Greek Style Meatballs with Roasted Red Pepper Marinara

I haven’t been posting on Adventures of an Ottawa Foodie a lot in the past few months. I have been focusing on my new blog Stu Tris and trying to get it up and running. Now that I am in a better schedule for updating it, I am going to get back to posting about food! 

With a lot of my time, money and energy dedicated to training for triathlons, I am not eating out as much as I used to. Now we try and cook dinner a lot more at home and use the healthiest ingredients we can.

This weekend I tried this recipe that I found on Triathlete.com. This recipe is has a lot of great flavours and gives the classic meatball a twist with some new flavours. This isn’t a quick recipe so I would recommend it as a weekend meal, or something to prepare in advanced. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Greek Style Meatballs with Roasted Red Pepper Marinara

Ingredients

• Roasted Red Pepper Marinara
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 32 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 16oz jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• 6 basil leaves, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt and pepper

 Greek Style Meatballs

• 20 oz lean ground turkey
• ½ yellow onion, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1/3 cup sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• ¼ cup whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon salt and pepper 

Directions

Roasted Red Pepper Marinara

1. In a sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, salt and pepper, sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another minute.
2. Add the tomatoes, roasted red peppers and basil. Stir to combine. Lower heat to low and simmer 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Let sauce cool slightly, then blend with an immersion blender until mostly smooth.

Greek Style Meatballs

1. Combine all of the ingredients, except the turkey, in a large bowl.
2. Gently fold in the turkey, to incorporate all of the ingredients.
3. Form meatballs and place in on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray.
4. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 45 minutes.
5. You can either serve the meatballs and sauce on pasta or bake the meatballs with 2/3 of the sauce for an additional 25 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Mexican Polenta Scramble

To continue on the stream of healthy eating I thought that this would be another good recipe to share, Mexican Polenta Scramble from www.eatingwell.com. This recipe is another fast and easy meal, the longest part is prepping all of the veggies. One of the great things about the Eating Well website is that they provide you with the nutritional information for a lot of the recipes. I’ve included the information below or you can check out their website for more information www.eatingwell.com.

Mexican Polenta Scramble

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 poblanos or 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 16-ounce tube prepared plain polenta, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
• 1 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, preferably sharp
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 avocado, diced

Preperation:

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until bright green and just starting to soften, about 3 minutes.
2. Stir in tomatoes, cumin and salt; cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes start to break down, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Crumble polenta slices into the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Stir in scallions, cheese, cilantro and lime juice.
5. Serve the scramble topped with diced avocado.

Nutrition:

Per serving: 315 calories; 20 g fat ( 6 g sat , 8 g mono ); 20 mg cholesterol; 26 g carbohydrates; 13 g protein; 6 g fiber; 600 mg sodium; 645 mg potassium.

Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (220% daily value), Calcium (45% dv), Vitamin A (35% dv), Folate (20% dv), Potassium (18% dv).

Carbohydrate Servings: 1

Welcome to 2013!

Welcome to 2013, another year down and a new one just beginning! 2012 was a pretty awesome year for me. I traveled to Amsterdam, Berlin, Florence and Rome with my brother.

Then Sarah and I explored Paris and went to London for the Olympics.

On top of all of all of the amazing traveling I got to participate in some great races, including my first cyclecross race.

Just recently we started another exciting adventure, we adopted a dog, say hello to Nanook! We adopted Nanook from the Humane Society of Western Quebec. Our little Nanook is 11 months old, is a shepherd something mix and weighs in at 54lbs. She loves to go for long walks, playing with other doggies and her kong. I’ll save more on Nanook for another post.

With a new dog and the holidays it has been super busy and we’ve been thrown out of our routine. Now that it’s a new year, it’s time to get back into some good habits. One way is to eat healthy.

Last night we had a great recipe from www.runnersworld.com. If you like Asian inspired recipes you’ll love this recipe. On top of the veggies already in the recipe, I added baby bok choy, green onions and yellow pepper. Not only is this recipe delicious but it’s also fast! It’s fast to make and fast to clean up, which is always nice when you’ve got to walk a dog and fit in a workout. One tip for this recipe is not to boil the undon noodles but to fry them with the veggies and meat. This cuts the pans down to one. Hope you like the recipe, give it a try and let me know what you think!

So good that I started eating before I took a picture!

Thai Beef with Udon

Ingredients:

• 1 pound trimmed sirloin steak, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons thai red curry paste
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 package (7 ounces) udon noodles
• 2 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk, well stirred
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves lime wedges, for serving

Directions:

1. Place the steak, 1 tablespoon of the oil, the curry paste, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and toss to coat. Cover and marinate for at least 20 minutes at room temperature (or in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours).
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the udon according to the package directions. Drain and rinse briefly with warm water. Set aside.
3. In a wok or 12-inch skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and stir-fry until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the steak and stir-fry until browned all over, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the coconut milk and sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the noodles and basil, and simmer 30 seconds. Serve with lime wedges. Serves 4.