I decided to make the Turkey Meatballs with Quick Tomato Sauce again. It's the perfect comfort food for us. I love that it uses grated carrot and minced onion for added moisture in the meatballs without added fat. I love that I get to brown the meatballs by broiling them in the oven then soak them in the sauce on the stove. Turkey and vegetables with one slice of whole wheat bread, herbs, an egg, and spices - that's the meatball. I use 50% turkey breast and 50% dark meat.
To reduce calories even further, we don't put our meatballs over pasta or polenta. We instead choose to eat our meatballs with a greens. Last time I made braised kale with our meatballs. On Monday night I made a simple salad of baby arugula with a tart cherry apple cider vinaigrette. It was a lovely accompaniment.
Tonight, I reheated the leftover meatballs and sauce. (One of the benefits of this dish is that it's just as good if not better the second day.) I had picked up some beautiful red chard at Piedmont Grocery and decided to sautee it with browned onions and shallots and 3 large cloves of garlic. It was melty and garlicky but sweetened by the onions and shallots. I also added a splash of cider vinegar at the very end. Aaah, the power of acid in cooking. It really brightens food, rounding out the flavors.
I wanted to make whole wheat breadcrumbs to top the chard - texture is so important for me. So I defrosted a slice of bread in the toaster. (I have recently discovered the awesome benefits of keeping a loaf of bread in the freezer. Wow. Not only do I get a slice of bread whenever I need it, but I don't waste loaves like I ALWAYS did in the past. Having a toaster that easily defrosts the bread is a great thing. Wedding gift. Yay!)
Anyway, I pulsed the defrosted, slightly toasted slice in my small food processor, added some garlic powder, dried parsley, about a teaspoon of grated parmesan. Then I heated a nonstick pan on medium-high and put the breadcrumbs in, sprayed a spritz of canola oil and then kept moving the breadcrumbs around till they browned but did not burn. The result was delicious and still healthy. The crunchy texture was a great addition to the silky chard. Mmm!
And for dessert we shared one of the most delicious mangos I've ever tasted. Wow. Heaven. Too good and gobbled up too quickly to even take a photo...but it was yellow, soft and yummy.
