Level 1 - Day 42

My Sexy Forever Mother

I don't know if the Sexy Forever recipes are starting to grow on my mom, or if she's just appeasing me ... but she ate asparagus and leeks today!  And, even more shocking, she ate turkey meatballs.

While I was mixing the turkey meatball mixture, she wrinkled her nose at me and said, "You know I don't do ground turkey ... couldn't you use ground meat while I'm here?"  That kind of shocked me because I wasn't expecting her to eat the soup in the first place because of the asparagus and leeks.  But, she said she'd give it a try.

The first thought that came into my head was, "who is this lady ... and what did you do with my mother?"

Breakfast - Fruit; then after 20 minutes I ate puffed wheat cereal and non-fat milk.

AM Snack - Slice of cheese.

Lunch - Leftover taco salad from yesterday.

PM Snack - Philadelphia roll-ups.  These are so easy, and very delicious because I love genoa salami.  All you do is spread a little cream cheese on the genoa slice, then place sliced red pepper and cucumber in the center, and roll.  Even my finicky mother had a couple.

Dinner - Chicken Meatball Asparagus Soup (from SS web site).  First, I have to mention that I'm not a fan of ground chicken because it's dry, so I substituted it for ground turkey.  Plus, to give the meatballs a little more flavor I added 1/2 cup chopped onions since I was already chopping some for the broth.

I also made 6 servings, as the recipe yields 4 servings.  You know I like leftovers for lunch.  Plus, soup is so easy to reheat the next day ... and always tastes better, too.

Basically, you saute chopped onions in EVOO for 7-10 minutes.  Then add thinly sliced leeks and asparagus; then saute for another 5 minutes.  Add chicken broth.  Bring to a boil; then simmer for 15 minutes.  I let it simmer longer; 40 minutes.

Then, fry up the turkey meatballs in olive oil until browned on all sides.  Then, plop into the soup.  The little bit of olive oil left on the meatballs gave the soup a velvety texture.  It was simply delicious. 

And, shock of all shocks ... my mother ate the whole bowl and commented several times at how tasty the veggies and stock were ... but felt the meatballs were bland ... but ate them anyway.  While the addition of the onions helped, I think I'd add some chicken spices to the meat mixture the next time because it needed a little more punch.