed)
  • 1/4 Vidalia Onion (diced)
  • Olive Oil
  • 1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach -thawed and squeezed of excess water (my sub blanched fresh spinach)
  • 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
  • 1/8 cup grated romano cheese
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • Salt
  • 1 tbsp Capers (optional)
  • Crushed red pepper (optional)

Directions

  • Drizzle olive oil into a medium saucepan over Medium-High heat
  • Add onion and garlic and cook until onion begins to turn clear
  • Remove pot from heat
  • Add uncooked rice and stir well
  • Add broth and wine and stir well
  • Return pot to the heat and bring to a boil
  • Once boiling, cover pot and reduce heat to a simmer
  • Simmer for 10 -12 minutes or until rice is tender
  • Remove from heat and mix in spinach
  • Allow to cool to room temperature
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper
  • Add parmesan cheese to rice mixture
  • There is a good chance, at this point, you may want to eat the entire rice mixture as is, because it is that good! But if you want to continue…
  • Arrange beaten eggs in a bowl and combine romano and bread crumbs in a second bowl
  • Roll rice mixture into 1 inch balls, dredge through egg mixture and then through bread crumb mixture
  • Place coated ball onto the baking sheet
  • Continue until all rice has been used
  • Spray the balls with a light coating of cooking spray and place in the oven
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they begin to brown
  • Remove from oven and serve with a side of your favorite marinara sauce

 

Today’s Healthy Snack Giveaway is brought to you by….

Today’s Giveaway is inspired by Veggie Patch’s Ultimate Sneak-Away Contest! Veggie Patch has been nice enough to donate a coupon for Two Free Veggie Patch product vouchers to the winner of the Eat.Live.Blog comment contest! All you have to do to enter is comment telling me what your favorite snack that includes veggies is! It’s that easy! For an additional entry please follow @eatveggiepatch and @renh77 on Twitter and leave a comment saying you did so. For one more additional entry, please tweet “I want to win @eatveggiepatch from Eat.Live.Blog! http://wp.me/pVsto-fY Thanks @renh77! ” Please leave me a comment to let me know you did this as well.

Please make sure to comment by Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at Midnight. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 on the next Healthy Snack Wednesday post.

Full Disclosure: Veggie Patch sponsored this giveaway by donating 2 free Veggie Patch vouchers to the winner. I did not receive anything free for posting this contest and have not tried Veggie Patch products.

And for an additional chance to win, make sure to enter on Good Cook Doris’s blog as well!

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Cookin’ it German Style! Recipe: Konigsberger Klops or Meatballs with Mustard Caper Sauce

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

By now you may know about my German heritage. My grand parents all traveled to South Africa, from Germany, in the midst of WWII and the Holocaust. My German roots being that close in my history, the cooking style has always been extremely influential in my family’s kitchen.

Me and my sister with my Opa, Oma & Dad 1983

I have several favorite “authentic” German dishes. Spaetzle with red cabbage, chicken paprika, schnitzel and Konigsberger Klops, my all time favorite and the best comfort food I know of. Now, I say “authentic” instead of authentic because my family doesn’t exactly use recipes. We are more a pinch of this, a dash of that types. So over the years are recipes have evolved. Either way, this is a delicious, warm and comforting meal that the whole family loves!

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb ground beef (may use turkey, pork, whatever)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 small onion chopped finely
  • 3 cups beef broth
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp prepared yellow mustard
  • 2 tsp capers

Directions

  • In a medium sauce pan heat beef broth, bay leaves and half the chopped onion on low heat. Do not allow to boil.
  • Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl place meat, egg, breadcrumbs, salt, garlic and remaining onion – in that order
  • Mix together meat mixture. Mix well but do not over handle.
  • Form meat into 1 inch balls and place in broth on the stove.
  • Bring meatball mixture to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook – covered – for 10 minutes.

  • Reduce heat to low
  • In a separate medium sauce pan, melt butter over LOW heat. Do not let it brown!
  • Once butter is melted, add 1 tbsp of flour and mix well until smooth
  • Add another tbsp of flour, and again mix well until smooth
  • Add third tbsp of flour, mix until smooth, a ball may form, but it must be smooth (you just made a roux!)

  • Slowly start adding liquid from meatballs a half a ladle full at a time. Add liquid, stir until completely smooth and then add the next half ladle. DO NOT RUSH THIS! Stir each time until completely smooth.
  • Continue adding liquid until the sauce is your desired thickness. You may not choose to use all of the liquid.

  • Slowly stir in the mustard and capers. Adjust mustard to taste.
  • Add meatballs to the sauce.
  • Allow to simmer, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes
  • Serve over rice

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Rewind Recipe: Stuffed Peppers done right!

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

Yes, this is a repeat recipe, kind-of. One of the 1st recipes I posted on this blog was for stuffed peppers. But being new to blogging, I didn’t include any pictures. AND my recipe has gotten so much better than it was!

I had a Monday off, so I decided my “leisure” activity would be to explore a new local meat market. Based on Yelp reviews, I decided to head to McKinnon’s Meat Market in Somerville. I picked up a whole stock of meats, included some amazing looking fresh ground hot italian pork sausage. The second I picked it up I knew I was going to try it out in my stuffed peppers recipe.

For all my vegetarian friends out there, you can also make this recipe with soy crumbles, so don’t discount it yet! As a matter of fact, before using the sausage, soy crumbles were my favorite “meat” choice for this dish!

Ingredients

  • 2 peppers (can use green, red, yellow or orange)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 8 oz tomato sauce
  • 15 oz diced tomatoes
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1-2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 lb ground hot sausage (can also use soy crumbles, ground pork, ground beef, ground turkey or ground chicken)
  • 1 small Vidalia onion chopped
  • 1.5 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions

  • Cut tops off of peppers and seed them
  • Place peppers, open side down, and tops in baking dish
  • Cover with tin foil and place in the cold oven
  • Preheat oven to 375. Peppers will begin to soften as oven heats.
  • Remove the peppers when the temperature hits 375. Leave the foil on the peppers so they can steam.
  • In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil
  • Brown garlic
  • Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, water and ketchup
  • Bring to a boil
  • Add cumin, stir
  • Let simmer on low, stirring occasionally, until ready to use
  • Meanwhile, brown sausage in a large saute pan
  • When sausage is almost browned, add chopped onions
  • Allow to brown for 5 – 8 minutes
  • Add cooked rice to the sausage mixture and stir well
  • Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 – 8 minutes
  • Add 1.5 cups of the prepared sauce to the meat mixture, stir well
  • Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for approximately 5 minutes
  • Uncover the peppers and stuff each one with as much of the meat mixture as possible
  • Fill the rest of the pan with the remaining mixture. Placing mixture around under and beside peppers
  • Spoon the remaining sauce over the dish
  • Bake, uncovered, for 25 – 30 minutes

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