Week 7 Friday (2/21/14)

Recipe Review

Today’s Recipe and Location:  Whiskey-Mustard Meatballs

         Found in: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From my Frontier

                           Pages 112 - 113      Copyright:  2012  Harper Collins

I figured out that there are 136 calories per meatball, if 30 1-inch meatballs are made. (Please note that the calorie counts vary depending on the specific brands of ingredients that you choose to use.)

         I have now made these little gems many times and have had great results. I love that you make them in the large cast iron skillet and then stick a toothpick in each one and serve it in the pan. They are a great hors de ouvres or try Ree’s other recipe for Meatball sliders.  That will be in the blog in a week or two or three.

          I made them yesterday and tried Jenny’s idea.  I made full size burgers out of the mix.  I truly believe in freezing the food because I made four servings. I partially cooked the burgers until rare and then froze them in the sauce. This is a trick my Mom taught me when I was in high school. If you grill a burger until just about rare and then freeze them they can be thawed and micro-waved when you need a quick meal. The grilled taste comes through and since they were marinaded in the sauce they were outstanding.

These are the hamburgers created from the recipe

Today’s critics: 

         Madonna Strom:  Delicious!  A really good meatball and great for the holidays.

         Debra Pauling:  Good!

         Allison Gibson:  “Delicious!  I loved the Panko in it.

         Suzie Lemon:  “Yummy, good flavor and spice!  Loved it!

         Adrianne Gallaugher-Beetstra:  “Perfect amount of zip!  Great texture and it is rich and yummy!  Thank you.”

         Kim Howells:  “I liked the flavor – especially that it had a little spice at the end.”

         Genesis Madigan:  “I liked that the flavor was a little spicy but not too much.”

         Deb Klos:  “Moist and flavorful with a little zing!”

         Sara Gress:  “The meatball is delicious.  It would make an awesome meatloaf.”

         Christie Griffin:  They had multiple layers of flavor!  Delish!  Would be good as burgers with onions or rolls with BBQ sauce.”

         Jenny Anderson: “ I served them over egg noodles, drained, and put back in the pan with melted butter I served it with sauce on the top.  These would also make great hamburgers!”

Why Weight?

         I was watching Dr. Oz and he was sharing information about how we need to watch our hip to waist ratio. He was talking about how we used to focus on how the belly area should not be where you carry your weight because it can lead to an increased chance of having a heart attack. 

         The example he gave of the hip waist ratio was of a person whose waist is 30 inches and their waist is 40 inches.  The ratio is 30/40 = 0.75.  The total must be less than 0.85 or you need to reduce the difference. This person would have been okay because their number was lower than 85.

         Now all I have to do is lose enough weight so my waist is near 30 and my hips are near 40 (that sounds like a dream to me) and then I will fall in the range. Maybe dreams can come true???