I was going a little stir crazy staying in all weekend. I knew I needed to stay in, I knew it was important for my well-being, I knew it would help my finances and added to that I got a little help from the weather in the spirit of an additional reason to stay in called Hurricane Irene!
Four movies later, three slices of banana bread that I had made earlier and no more laundry to do, I had to do something else. I did think about exercise TV for about an 1/8th of a second and then I decided on more cooking.
With not too many perishables left in my fridge except for some zucchini – my favorite vegetable of late, and really not much else, I knew I had one thing on the list for dinner. Some protein was also in order. I looked through my cookbooks and scoured the Internet and landed on a recipe for Tuna Meatballs. I wasn’t totally happy with all the ingredients – some were a little odd, so (again) I adapted the recipe a little to my own tastes and what was in my cupboard which was mostly dried/canned foods. This was going to be interesting.
Tuna Meatballs
(Adapted from a recipe found on Women’s Health)
Ingredients
2 5oz cans of Albacore Tuna (drained)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp of parsley (dried)
1 Tbsp of Oregano (dried)
1.2 cup breadcrumbs (dried)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Directions
Place the tuna, oregano, parsley, salt & pepper and breadcrumbs in a large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs, lemon zest and juice, and using your hands mix everything together until well-combined.
Roll the mixture into small balls.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the tuna balls until golden on all sides.
Remove from the pan and place on paper towel.
Pan Roasted Tomato Glazed Zucchini
(Adapted from a recipe found on About.com)
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of salt
1 large zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 Cup tomato sauce (I used Classico)
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Slice zucchini and add salt.
Add the olive oil to a large skillet on high until the oil begins to smoke. Add the zucchini. Cook stirring on high heat for about 3-4 minutes until the edges of the zucchini brown before the interior gets soft.
Add the tomato sauce. Continue to cook, stirring, on high heat until the tomato sauce becomes thick, and starts to stick on to the zucchini. This is done when the inside of the zucchini becomes tender and the outside is nicely browned and caramelized. Remove from heat, and serve.
After my initial fear of making the tuna meatballs from all dried/canned products, they turned our superbly well and were really quite tasty with a great zesty tang. The zucchini was perfectly crunchy and delicious. I also made some spinach pasta and heated some extra tomato sauce.
Kathleen joined me for dinner and with her delicate palate and fear of anything beyond meat and potatoes, she did skeptically try one of the meatballs. With a smile on her face she said “they’re quite edible.” High praise from Kathleen. She did however eat lots of pasta, sauce and zucchini.
