Monday, May 3, 2010

Great ways with ground turkey!

We haven't bought ground beef in probably 10 years. I buy lean ground turkey (93/7) and use it just as I would ground beef. The hubby took awhile to get on board with it, but now if I served ground beef, I think everyone would stick up their noses. Why did we make the change? Heart health, pure & simple.

We do buy pre-made beef burgers during the summer although I will admit that I've been thinking this may not be the best idea for our family anymore. With the use of growth hormones & overuse of antibiotics, I have considered purchasing local, organic ground beef and making my own patties. I make turkey burgers too, but sometimes a good beef burger just hits the spot. It has become a balancing act of what we can afford to feed our family of 8 and what we SHOULD be eating. Perhaps at some point, I'll use this blog as my soapbox about the evils of buying non-local items, but for today, I'll stop here.

On tonight's menu we're doing meatball subs (or grinders, as we call them here).

I'll be making the meatballs first and then tossing them into a quick made marinara. Going to try my hand at making fresh whole wheat grinder rolls. After doing some research on the 'net this morning, I may just use my standard french bread recipe tweaked up a bit. We'll top the grinders with some yummy provolone slices.

If my romaine is still looking good, we'll have a salad on the side and if not, maybe the mixed veggies we didn't have last week.

And dessert will likely be something easy (maybe some kind of blondies or bars topped with ice cream. It is so hot & humid here today, despite the rain, that I doubt I'll want the oven on anymore than it has to be.

As a side note, when reading the labels of different ice creams this weekend (we still buy that stuff because we haven't bought an ice cream maker yet), I found that Evil Mart's (Walmart) Great Value brand has some very good & wholesome choices. The ingredient list is SHORT and you can pronounce everything on it. It also helps that it is the cheapest ($2.50 for 1.5qt) in the ice cream freezer.

Stayed tuned for pictures & recipes.