Saturday nights are perfect in so many ways. You didn’t go to work today.You don’t have to go to work tomorrow. You can be totally lazy (hey, you’ll be productive tomorrow, right?) Saturdays are also usually “date night”– you know, you go out to a nice dinner and maybe a movie? Maybe you splurge a little budget-wise or calorie-wise? Well after working through last weekend and both full weeks surrounding it, Geoff and I needed a date night… but also a lazy night at home. The solution? An Asian inspired meal eaten at a candlelit table in sweats.

I had been wanting to try some recipes from my new Chinese cookbook and also was in the mood to invent a new recipe. From the cookbook I made egg drop soup. For my recipe I created sweet and sour meatballs. Now, recipes are rarely perfect upon first conception and there are definitely some changes I would make, but overall these were a success. Geoff said he liked them as is so I feel comfortable sharing the original recipe and adding my modification thoughts at the end. So here we go:

First, I made the sweet and sour sauce by combining these ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp ketchup
• 1 Tbsp plum sauce (in the Asian aisle. You can also use duck sauce)
• 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp pineapple juice (or brown sugar or regular sugar)
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• 4 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp cornstarch

I always keep empty glass jars in the house (salsa, mustard, jam). They are perfect for mixing sauces or salad dressings. That’s what I use to mix this sauce.

Next I made the meatballs. I had ground pork on hand, but these would be really good with chicken as well. For the meatballs:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely minced (or 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
• 1 Tbsp crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, diced
• 1 cup diced mushrooms

I wanted the ginger and garlic to really penetrate and flavor these meatballs so I ended up making a ginger garlic paste by running my knife through both ingredients and then using the side of the knife to smash them together. The mushrooms were my way of keeping the pork moist and bulking out the meat with veggies. As you can see I tried to chop all ingredients into pretty tiny pieces that way you didn’t end up with a meatball that was half mushroom. 

Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until evenly distributed. I used a tablespoon measure to help keep the meatballs evenly sized. Bake meatballs at 375 for 18 minutes. After 18 minutes, remove from oven and brush on sweet and sour sauce. This should use up about half of the sauce and you can reserve the rest for dipping (or store in your fridge for later). Return to oven and bake for 5 more minutes.

The recipe made 24 meatballs and was 6 points + for a serving of 4. As you can see I served this with the egg drop soup and some ginger, garlic, and soy sauteed mushrooms and spinach. This whole meal took about 40 minutes including cooking time and the timing for all 3 dishes worked out perfectly! I hope you treat yourself to a lazy date night soon! Making an out of the ordinary (but easy and healthy) dinner like this can make your Saturday at home feel just as special as going out to a fancy restaurant.

So… for next time here are my thoughts:

• Add 1/2 tsp garlic salt to meatball mixture before baking
• Add 1-2 Tbsp sweet and sour sauce to meatball mixture before baking (to keep the meatballs moist)
• Brush on the sweet and sour sauce a bit earlier (maybe after 10 minutes) so the moisture and flavor penetrates

In anticipation of the freezing weather coming this week I was in the mood for something hearty and warm so decided to make chili. I was also in the mood to invent a new recipe and found that my pantry and fridge were barely stocked with chili ingredients. This is how beef and vegetable jerked chili was invented. I am really pleased with the results and Geoff described it as both delicious and amazing… so that is a victory in my book!

Here’s what I pulled together for the chili:

• 2 tsp coconut oil, separated
• 1 1/2 onions chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 lb 90% lean ground sirloin
• 2 tsp jerk seasoning
• 1 c thinly sliced carrots
• 1/2 c water
• 1/2 c tomato sauce (I used  basil and garlic)
• 15.5 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained  
• 1 c spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp fat free greek yogurt + more for serving 
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt (to taste)

To start the chili, add 1 tsp coconut oil to a dutch oven. Add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until softened. Add cumin and chili powder along with 1 tsp coconut oil and stir, using the oil to scrape bits off the bottom of the pot. Add ground beef, reduce heat to low, and cover (this helps keep moisture in the lean beef). Normally in my chili I would add some chipotle in adobo sauce, which adds an amazing lingering heat and a bit of “hmm I wonder what that spice is?” You can keep that stuff in your fridge for a long time because you don’t need very much to season a giant pot of chili. Today, though, I found myself without any, so I decided to search the fridge for another unique heat element and what I found was:

Jerk seasoning is a blend of onions, hot peppers, nutmeg, allspice, and some other spices. You can find it in the international food aisle of most supermarkets and it also lasts a long time! I added 2 tsp of jerk seasoning and it gave the chili a nice lingering heat. If you aren’t a big spicy food fan you can add 1 tsp or less or skip it all together. I added this when the ground beef was mostly cooked.

At this point I also added 1 cup of thinly sliced carrots. I sliced them thinly mostly because I’m a little obsessed with my mandolin but also because it’s kind of a pain to dice carrots. That being said, you can dice your carrots and add them in along with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup tomato sauce. If you have canned tomatoes or tomato paste you can add that– it will give it a stronger tomato flavor without many calories. I just used the pasta sauce that I had open in the fridge (are you noticing a theme of how I cook?). Add 1 can drained kidney beans and mix in. Cover and let the beef finish cooking. This will also help the flavors combine.

At this point things were looking a little red in the pot so I wanted to add some colors. I didn’t have any green peppers and Geoff doesn’t like celery so I decided to use spinach. I roughly chopped 1 cup of spinach and added it in so it could wilt down. At this point you want to start tasting the chili. Mine needed the flavors to boost a little, so I added 1/4 tsp garlic salt and 1 Tbsp fat free greek yogurt to add a little creaminess to the dish.

At this point you can let the chili simmer for as long as you want. Chili is one of those dishes that gets more and more delicious with time. We were pretty hungry so I just served it immediately (and it got those nice reviews from Geoff so just think how good it will be tomorrow!). I added a little more greek yogurt to help cut the heat and give more creaminess to the dish. You can use sour cream if you want.

This made 6 servings at 195 g each (about 1 cup) for 6 weight watchers points +. The side dish that you see is a spin on my mixed vegetable gratin with asparagus, sugar snap peas, and tomatoes. This dish was so hearty and filling and a perfect end of the long weekend meal.