Meatloaf, meatloaf, I hate meatloaf, double beatloaf.....

The title of this post is a reference to the classic A Christmas Story, but I'm sure it is the reaction from children everywhere when Mom tells them they're having meatloaf for dinner. Not my kids! It's my number one family requested dinner as well as client request (for my clients that only eat organic products I make this with organic ground beef). I transform it into meatballs with the addition of chopped basil and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Our favorite sides are mashed sweet potatoes or cubed roasted sweet potatoes and roasted cauliflower or broccoli (you can always serve it with mashed potatoes and ask your kids "Who's Mommys little piggy?"). This is also one of those recipes that gets better with age, so make a big batch and freeze, it will be even better reheated. Enjoy!

1 large onion, cut into big chunks

1 large carrot, cut into big chunks

1 large stalk celery, cut into big chunks

3 cloves garlic

Add all of the above to your food processor and pulse until everything is finely diced, not pureed. (By the way you just created a Sofrito, a base for many good recipes)! Cook over medium heat with 1 tsp olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Pour into large mixing bowl and cool a few minutes. Add

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 egg

2 large pinches Kosher salt

1 tsp dried or 2 tsp fresh thyme

Lots of fresh ground pepper

Mix all of the ingredients together, add

20 oz lean ground turkey

Mix with your hands until everything is incorporated well. Form into softball size balls, place on baking sheet. Brush with ketchup or fancy it up by mixing 2 tb apricot jam and 2 tb dijon mustard as a delicious glaze (good glaze for pork tenderloin or baked chicken breasts also). Bake at 400 approximately 25 minutes, until the top is nice and golden and the interior is at 165 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest about 10 minutes and serve!

Variations:

Italian style meatballs: Add fresh chopped basil, substitute the thyme for oregano and add about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Form into golf ball size balls and bake at 425 until golden brown or pan fry before making your sauce in the same pan. (For my tomato gravy I make the same Sofrito mentioned above, fry it with about 2 tb olive oil after I have removed my meatballs, cook until golden brown and add 2 tb ketchup, cook another few minutes then add 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, 2 large pinches of salt and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. Add your meatballs back in and simmer about 15 minutes or as long as you wish!) Serve over whole wheat or regular cooked pasta.

Savory meatballs and gravy: Form the mixture into golf ball size balls and pan fry until golden brown, in about 2 tb olive oil. Remove and add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green or red bell pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp thyme and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of all-purpose flour, stir and cook about 1 minute. Add 2 cups low-sodium chicken or beef broth and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, along with a big pinch of Kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper. Stir and bring to a simmer, add meatballs and cook about 10 minutes. Serve the meatballs and gravy over whole wheat or regular wide egg noodles or mashed potatoes, or even rice. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pancakes - Feed your kids a good breakfast!

This is a pancake recipe I created for my kids. It is a healthy way to start your day, takes only a couple more minutes to prepare than a store-bought pancake mix, and are delicious and tender (from the yogurt, much as buttermilk pancakes get tender from the acid in buttermilk). I love them spread with a bit of natural peanut butter and drizzled with sugar free syrup. My son likes his with butter and honey and my daughter likes hers with strawberry pancake syrup or simply boiled down strawberries. You can also make them into strips for dunking, or as is our sleep-over tradition, into the kids' initials. Enjoy!

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (not Kosher salt since we're baking)
Whisk ingredients in a large bowl. In a large measuring cup add:
1 cup fat free milk
1 container (6-8 oz) fat free yogurt (any flavor, whatever you have)
1 egg
2 Tb canola oil
Whisk together, then add one ripe banana and mash to a puree with the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix until just incorporated (don't over mix, they will get tough). Dollop as you wish (standard size is 1/3 cup fulls), and cook on a griddle as you would any other pancake!

Profiterols, cream puffs, beignets, churros, pate a choux, gougeres, eclairs, croquembouches....

The other day my daughter was watching a commercial about the new movie, The Princess and the Frog. It mentioned something about Tia being a chef famous for her beignets. My daughter asked what a beignet was so I told her we would make some! We smelled them in New Orleans square in Disneyland and I new the basic recipe so we whipped some up then got creative and made a few more variations! Yum! These are so easy, transform into many different other recipes and should become a recipe you use anytime you want to entertain! The basic recipe is a pate a choux:

1 cup water

1 stick (8 tb) unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour

3 to 4 eggs

Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil, remove from heat. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg completely, about one minute, before adding the next egg. If your dough is not pulling away from the sides of the pan in a nice, sticky dough by the time you have incorporated the third egg, add the fourth egg. Let cool a little bit before proceeding.

Once you have the pate a choux cooled down and into a piping bag (or simply a plastic food storage bag with the corner cut off), here is how to transform it into all of these different recipes:

Beignets: Pipe small dollops about the size of a ping pong ball into oil warmed in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Fry until golden brown, remove to a paper bag lined sheet pan and toss into powdered sugar (we also made some with cinnamon). In many restaurants you can be served beignets in a brown lunch bag with the powdered sugar, you get to shake it up yourself! We also gilded the lily by drizzling part of our recipe with some strawberry pancake syrup.

Churros: Using a piping tip that creates lines, pipe lines of dough into oil warmed over med-high heat. Fry until golden brown, remove to a paper bag lined sheet pan then toss with cinnamon-sugar. For real "wow" factor, for your next get together pipe the dough into a big coil (larger open pan, such as a chicken fryer, pan on med heat this time since it will be a larger amount of dough all at once) and serve it on a big round serving platter. Everyone can break off a piece and enjoy! For real authenticity serve with Mexican hot chocolate for dunking!

Cream puffs, croquembouches, eclairs: Pipe golf-ball size dollops (3 inch long strips) on a sheet pan, bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and bake another 20 minutes. For cream puffs and eclairs simply fill with sweetened whipped cream (or pastry cream), top with chocolate ganache. For croquembouches, an amazing centerpiece of cream puffs created into a Christmas--tree form, simply make your cream puffs, then start creating your tree by using homemade caramel (2-1/2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup water, boiled until golden brown-no stirring) as the glue. Dust with powdered sugar or wrap in strands of caramel, creating a cage.

Gougeres: These are the savory pate a choux, traditionally made with Gruyere cheese. You can substitute other cheeses, such as sharp cheddar, parmesan, add chopped herbs, etc. Simply add 1 cup of the cheese after all of the eggs are incorporated. Bake as cream puffs and serve as a simple appetizer or pipe the dough into 4 inch coils, with one more coil added to the outside to make a shell, and fill with a creamy seafood sauce or the same filling you would make for chicken pot-pie.

Pretend you are sitting in a cafe in France and enjoy!