"These are good chicken balls, honey."

I resolved to make three "real meals" a week for 2010. I am loosely defining "real meals" as meals that are not frozen pizza, Lean Pockets, or sandwiches. With leftovers, hubby traveling, ordering in at least one weekend night, and our convenience food fallbacks, three meals should cover us pretty well and improve the quality of our lives.

I put on my Meppie Homemaker hat and chose three recipes on Sunday and then shopped for the appropriate ingredients on Monday.

Of the two recipes tried so far, my record is 1-1.

We'll start with the loss so get it out of the way. I decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Cauliflower Soup. If you don't know, Ree the Pioneer Woman is a blogging legend. Visit her blog and all of your senses will be enticed. She breaks down her recipes step by step with photographs and is an amazing photographer (who takes pictures of way more than food). I challenge you to read through one of her recipes and not be drooling or licking your monitor by the end.

I am not blaming Ree, but even though I thought I followed the directions, my attempt at Cauliflower Soup did not work out as it should have. The flavor was lovely, really, but my white sauce did not thicken immediately as I was promised it would so the whole thing was more watery than creamy. I threw a little shredded cheese in to attempt to thicken it all up, but I was hesitant to add too much extra cheese to a recipe that already included butter, whole milk, half and half, and sour cream. I'll eat the leftovers, but I am pretty bummed at how it all turned out and am still trying to shake it off.

I imagine you all are thinking what hubby was thinking, which was, "You expected Cauliflower Soup to be really good?!" I did, in fact, expect that.

What will help me get over tonight's less-than-stellar effort is sharing the recipe for the my big fat (but not fattening) success of last night: Buffalo Chicken Meatballs. I found the recipe in the February issue of Woman's Day magazine. I would link to the recipe, but it's not posted yet (a bunch of other recipes are on the magazine's website though). I'm going to post the recipe and hope Woman's Day does not mind (and will mention that I really enjoy the magazine and find many helpful tips and thoughtful pieces in it).

The recipe's creator, Terry Grieco Kenny, came up with the idea in an attempt to capture the buffalo flavor for a Super Bowl snack that does not have as much fat as the skin on regular buffalo chicken wings. Here the recipe with my notes/commentary in italics:

Heat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick foil (I used my silpat). In a bowl, mix 1 lb. ground chicken, 1 cup fresh bread crumbs, 1/3 cup sliced scallions, 1 tsp each smoked paprika and minced garlic (I did actually splurge for a $6.99 jar of smoked paprika because I hear RR touting it all the time), and 1/2 tsp salt. Roll into 32 balls (I only ended up with 24 balls); place on pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes (I baked 14 because I am paranoid) until browned and cooked through. Remove from oven and drizzle meatballs with hot pepper sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce); toss to coat. (I then placed the meatballs in mini crock pot to keep warm until dinner time). Serve on toothpicks (we used forks) to dip into reduced-fat blue cheese dressing (I used Marie's brand). Be sure to include healthy raw vegetable dippers (I did as instructed and served carrots and celery with the meatballs).

My verdict is that the meatballs were easy as anything to put together and quite delicious. I think I've mentioned on this blog before that a quote like "These are good chicken balls, honey" is on par with "You should open a restaurant that serves these chicken balls." Anytime a meal cracks "fine," I am feeling pretty pleased with the results. The only hard part is the ickiness of mixing and rolling raw ground chicken with your (oft-washed) hands.

The third recipe on the docket for this week is Easy Chicken and Dumplings from January's Southern Living. Follow the link if you're interested, but I doubt I'll bore you with another food post this week.

What are you cooking up these days? I always love to hear what people are eating.