How to Make Homemade Italian Turkey Meatballs at Home

Healthier than beef or pork meatballs and yet filled with flavor and wonderful texture, Italian turkey meatballs is flavored with aromatic spices and smothered in Parmigiano-Reggiano and Provolone cheese.

These meatballs make a fancy easy appetizers or hors d’ oeuvres served with toothpicks inserted. They also make a satisfying meal with Italian bread and can be toped over pasta or rice. Pair this with a lovely Pinot Noir or Burgundy red wine, or if you prefer white wine, Pinot Gris or Chardonnay will work fine.

In this appetizer recipes, ground turkey is combined with spinach, onions, garlic, egg, milk, bread crumbs, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and seasoned with salt and pepper then shaped into balls. The turkey meatballs are fried in hot olive oil. A sauce made with butter, flour, chicken stock, Provolone cheese, and nutmeg is served together with the meatballs and the healthy recipes is garnished with fresh parsley.


Ingredients
10 oz. frozen spinach, defrosted
4 lbs. ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
1 ¾ cups milk
¾ cup bread crumbs
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
10 oz. shredded Provolone cheese
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Parsley (optional)

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place the spinach between two clean kitchen towels and press down to remove excess water.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the turkey and spinach. Add all but 3 tablespoons of the onion and mix well. Add the garlic, egg, ¼ cup of milk, bread crumbs, Parmigoamo cheese, salt, and pepper and mix well. Shape this mixture into 12 balls. Drizzle a little oil over the meatballs and place them on a nonstick baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

4. In the meantime, place a little oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter. Once the butter melts, add 3 tablespoons of onion and cook until translucent. Add the flour. Whisk until blended, cooking for 1 minute. Add 1 ½ cups milk and the stock, whisking in. Bring to a boil. Add the Provolone cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add the nutmeg. Reduce heat to low and stir until the cheese melts. Keep warm.

5. To serve, place 3 meatballs on each dish and serve with sauce on the side. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

Apple Sandwich

Apples can be sliced into thick rounds and cored to replace bread for making fun and healthy peanut butter sandwich appetizer recipes. Brush the apples with lemon juice to prevent it from browning. You can also sprinkle the peanut butter with some granola, chocolate chips, and raisins to turn the apple and peanut butter sandwich into dessert. Apple slices also make a refreshing easy appetizers addition to many kinds of sandwiches. The sweet and tart flavor and the crisp texture of apples complement and contrast a wide array of ingredients.

Some examples of delicious healthy recipes for apple sandwich are grilled cheese and caramelized apple sandwich, brie and apple sandwich, turkey apple sandwich, chicken and apple sandwich, apple bacon and cheese sandwich, roast pork apple and spinach sandwich, and egg ham cheese and apple sandwich.

Apples can be added to sandwiches raw or they can be sautéed, grilled, roasted, or caramelized first before adding to sandwiches. Apples also go great with grilled cheese, and can be layered with slices of cheddar, bacon, onions, and mayonnaise or Dijon mustard, in between two slices of bread and then grilled on a grill pan or griddle oven over medium heat.

Pair apple slices with bitter greens like spinach and arugula for a delectable contrast. Chicken, turkey, pork roast, and beefsteak all combine well with apples. Add some raw apple slices to a roast beef melt sandwich to counter the saltiness and make it taste more refreshing. Spread mustard on a slice of whole grain bread and mayonnaise on another slice and layer the bread with cooked turkey slices, sharp cheddar cheese, thin green apple slices, and pieces of red-leaf lettuce and top with the other slice of bread and cut into half and serve. Ham and cheese transforms into a gourmet sandwich with slices of apples. Add arugula dressed with vinaigrette and some shallots for a special treat.

Apple Sandwiches with Granola and Peanut Butter

• 2 small apples, cored and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch thick rounds
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
• 3 tablespoons granola
• 2 tablespoons raisins or semisweet chocolate chips – optional

Spread one side of half of the apple slices with peanut or almond butter then sprinkle granola and any additional ingredients. Top with remaining apple slices, pressing down gently to make the sandwiches. Transfer to napkins or plates and serve.

