Apple Cheddar Turkey Meatballs - slow cooker

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I found a website full of slow cooker recipes that are GF. Many of the ones that we've tried are really good. Here's one we had last night that we served over rice. I just copied and pasted, so the directions come from the crockpot365 blog.

--1 1/2 pound extra lean ground turkey

--1 egg

--1 tsp kosher salt

--1 tsp ground black pepper

--1 tsp onion powder

--1 green apple, peeled and shredded

--1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

--1/2 cup dried unsweetened cranberries

The Directions.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the ground turkey with the ingredients. I used my hands.

Make golf-ball sized meatballs, and drop them into your crockpot. I used a 6 quart crockpot, but you could use any size over 3 quart, probably. These made enough meatballs to feed our family of 4 for dinner, with 8 leftover for breakfast and lunch. If you have a large family, or would like to cook enough to freeze, double or triple the recipe. You can definitely stagger-stack the meatballs on top of each other.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 5-9---the cooking time will depend on how many meatballs are in the crock, and the size of your machine. The more full it is, the longer it will take to cook.

I cooked 1 1/2 pounds of meatballs in a 6 quart for exactly 4 hours on high. I could have left them in a bit longer to brown the ones on the very top, but we were hungry.

While they cook, juice will collect on the bottom of the crock, and the meatballs will start off getting bright white and slimy looking. Don't be alarmed---they will continue to cook and will begin to brown. They (miraculously enough!) don't seem to stick together in a big blob---you'll be able to separate them

Homemade potato soup

Peel some potatoes. The nice thing about potato peelers is, they have two sharp sides when you buy them.  But everyone else wears out the one side, because they're all right handed.  So that's a benefit of being left handed.
Chop up those potatoes.  The way you do this is, first you slice them the long way.  But you leave the slices in a stack so they look like half potatoes, resting flat side down.  Then you cut them the other two directions.  If you do it this way, all the pieces come out as cubes, except the ones on the edges. It's basically like TRON for potatoes. If you do it any other way, you'r probably going to slice your fingers because the potatoes won't stay still so you'll try to use your other hand to make them stay still.
Then boil them, for a long time, like 20 minutes or half an hour.  Potatoes take forever to cook.  If you put a potato in the microwave, you need to microwave it for about 15 minutes, or it's still all starchy inside. The whole reason you cut them into those cubes was to make it cook faster, but still, it takes forever. They're done when you can just take out one of those cubes and mash it into mashed potatoes just by squishing it with a fork.  You don't even have to press hard.
Then drain off all of the water (well, most of it, it doesn't matter if there's still some water because let's face it, you're making soup not macaroni and cheese), mash up the potatoes with a fork, and add some butter, some milk, and some salt.  I'm not going to tell you how much because hey, everyone is different. But if you don't put in enough milk, you're basically just making mashed potatoes.  Whatever you do, don't put them in a blender for a long time.  That makes them really sticky.  The longer you do it, the stickier they get. They still kind of look like mashed potatoes, but they taste like glue.
Then when you're going to serve it, put some sour cream on top. That way the sour cream stays kind of cold. You can also chop up some green onions into little circles if you have them, but let's be realistic.  Those things won't last a week in your fridge, so if you have some, you probably just need to throw them out because they're getting old.  But sometimes they grow in people's yards.  So if they grow in your yard you could pick some.
You can also put in garlic if you like garlic.  If you don't know if you like garlic, think if you like garlic bread.  If you like garlic bread, put some garlic in your soup.
Potato soup is supposed to be eaten with hot pastrami sandwiches on black rye bread, with pickles and some kind of melted white cheese.  That's the rule. These flavors combine, Voltron-like, to form a giant of tastiness.  You should also make sure you didn't use up all the milk making the soup, because you're going to get thirsty eating that sandwich.

Nana's Turkey and Stuffing

Lay out 1 1/4 loaves of white bread on cookie sheets and let the slices dry overnight. Turn them over if you think about it.

Also the night before (to make things go faster in the morning) chop up two big onions and at least 6 stalks of celery. Saute both in about ½ cup of butter in a big pan. Add 2 cups of water and 1 heaping TBSP of chicken soup base (you can substitute chicken broth) and simmer 2-3 min. Let cool and then add 3 eggs and mix well. Pour this into a big pitcher and put in the fridge until morning.

Stack the bread 4 slices deep and slice into long ½ inch thick slices. Dump those in a bowl to be hand torn into pieces (to keep the kids busy and involved: you can also just cut them into cubes with a knife). Divide the bread between two big bowls (to give you room to stir and lift the bread). Sprinkle the bread very generously with sage, generously with thyme and dried parsley, less generously with black pepper. If the bread is so dry the spices won’t stick, you can spritz it with a bit of water.

Slowly pour about ¼ of the celery/onion/egg/broth mixture over the seasoned bread in each bowl and mix well; if the bread is still really dry, repeat. If the bread is fairly moist, pour off some of the liquid and add the rest of the onions and celery to the bread. You want the bread to be moist enough to hold together, but not soggy.

Meanwhile, wash out the thawed turkey (be sure to remove the neck and giblets!) and tip it so the inside drips dry. Start at the head end (the smaller cavity) and fill with stuffing. Slide thin slices of sacrificial apple or potato between the skin and the stuffing (so the stuffing won’t burn). Use thread (about 4 strands in a big needle) and sew the skin closed or use big poultry pins to secure the skin.

Turn the bird over and fill the bigger cavity. Place slices of apple/potato over the exposed stuffing.

Hook the legs back together (usually there is a plastic leg holder on the turkey already. If not, use thread to lash the legs together). Set the bird on a rack in the roasting pan. I then like to pull the wings up and stitch thru the tips, leaving about 4 inches of thread between the wings resting on the breast of the turkey. This keeps the wings from touching the sides of the pan and burning.

Baste the turkey if you want to and bake it. I preheat the oven to 375 then turn it down to 325 and cook it longer than recommended since it is at a lower temp. You may want to cover the breast, wings and legs with foil the last hour to keep them from overcooking.

These amounts are for a 12-14 lb turkey. Leftover stuffing gets put in a foil lined pan and is wrapped in the foil like a tin foil dinner. Bake it for only one hour, not the whole time the turkey is baked.

I find I like fresh turkey, rather than frozen. If you brine a thawed out frozen turkey, that is good and moist as well.

Wild Rice Meatball Primavera

Prep time: 45 min.

1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs (or crushed up Saltines)
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbs oil
2 cups water
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 package (16 oz) frozen broccoli medley (that's with cauliflower), thawed
1 box Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice Fast Cook Recipe (or your local store-brand's version)

Combine turkey, bread crumbs, and egg; mix well. Shape into 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs (makes about 20-22)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook meatballs 6-7 min. or until brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels.

Combine water and soup in skillet; bring to a boil. Add meatballs, vegetables and contents of seasoning packet, reserving rice. Cover; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add reserved rice to skillet; mix well. Cover; cook 5 min. more or until hot. Remove from heat; stir well. Cover and let stand 5 min. before serving.

Serves 6