Asian Meatball Stir-Fry

If you made the Asian Meatballs and are wondering how to use them... here's my concoction. The whole family enjoyed this and I will be making it again. I think it would be really good with chicken or pork pieces as well... if you're not into beef or meatballs! This recipe uses hoisin sauce, which gives the recipe a niice sweet flavor.


Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1/2 large red or orange sweet pepper
1 cup green beans
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 cups fat-free chicken broth
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
2-3 tbsp water
20 Asian Meatballs

Directions
- Heat oil in a large skillet or wok.
- Cook onions, peppers and green beans until softened
- Add ginger-garlic paste, chicken broth, and hoisin sauce and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low and add meatballs.
- In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water and add to skillet.
- Simmer on low until sauce has thickened.

Nutritional Data
excluding meatballs!
(4 servings sauce)
2 WW points
87.5 cal
3.8 g fat
0.3 mg cholesterol
11.1 g carbs
1.3 g fiber
0.6 g sugar

with 5 meatballs = 8 WW points
1.6 g protein

Asian Meatballs

I had thawed some ground beef and was in the mood for some stir fry and didn't feel like throwing the ground meat in as it was, so I decided to make some meatballs. I took some ingredients that I thought would give it a good flavor and mix in well with any stir-fry or other chinese dish. All 3 of my picky critics loved the meatballs.... sadly, I wasn't a huge fan. I ate them, I was hungry... but I didn't enjoy them that much. However, I will make them again, since my picky kids gobbled them up in record time! I just couldn't taste much flavor in the meatballs. I think when I will make them next time, I will mix all the ingredients and refrigerate for a few hours for the meat to really soak up the flavors before making the meatballs. I mixed and formed the meatballs and cooked them right away... maybe that's why I thought they were a little bland.


Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
3 scallions, diced
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp sugar

Directions
- In a large bowl, mix all ingredients.
- Refrigerate for 30 mins or more.
- Form meat mixture into 30 meatballs (about the size of a ping pong ball!).
- Cook in a preheated oven at 175 C for 20 minutes. I cooked mine on a cookie sheet to ease cleanup ;)


Nutritional Data
1 Meatball
1 WW point
46 cal
3.3 g fat
18.3 mg cholesterol
0.7 g carbs
0.1 g fiber
0.5 g sugars
3 g protein

1 serving of 5 meatballs
6 WW points
230 cal
16.4 g fat
91.7 mg cholesterol
3.4 g carbs
0.4 g fiber
2.4 g sugars
14.9 g protein

Azorean Beef Stew

Last week I wanted to make something in the crockpot and had some stewing beef and was searching for a recipe. I knew the perfect place to go and I found something that I thought looked and sounded delicious. I was right, and so was the Crockpot lady Stephanie, this dish is yummy!
Stephanie adapted a recipe from fellow foodie Sean at Hedonia to come up with this recipe for Azorean Spiced Beef Stew in the crockpot. I will definitely be trying the original recipe on the stovetop!!
The whole family enjoyed this, and so we'll definitely be making it again. The cinnamon was not overpowering at all. I did omit the "heat" from the original recipes because as usual we can't handle the heat! If you like spicier foods, you might want to add the cayenne ;) We're sissies!!
I made a few changes, tweaked it to our family's tastebuds... so the nutritional values arecalculated using my version.


Ingredients
(makes 4 servings)

100 ml cornstarch
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb chuck beef, trimmed and cubed
2 cups beef broth
5 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
3 green onions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 red potatoes (approx 300 gr), washed, unpeeled, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cinnamon stick

DIrections
- In a bowl toss beef with cornstarch to coat cubes.
- Heat oil in a killet and brown beef until brown on all sides
- Add all ingredients to the crockpot mix and cover.
- Cook on low for 7 hours, then on high for 30 minutes. (* times may vary depending of crockpot)
- Discard bay leaf and cinnamon stick and serve.

Nutritional Data
1 serving
7 WW points
330.9 cal
10.2 g fat
73.7 mg cholesterol
33.3 g carbs
2.8 g fiber
1.5 g sugars
26.1 g protein

Roast it! Rosemary-Thyme Pork Tenderloin with Root Vegetables

I loast pork roasts, especially lean tenderloin! I'm salivating again thinking about it. I had some fresh herbs and decide I should do something with them before they dried out or died on me... My herb plants never seem to survive... I must be doing something wrong!
I bought a 2.5 lb pork tenderloin and cut it half for the recipe, so my cooking time was way different then it should have been with a 1 piece 1 lb tenderloin. This lenghtened cooking time was not welcomed by my youngest little critic who came shouting "I'm hungreeeeeee mooooooooommmmm!!!!"
So I had to take the roast out, slice it up and panfry it to finish it. Still tasted great, but not as juicy as it would have tasted if it would have been finished in the oven.

Rosemary-Thyme Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients
(serves 4)

1 lb pork tenderloin
1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, 2 sliced and 1 minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


Directions
Preheat oven to 200 C
With a morter and pestle, mash up the thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Stab meat with knife to make pockets about 1/2 inch deep and wide.
Place roast in a small roasting pan.
Stuff the pockets with small amounts of herb mix, keeping about half for later.
Slide a garlic slice in each pocket.
Cover the rest of the roast with remaining herb mix and minced garlic.
Put in oven with the roast vegetables recipe (see below) if you chose to have that side dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of roast is 165 F.
Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes and slice into 4 servings (either 4 thick slices or 8 thinner slices).

** I covered my roast with aluminum foil half way through to save the herbs from burning. My oven is out of whack, so yours might survive without the foil

Nutritional Data
5 WW points
199 cal
6.9 g fat
1 g carbs
0.2 g fiber
31.5 g protein


Roasted Root Vegetables

Ingredients
(4 side servings)

1/2 a sweet potato (about 1/2 lb), cut into big cubes
1 medium carrot (150 gr), cut into 1.5 inch peices
1 small parsnip (100gr), cut into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small white beet 100 gr, cut into small pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Mix all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and toss to evenly coat all veggies.
- Spread veggies in a medium roasting pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Take out and mix and return to oven for another 20 minutes (or until fork tender).

** Make sure the parsnips and beets are much smaller then the carrots and sweet potatoes since they take longer to cook. Sweet potato cooks the fastest out of the bunch, so make that your largest peices.

Nutritional Data
2 WW points
131 cal
7.1 g fat
16.6 g carbs
3.7 g fiber
1.7 g protein