Quick and Easy Prawn Noodle Soup

Packed with flavor and great when you're short on time. The most flavorsome healthy recipes dish. A wonderfully warming noodle soup, with fragrant spices and a little heat all balanced. Adding vegetables is also fine for a delectable vegetable soup recipe. Enjoy and have fun while having dinner or lunch with your family. 

INGREDIENTS
85g/3oz thick rice noodles
500ml/18fl oz hot chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp fish sauce
Juice ½ lime
1 star anise
Pinch sugar
1 handful small raw prawns
Handful mint and coriander leaves
Chopped red chilli, to serve


METHOD

Boil the noodles until al dente, then drain.

Put the stock in a pan with the fish sauce, lime juice, star anise and pinch of sugar.

Bring to the boil and add the noodles and prawns.

Warm through, then pour into a bowl and serve topped with the mint, coriander and chilli (remove star anise before eating).

Salmon:as Superfood

Salmon is a delicious gourmet recipes meal to include in breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as a snack or easy appetizers. The nutritional value of salmon is excellent on the whole, but what really sets salmon apart as a nutritional powerhouse is the high vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid levels.

Vitamin D is obtained mainly through sunlight exposure, although some foods contain significant levels. Salmon has one of the highest vitamin D levels of all foods, containing 360IU in one three and a half ounce serving. Three quarters of American teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D, which is concerning because vitamin D plays such a crucial role in our health.

Bone health is very dependent on vitamin D levels, with diseases like rickets, osteoporosis (weak bones), and osteomalacia (bone pain) correlated with vitamin D intake. Vitamin D is also important for the heart and blood vessels. The immune system works much more effectively when the body has sufficient vitamin D levels, helping the body fight off illnesses and autoimmune diseases like cancer.

Besides vitamin D, salmon contains vitamins A and B as well as minerals like iron, calcium, selenium, and phosphorus. Salmon is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which is a nutrient that most Americans could use more of. An ideal ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids is about 2:1 or 1:1. Because of the high processed food and vegetable oil consumption rates, many developed world citizens have a ratio that contains much higher levels of omega-6 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids keep the arteries and veins flexible, and increase the strength of cardiac muscles. They also contribute to the prevention of macular degeneration, dryness in the eyes, loss of vision, and eye fatigue. Perhaps their best known attribute, omega-3 fatty acids increase the efficiency of the brain and improve memory.

Orient Express Chocolate Torte

This chocolate torte recipe is adapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Chocolate Desserts, which is the same chocolate torte served in the famous luxury train Orient Express, back when it was known worldwide for gourmet healthy recipes. Pronounced as TOR-tuh, torte is a very rich and decadent cake multilayered with all kinds of indulgences such as whipped cream, mousses, jam, fruits, and buttercream. In this simple easy dessert recipes, chocolate cake is layered with an opulent buttercream.

This easy desserts does not contain any flour, making it the ideal gluten-free chocolate cake. It is rich and dense and absolutely luxurious enough for birthday occasions. The cake is made with unsweetened chocolate, unblanched almonds, eggs, sugar, and salt while the buttercream frosting is made with sweet butter, pure vanilla extract, granulated sugar, eggs, and unsweetened chocolate. You need a springform pan to bake the cake in and a bain-marie for melting the chocolate. A springform pan consists of a round base and a band with a latch on the sides. It is meant for use in cheesecakes, flourless cakes, and other dense cakes.

Ingredients:
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
7 ½ oz. (1 ½ cups) unblanched almonds
5 eggs, separated
2 egg yolks
¾ cup granulated sugar
Salt
For the Buttercream Frosting:
3 oz. sweet butter
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate


Preparation Instructions

Place the oven rack 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 3 in. springform pan. Coarsely chop the chocolate. Place it, along with the almonds, in a food processor and pulse until finely ground.

In the small bowl of an electric mixer, pour the 7 egg yolks. Add the sugar and beat until yolks are lemon-colored but not thick. Add the ground chocolate mixture and mix. Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl. In a clean and dry mixer bowl, pour the 5 egg whites and the salt. Beat until they hold shape, but not until they are stiff. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 65 minutes, or until the top just springs back when pressed with the fingers. Remove from the oven and run a sharp knife around the outer edge of the cake. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Place a wire cooling rack over the cake pan and invert. Place the cooling rack on the counter and remove the cake pan. Allow the cake to cool completely on the rack. Freeze the cake for about 1 hour.

