Morning meatballs
I’m a terrible sleeper and have been waking up in the middle of the night — and never falling back to sleep — far too frequently as of late. And even if I make it through the night, I’m almost always woken up before my alarm by my freakishly-loud upstairs neighbors, who apparently find 5:30 am to be the perfect time for a jog across their hardwood floors in heavy-bottomed shoes.
By some stroke of luck (or maybe the Ambien I took last night?) I was deep in sleep until my alarm went off at 6:40 this morning. If I hadn’t set an alarm, I’m positive I would have slept at least another hour or more. But alas, every Wednesday I have an early morning call with the national ACLU team — it’s 10am for them on the east coast, but a bright and early 7am for me. So today I dragged myself groggily out of bed in time for the call — and then it never came! So I decided to take the morning for myself before heading into work a little later today, and use up some of the ingredients in my fridge.
Sometimes I get too ambitious at the farmer’s market over the weekend, buying lots of ingredients in anticipation of having all sorts of time to make home-cooked meals during the week. I forgot I have a couple of evening meetings this week, and suddenly realized there’s no way I’ll use up all the ingredients before they go bad. Panicked at the thought of throwing perfectly good produce away, I thought I’d find a recipe I could make this morning, then store in the freezer for lunches and quick dinners.
My choice? Meatballs! I had some ground turkey chorizo from the farmer’s market that I took out of the freezer this weekend (again, expecting one night this week I’d have the time and energy for more cooking) and a couple of zucchini. I studied up on a bunch of meatball and meatloaf recipes, and put together this concoction using what I have on hand. I don’t normally post original recipes, so consider yourself special!
Before we go there, here is a picture of the pre-cooked meatballs (cooked picture is below):
Dana’s Morning Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 pounds Chorizo flavored ground turkey (or other flavored turkey - mine comes from SF Grill at the Divisadero farmer’s market)
3/4 (or a smidge more) panko bread crumbs
2-3 small zucchini, grated and drained
1 small onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
Good dash of ground black pepper
Dash of salt
1 or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 beaten egg
Steps:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients. Shape into golf ball-sized balls and space evenly on cookie sheet lightly coated with cooking spray. Cook for 30-40 minutes, or until turkey is cooked through.
That last part — “until turkey is cooked through” — that’s not my forte. I get paranoid about whether I’ve cooked poultry through enough. I know the idea is to be able to tell by cutting a meatball in half and examining it for color and texture. I even tasted a bit and got frightened and put it back into the oven. My meatballs have been in the oven for 35 minutes now. I keep pulling them out, cutting one open, and putting it back in! I’ve demolished three meatballs already. Now Chelsea came out and tried one and assured me they are done. So done they must be! And delicious too — the chorizo flavor adds such a nice kick!
Any tips from readers on checking poultry for doneness?
And here they are cooked through! (I hope!)
