Blade's Culinary Creations

Im on a road (a slightly bumpy one) to eating a little healthier. I decided to trade in my pasta for veggies. I am quite obsessed with this new spiraled veggie craze! I absolutely love Zucchini noodles or as some people call them, Zoodles. A while back I decided to try zucchini with my pasta sauce and not only did I love it, Bryan and Zoe did also. Bryan didn’t even know what he was eating but he tore it up. The Hubs is always up for trying new foods and will basically eat anything(mostly anything). Miss Zoe on the other hand can be very picky at times. When she sees anything green on her plate, she avoids it or will toss it to the side, on the table, on the floor, well you get my drift. She does not like it. I have to make smoothies for her and sneak her greens in that way. She loves pasta, so when I mixed it up with the marinara and meat sauce, she could not tell the difference. She enjoyed every last bite.

Zucchini has such a mild flavor, so you can serve it with a lot of different things. Zucchini can be sautéed, boiled, and even served raw. Instead of using lettuce for this salad, I substituted the zucchini for it. I also decided to leave the zucchini raw so you will still get that crunch you would be missing from the lettuce. It turned out to be very delicious. I hope you enjoy it.

*Note* you will need a veggetti spiral vegetable cutter or similar gadget.

Greek Zoodle Salad

makes 3 servings

Ingredients:

3 Zucchinis,  Made into Spiral noodles

1 small Cucumber diced

1/2 cup Feta Cheese

1/2 cup Kalamata Olives (pitted)

Greek Vinegrette Dressing

1/4 cup Red Onion diced

Salt & Pepper to taste

(add sautéed shrimp as an additional topping)

Directions:

1. Place Zucchini noodles in large bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Toss Zucchini noodles in greek vinegrette dressing.
3. Assemble remaining ingredients on top of salad as desired.

Enjoy!

I dream of the days, I can teach Zoe how to cook and hope she will enjoy it as much as I do. Cooking brings me so much joy because it reminds me of my dad. It has been several years since he has been gone, but it feels like yesterday, when I would go in the kitchen to watch him whip up a delicious meal. I wish I could relive those moments over and over again.

As a parent myself, I look forward to creating new memories with my baby girl. She’s only two, so I am not really sure how she feels about cooking as of yet, but she does like to help out. I wanted to make something that would be fun for Zoe but does not require heat. I also needed to make sure whatever we would be making wouldn’t take a lot of steps. Two year olds have a short attention span. At least, mine does. Ice Pops is something that does not require a lot of ingredients and does not take long to make (besides freezing).  ***Warning ***  If you are making Ice pops with a two year old, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT tell her that you are making Ice pops. She WILL harass you about them until they are frozen. That would be a LONG 4-5 hours. The good thing is I purchased a “ZOKU Quick Pop Maker” that will freeze your pops right in front of you. Nine minutes is better than several hours of a impatient kiddo. I will create a post soon on my pop maker when I make more Ice Pops. In the mean time, ice pop molds, ice cube trays, or plastic cups can be used for molds. Many different ingredients can be used to make this sweet treats. Be creative and have fun with it.

Berry Lemonade Ice Pops

Makes about 9 pops.

*Blender & Ice Pop molds needed*

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Strawberries

1/2 cup Blueberries

2 cups Raspberry Lemonade

1/8 tsp Lemon Zest

1 cup Simple Syrup (recipe below)

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine strawberries, blueberries, and raspberry lemonade.
2. Blend until smooth, for about 30 seconds.
3. Stir in simple syrup & lemon zest.
4. Pour mixture into ice pop molds and freeze 4 to 5 hours.

To make Simple Syrup:

1 cup raw brown sugar

1 cup water

1. In a medium saucepan, combine raw sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Cook for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool. 

ENJOY!

Happy Friday!!! We all love Friday because it’s the beginning of our very short weekend. I don’t know about you but IF I am EVER off on a weekend, I don’t want to spend several hours in the kitchen even if I love cooking. It’s just not enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to get done. I like to make quick and simple meals when I don’t have much time to spare. That way I can still have something homemade that won’t take me forever to make. I had a few hot Italian sausage on hand so figured I would cook those.  I sautéed some bell peppers and sweet onion with it and served it on a hearty roll. And there you have it. A quick meal for a Friday night.

Sausage & Peppers

Ingredients:

1 pack Hot Italian Sausage Links

1 Green Bell Pepper (cut into strips)

1 Red Bell Pepper (cut into strips)

1 Sweet Yellow Onion (cut into strips)

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 tsp Dried Oregano

1/4 Cup Reisling (or Any white Wine on hand)

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of Pepper

4 Italian Rolls

Directions:

1. In a large Frying Pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Place Italian sausage in pan and cook  for about 5 minutes on each side.
3. Add peppers, Onion, salt, pepper, oregano, and wine to pan.
4. Let Sausage, peppers and Onions simmer for another 15 minutes covered.
5. remove from heat, and serve on a Italian Roll.
6. ENJOY

Blade’s Culinary Creations
Turkey Meatballs

I have battled with my love of food and wanting to stay at a certain weight. Usually food wins. I love carbs! Mostly pasta! But I know that greens should be the main part of my diet. When I was little my family would have spaghetti with meat sauce (usually made with ground beef) just about every week. Most people are into weekly rituals or traditions like that but I can’t seem to eat the same thing every single week. I am the type of person that likes to try new things. I like variety so when I make “spaghetti”, my meat sauce tends to get a little crazy. I put things in it like sausage, shrimp, mushrooms, peppers, olives, onions, and basically anything that seems like it may taste good it. I make different sauces so that its not always the same. But today I wanted to go with a traditional marinara with turkey meatballs. I never use ground beef anymore. I know people say that ground turkey is usually dry but if you cook it the right way then its not. My nieces were here visiting and wanted to help me cook. Of course that means Zoe needs to be involved as well. They had the wonderful job of rolling the meatballs together. (Hence the different size meatballs.) A small cookie scooper will help divide the meatballs into the same size balls.

i made an adult version sauce as well as a kid friendly version. The adult version just means you add wine ;). i hope you enjoy it. Serve over pasta or Zoodles. (Zucchini noodles)

Turkey Meatballs

By Sonia Jones

Meatballs

1 Lb Ground Turkey

1 Large Egg

1 cup Parmesan Cheese

1/4 cup Bread Crumbs

1 Tablespoon Pesto

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

1 tsp Oregano

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

For the Sauce

1  32 oz  can Crushed Tomatoes

2 cloves of Garlic (minced)

1/4 of a cup diced Onion

1 1/2 tablespoon Brown Sugar

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

4 basil leaves

1 Bay Leaf

salt and pepper to taste

*** adult version***1/4 cup sweet red wine

Basil and parsley  for Garnish

Directions: 

In a bowl, blend egg, bread crumbs, pesto, parmesan, salt, pepper, and oregano.  Fold in the turkey. Using  a small cookie scoop, scoop mixture out of bowl and shape into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs.

In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium high heat. Sauté meatballs, turning occasionally, until light brown, 5 minutes.

Remove meatballs from pan and place on baking dish with paper towel to drain excess oil.

In the same frying pan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil  Add onion and cook for about 1 minute. Then add garlic and sauce until fragrant and translucent for an additional minute. Add remaining ingredients to pan crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, Bay Leaf. Simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes. Add Meatballs back to pan and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Remove Bay leaf and transfer to serving dish. For the ***Adult version*** add 1/4 cup sweet red wine to sauce before transferring to dish.  Serve over pasta or Zucchini Noodles. Garnish with Basil, parsley, and parmesan.