In the meantime make the buttercream. In the small bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter and vanilla. Add the sugar and cream for about 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on high for 2 minutes after each one is added.

Place the chocolate on the top of a double broiler placed over medium heat. Cover. When partially melted, uncover and stir constantly until the chocolate is entirely melted. Add the melted chocolate to the butter mixture, beating until well blended. Place the bowl of buttercream, along with the mixer’s beaters, in the freezer or refrigerator until firm.

Remove the cake from the freezer and use a serrated bread knife to cut it in half horizontally, making two layers. Place one layer of the cake, cut side up, on a cake platter. Remove the buttercream from the freezer or refrigerator and beat until it is soft, smooth, and spreadable. Spread 1/3 of the buttercream on top of the bottom layer of cake. Place the second layer of cake on top of this, cut side down. Spread the remaining buttercream over the cake top and sides.

Very Vanilla Ice Cream with White Chocolate and Peppermint

This is a doctored ice cream recipes. Take vanilla ice cream and add a few simple ingredients, refreeze, and tell everyone it’s homemade. It looks like ordinary peppermint ice cream, but it’s not.  Peppermint is a strong flavor, so it usually kind of takes over whatever it’s in, but not so with this ice cream gourmet recipes. It’s big on vanilla, light on the peppermint. And the white chocolate adds the perfect touch without being overwhelming. There is probably nothing better than ice cream and brownies easy dessert recipes.

Ingredients

1 3/4 quarts (7 cups) good quality vanilla ice cream

4 ounces white chocolate

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1/2 cup round peppermint candies or candy canes, crushed (about 15 candies)

Instructions

Place the ice cream in a large bowl and leave it out for about a half an hour until it is soft and workable.

In a small bowl, melt the white chocolate in the microwave. Melt for 20 seconds, stir, then stir every 10 seconds after that until it is mostly smooth. Some little lumps are okay.

Immediately add in the vanilla bean paste to the chocolate. Stir quickly and then mix all of it into the vanilla ice cream, stirring with a large spoon. There will be some steaks of white chocolate, but that's a good thing.

Gently stir in most of the peppermint, reserving some to sprinkle on top of each serving. Transfer the mixture to a 2-quart baking dish or large tupperware. Freeze until firm, about 3-4 hours. Sprinkle with remaining peppermint and serve.

Notes

If you don't have any vanilla bean paste, sub vanilla extract. But you really should invest in some paste, it is liquid gold!

You can crush the peppermint candy as little or as much as you want, it just depends on how chunky you want your ice cream.

Making Homemade Crab Salad

This is a ridiculously easy salad but it's got some great texture differences. Replace the crab with shrimp if you prefer. It's sort of like a California roll sushi salad! The fresh taste and cool colors of this salad filling lend glamour to the appetizer recipes. This recipe is quick, easy and delicious. The great thing about this crab salad is that it can be made ahead of time, and chilled for up to five days in the fridge, which makes for a healthy protein packed easy appetizers ready anytime you are!

Ingredients:

1 cup crab (fresh or imitation)

1 Avocado

1 cup creme fraiche

1 tsp wasabi

1 tsp sesame oil

to taste salt, more wasabi, or lemon juice

Preparation:

Mix the creme fraiche with the wasabi. Taste to determine your additives. Does it need salt? Acid? Add salt, lemon juice, or more wasabi as it needs. You want the sauce tangy with a bit of a kick.

Cut the crab and avocado in 1/2 inch pieces. Toss with sesame oil. Layer a glass with crab, avocado, and the cream on top. Serve!

Pickled Shrimp with Parsley Oil Recipe

Bright and tangy easy appetizers, this hors d'oeuvre from chef Dennis Marron of Poste Moderne Brasserie in Washington, D.C., has notes of coriander, mustard, ginger and lemon. Drizzling the shrimp with a citrusy parsley oil just before serving helps bring out the flavor even more. Enjoy these recipes and learn different way how to cook shrimp.

