Teriyaki Ginger Meatballs Recipe

I love when my recipe experiments turn into successes! Like when I made Mac n' Goat Cheese, Baileys Oreo Truffles, or Roasted Vegetable soup to name a few.  These meatballs definitely fit into the category of a successful creation.  Every Sunday morning as I prepare my weekly grocery shopping list, I run through the recipes that will be made for the upcoming week.  Sometimes this list gets pretty redundant and to be honest, a little boring.  So I decided that I want to try a new spin on meatballs!

These meatballs hit all of the flavors I wanted to achieve, plus my husband LOVES them!  He now requests them for dinner on a regular basis.  The trick to these meatballs is using slices of bread soaked in milk to keep the meatballs nice and moist.  Then, layering in different Asian inspired flavors to differentiate them from your ordinary meatball.  These are perfect for a meal if you roll them a bit larger.  I am excited to make these for my next gathering in an appetizer size and maybe serve with a dipping sauce!

This recipe made more meatballs than Bill and I could eat in one night {although if we didn't stop ourselves I am sure we could have eaten a lot more}, so we froze the extras in hopes for another tasty meal later.  When we craved them again, I took them out of the freezer and placed them in a skillet with a little water, and then put the lid on to allow them to steam through to retain their moist consistency. They were just as good as we remembered the second time!  Enjoy!

Teriyaki Ginger Meatballs Recipe

Makes 15-17 large meatballs or

Makes 30-35 cocktail meatballs

2 slices of whole wheat bread

2 tablespoons skim milk
2 pounds ground pork

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

1 egg

2 scallions, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, tear up bread and cover with milk.  Wait for all milk to be absorbed by the bread and break down the bread further.

Add remaining ingredients into the bowl with the bread.  Mix well with your hands to incorporate everything together.  Roll 3-4 tablespoon sized meatballs and place on a broil pan. 

Bake meatballs for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.  Serve over sautéed spinach.

Tips:

1)  If you want to make them cocktail size, make them 1-2 tablespoons in size and cook for 15-20 minutes

2)  The pork make these fabulous, but if you only  have ground turkey or chicken on hand, that would work. 

Slow-Cooker Pork with Noodles

As I have mentioned before, I love my slow-cooker!   When the smell of a delicious home cooked meal greets you at the front door after a long day of work, you know a relaxing night is ahead of you with no meal prep.  When I found this pork with noodles recipe in my Food Network magazine ( May 2011 edition), I couldn’t wait to try it. 

The slow-cooked pork shreds apart so easily, while still remaining moist and tender.  The Asian inspired broth perfectly flavors the meat and noodles, while the crunchy bok choy adds a nice texture.  This meal sounds complex, but it only took 20 minutes of prep time, then the slow-cooker does the rest of the work for you! 

What are some of your favorite slow-cooker recipes?

Slow-Cooker Pork with Noodles

Recipe from Food Network Magazine

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced

2 piece star anise

Salt

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder

1 head bok choy, ,roughly chopped

3 ½ ounces dried rice vermicelli noodles

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Combine the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, star anise and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker. Add the pork, then cover and cook on low 8 hours.

Add the bock choy to the slow cooker; cover and cook about 20 more minutes.  Next, add the noodles to the slow cooker, making sure they are submerged in the broth.  Cover and cook another 10 minutes. 

Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred the meat. Divide the pork, bok choy and noodles among bowls, then ladle in some of the broth. Sprinkle with the cilantro.

Tips:

1)      When I made this, I didn’t have star anise (to be honest, I have no clue where to even buy this!), so I just skipped this ingredient and it came out wonderfully.

2)      I forgot to get fresh ginger at the grocery store, so I used 1 ½ teaspoons of dried ground ginger.

3)      This recipe made so much that we froze another meal for later! 
4)   Don't let my photos above fool you.  This is definitely a dish that requires a fork!!