Former blogger Deborah Hayes has her Cooking Day and so do I! Every weekend I blanch a bunch of kale to use in lunches for the coming week. I LOVE the crunchy, fluffy texture of blanched kale, so I eat it at least once a day all week. I mix it up by buying different kinds of kale (green, black, red) or adding other greens like spinach, collards, or chard. For protein at lunch, I buy a rotisserie chicken and/or cook meatballs every few weeks, which I divide into individual portions and freeze in Ziploc snack bags. I definitely need protein at lunch to feel satisfied and it is nice to have something warm, especially in the winter!

Today was an especially busy cooking day, as I did the kale, beef meatballs, and (for the first time) turkey meatballs. There is a wonderful butcher up the street from me who carries a wide variety of organic meats, including beef that is grass-fed until a few weeks before slaughter. I haven’t worked much with ground turkey, but today when I went to get my ground beef he had both ground turkey and chicken available. Here are the recipes I used:

Beef Meatballs (Makes 30 meatballs)

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tsp onion powder

1 ½ tsp ginger powder

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

½ tsp sea salt

1 egg

Turkey Meatballs (Makes 30 meatballs)

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground turkey

1 clove garlic

3 tsp onion powder

2 tsp ginger powder

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp parsley

1 egg

Directions (same for both):

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Beat egg together with spices.

3) Add egg mixture to ground meat and mix thoroughly.

4) Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes, for easier shaping.

5) Using an ice cream scoop, make balls and lay out on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

6) Bake uncovered until lightly browned, about 20 minutes, turning once.

7) Cut one open to be sure it's done on the inside.

I found the ground turkey to be quite wet, which made it hard to shape into balls, so next time I would probably omit the egg. It helps to hold the beef meatballs together, but is a bit of overkill with the turkey. I would also like to try some more adventurous spices with the turkey in the future.

So now that I have tons of food stored away for lunches, it is time for me to take a rest!