Ingredients

Shrimp: 

3 Tbsp. coriander seed 

¼ tsp. mustard seed 

1 finger length of fresh ginger 

½ cup onion, thinly sliced 

1 lemon, cut in half 

Pinch of crushed red pepper 

2 bay leaves 

1½ cups white vinegar 

½ cup water 

3 cups shrimp (approximately 16-20, peeled and deveined) 

Parsley oil: 

2 bunches fresh parsley 

2 Tbsp. walnut oil 

4 Tbsp. orange oil (see recipe below) 

1 Tbsp. grapeseed oil 

Pinch of salt 

Orange oil:

1 whole orange 

1 cup canola oil 

Directions:

Make shrimp: Toast coriander, mustard seed, ginger, onion, lemon, red pepper and bay leaves in a small saute pan. Add vinegar and water to toasted spices and bring to a boil.

Pour hot boiling liquid over shrimp in a sterile container. (Any plastic or glass container with an airtight lid will do.) Cool at room temperature before chilling overnight. Pickle for a maximum of 2 days.

Make parsley oil: Blanch, shock and drain parsley with stems intact. Puree in blender with oils and a pinch of salt until smooth. Strain through a coffee filter and refrigerate overnight.

Infuse the orange oil: Peel orange, getting as little of the pith as possible. Warm oil to 150°. Turn off heat and add orange zest. Let sit at room temperature for 3-6 hours and then strain out orange peel.

When ready to serve, place pickled shrimp on a platter of arugula or other flavorful green, add salt and pepper to taste, and finish with a drizzle of parsley oil.

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Looking for a quick dessert that your kids can help make? These homemade ice cream sandwiches are simple and tasty gourmet recipes!

An ice cream sandwich is a frozen confection composed of a layer of ice cream sandwiched between two biscuits/cookies or slices of cake. Let your kids choose their cookie dough, and ice cream recipes flavors and see how many creations they can come up with! Freeze the leftovers and have them for quick snacks when it is hot outside. Yummy!

Ingredients

Store bought cookie dough (any flavor your kids like)
Ice cream (any flavor, or try more than one!)
Sprinkles, if desired

Preparation

Let the kids spoon cookie dough onto a greased baking sheet. Make sure they make them all about the same size. Bake according to package directions. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Meanwhile, set out ice cream and allow to melt a little bit to become more pliable. Once the cookies have cooled have the kids spoon a decent amount of ice cream onto one cookie and top with another. Smooth sides so that ice cream is not falling out. They can cover sides with sprinkles as well, if desired. Serve them as is, or wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours for a harder version.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry is one of the most colorful and common ice cream recipes in the world. As a summer time fruit, strawberries make good ice cream, a frozen confection that is popular in the summertime as well. Such likely marriage makes a creamy ice cream that vibrates with the color of rosé or tinted with the finest of pinks.

When made with fresh strawberries soaked and simmered with sugar, chunks of the fruit are present in the ice cream, along with chips of its seeds. Some strawberry ice cream versions use strawberry syrup, which gives the ice cream a bright pink ripple (brightened no less with pink food color) that runs through the smooth ice cream. The sweetness tames the innate zest of fresh strawberries and the ice cream profits fully from this delicateness in flavor.

Strawberry has long been part of history. According to the Food Timeline, “Most period iced creams were flavored with fruit,” most of which were utilized when in season. Strawberry ice cream is an important component of the Neapolitan ice cream, as one of the three ice creams in the confection. It is also one of the three ice creams scoops that make up the all American banana split, a favorite in soda fountains and ice cream houses.

To make strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries are crushed in the blender with sugar before it’s added to a separately prepared custard base. The former is the strawberry purée. Another way of readying the strawberry portion is to hull and roughly chop (or mash) it up, sprinkled with sugar in a bowl and allowed to steep until both infuse each other with flavor. And then you create this special strawberry ice cream easy desserts.

Ingredients

500 grams strawberries
175 grams caster sugar (plus 2 tablespoons)
500 ml full fat milk
500 ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
10 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

Hull and roughly chop the strawberries, put them into a bowl and sprinkle over the 2 tablespoons ofcaster sugar and leave them to steep and infuse with flavour.

