Greek Turkey Meatballs with Yogurt Tzatziki Sauce

Greek Turkey Meatballs with Yogurt Tzatziki Sauce

There’s nothing better than a yummy homemade Tzatziki sauce to dress up your turkey meatballs. This recipe was featured in our latest 5-Day Dinner Party celebrating the open enrollment for Simply17 (my weekly meal planning service).

I love Greek food, so it’s always fun to incorporate an easy meatball recipe for dinner time. Mediterranean dishes are not only yummy, but super healthy, too! Enjoy!

Greek Turkey Meatballs with Yogurt Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground turkey

1/2 onion, minced or grated

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

2 Tablespoons lemon zest

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1/2 cup low-fat feta cheese

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Make sure you don’t mix too much or the meatballs will be tough.

Roll into small 1 oz balls (about 16) and place on a slightly greased baking dish or pan.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until turkey is cooked through.

Serve with your favorite veggies and Tzatziki sauce (recipe below).

Greek Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients:

1 medium cucumber (about 8 oz), peeled, seeded and chopped into chunks*

1 tsp salt, plus more to taste

1 8 oz container Greek yogurt

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon dried)

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place diced cucumber in a mesh strainer or colander and sprinkle with salt, toss to evenly coat then allow to rest 30 minutes at room temperature.

Rinse cucumbers and place over several layers of paper towels. Squeeze some of the liquid from cucumbers (almost as if wringing moisture from a cloth).

Place cucumbers in food processor and pulse to chop fine (if there’s excess liquid drain it off).

Pour cucumbers into a mixing bowl add Greek yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, and dill and season with salt and pepper to taste. Whisk to combine. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

*To remove seeds, peel the cucumber, slice in half lengthwise, then used a spoon to scoop the seeds out and dice into chunks.

Yields 4 Servings

Approved all cycles

Photo above courtesy of Judy H. – Judy’s creations always look so yummy!

Photo above courtesy of Sandra J. – I love how Sandra incorporated her Simply17 party favors into this shot of her yummy dinner!

Original article and pictures take 17ddblog.com site

Greek Salad Dressing Recipe

Greek Salad Dressing Recipe

Greek-salad-dressing-recipe (3)

A good Greek salad dressing recipe may not sound life changing. But please trust me on this…it IS life changing. This is our very, very favorite seasoning mix. It makes the most divine and authentic Greek Pizzaria style dressing, but it’s also become our house seasoning blend. I keep both the ranch dressing seasoning mix, and this one in shaker jars on my counter.

Greek-salad-dressing-recipe (2)

We love it atop the Pizza Hut style breadstick recipe on cheese pizzadillas, in my oven fries recipe and on baked potatoes, and, and…plus infinity. It’s the secret ingredient to making an amazing pizza crust in my homemade pizza recipe.

And NOW that I’m Trim & Healthy, this Greek salad dressing recipe is even more awesome, since the spices themselves are fuel pull, and can be used with ANY type of meal. And, I also give a fat free Greek salad dressing recipe below in the printable that you can use with E and FP salads!

Plus, it’s completely healthy with no Mono-glutamic-nazi-parabens.

(Yee-haw!)

The other great thing, is that this salad dressing doesn’t need to be refrigerated, so it’s perfect for picnics, camping, or covered dish meals.

So, what I’m really trying to say is that this is the most awesomely wonderful recipe on the whole planet, and you just have to try it, or your life will be ruined. OK?

Now, this might look like a whole bunch of spices, but it’s way worth your time to put together. For one thing, you probably have almost all of these spices in your cabinet right now. And for another, the recipe below makes almost 2 cups of (un-blended) spice mix.

Theoretically, this should last you a long time.

Having a big jar of Greek Dressing Mix makes it very convenient to mix up a batch of salad dressing when you discover that you’re out as the table is being set. Which is pretty much the only time that I discover that we’re out of something.

So, let’s get cookin’.

Here’s what you’ll need:

powdered onion, powdered (or granulated) garlic, dried basil, black pepper, oregano, sugar and salt.

I like to mix mine up in a standard quart canning jar, so I can powder it in my blender like this.

When you shake it up, it looks like this.

I like to blend it to a fine powder, so that it mixes in quickly and has maximum flavor right away:

Then, I write the recipe for making the mix and for making the dressing on the lid of the jar. Keeps me from having to flip through my recipe notebook…this is because I’m lazy efficient.

I have also started storing some of it in a spice/shaker jar because we like it as a schprinkle too.

Now you’re ready to shake-shake-shake your way to Greek heaven…or make this amazing salad dressing:

Now, quickly…print this, make this, and enjoy!

This spice blend is amazing...we use it to make dressing and also use it like a shake on Greek spice or rub. I love to make my dry dressing mixes in big batches, so I can quickly put a new batch together with one scoop of spices and some oil and vinegar. Another cool thing...this dressing doesn't need to be refrigerated, so it's great to take to picnics etc. This recipe yeilds over a cup of mix.

1. Mix together in a jar...it makes a little over a cup.
2. Optional: Dump spices into the blender, and blend to a powdered mix.
3. This makes the flavors 'meld' faster when you mix it.

1. One quarter cup each of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar.
2. One teaspoon each of Dijon style mustard and lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of your spice mix.
   Shake shake shake.

1. just follow the lines on the bottle like so-
2. fill to vinegar line use half balsamic and half red wine vinegar
3. fill to water line
4. add 1 t. of lemon juice
5. fill to oil line with olive oil.
   Shake, shake, shake!
6. If you plan on taking it to a picnic, you can marinate the olives, onions, tomatoes and feta in the dressing overnight, and then add it to the greens at the last minute. Yum!

1. In a glass jar ¾ cup water and ¼ t. gluccomannan powder...shaking lightly over the surface while blending for no lumps.
2. Add one quarter cup each of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar.
3. Next, add one teaspoon each of Dijon style mustard and lemon juice, and only 2 teaspoons of your spice mix. Leaving out the oil really brings out the spiciness.
   Shake shake shake.
   Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.

gwens nest recipes

Original article and pictures take gwens-nest.com site