Pour the milk and cream into a heavy-based saucepan, and add the vanilla pod, split down the middle lengthways. Bring the pan nearly to the boil and then take it off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and the 175g / ¾ cup sugar until thick and pale yellow. Take thevanilla pod out of the milk and cream and pour, whisking the while, the warm liquid over the yolks. Put the cleaned-out pan back on the heat with the cream, milk, egg and sugar mixture and stir the custard until it thickens, then take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool.

Puree the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool fold in the lemon juice and strawberry puree.

At this point you can either freeze the ice cream in an ice-cream maker, or in a plastic tub in the freezer. If you do the latter you should whip it out every hour for 3 hours as it freezes and give it a good beating, either with an electric whisk, by hand or in the processer. That gets rid of any ice crystals that form and that make the ice cream crunchy rather than smooth.

Cauliflower Blue Cheese Soup

This fabulously French creamy cauliflower soup will blow you away from a cold, wet day. Thick and warming, tasty soup, great for lunch with friends or as an easy appetizer for a dinner party.

Your cauliflower soup can be frozen from the puree stage, and then when required, just defrost, add milk, cheeses and cream then heat.  

Ingredients:
500gm Cauliflower
250gm potatoes peeled & cubed
1 large onion
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of milk
1 – 1 1/2 cups of desired grated cheese (parmesan, cheddar, stilton, blue)
Blue cheese to taste
1/2 cup of cream
Fresh fennel, parsley or coriander to stir though or garnish

Preparation:

Melt butter in large pot. Add cauliflower, potatoes and onion.

Gently stir fry the veges for approximately 5 mins without browning.

Stir in mustard, cayenne pepper and add chicken stock.

Cover with lid and let simmer for 25 to 30 mins.

Puree with a masher or food processor.

Stir in milk, grated cheese(s), crumbled blue cheese and bring to a simmer.

Add cream just before serving but do not allow to boil. Serve garnished or stirred through with whichever herbs you prefer. Add homemade croutons or parmesan. Or even an extra wee knob of blue cheese, butter, olive oil or cream swirled through.

For a healther option, don’t add cream or use greek yoghurt/ However, if you go for this option cut the cayenne pepper down by half.

Great-Grandmothers Recipe for Soft Cake with Walnuts

Soft cake is a sponge cake made from flour, sugar, baking powder and eggs and is lighter than the traditional cake. The only fat used in making sponge cake is egg yolk; however the egg white and egg yolks are added separately to the batter. Sponge cake is many times used as a base for other types of cakes and easy desserts.

Cakes began in ancient Egypt as round, flat, unleavened breads that were cooked on a hot stone. Their evolution from crude cakes to what we enjoy today was possible, over many centuries, through the introduction of new ingredients and technology. The Egyptian's discovery and subsequent skill at using natural yeast helped leaven those once flat cakes. When butter and eggs made their way into the cake dough, their consistency became the precursor for today's cakes. Cake making continued to improve especially with the new ingredients such as chocolate and vanilla, and eventually sugar that came to Europe with the discovery of the New World. Soft cakes were the cakes made by our mothers, our grandmothers, and our great-grandmothers. While these cakes we make today often have different proportions from the original, they are still wonderfully rich, moist, and buttery with a lovely golden brown crust. Whether you enjoy a slice of this cake plain with just a dusting of powdered sugar or with whipped cream or ice cream, it is truly a king among cakes. You might also like to try toasting a slice or, an even better gourmet recipes ideas, to make grilled pound cake. Serve for dessert along with fresh berries and whipped cream. Absolutely delicious!

Ingredients

3 ½ tablespoons flour, 

6 tablespoons butter, 

6 tablespoons sugar, 

3 egg yolks, 

5 ¼ oz. (about 2/3 cup) chopped walnuts, 

15 egg whites, 

1.76 oz. dark chocolate,

0.7 oz. (about 1 ½ tablespoons) cream

Preparation Instructions

Mix the egg yolk with sugar and molten butter. Add flour and chopped walnuts. Beat the egg whites and add them to the sugar mixture. Place the mixture in a buttered and floured sponge cake mold. Bake in a 338 degree F. oven for 40 minutes. Cool. Boil the cream. Add chocolate and simmer.