Recipe of the Month: Whatever Balls

We've been slacking on the blog updates lately, but I just got back from Austria so I'll have lots of pictures to post soon. In a new Wasatch and Beyond feature that will hopefully last until June, I present to you Recipe of the Month!

Jake's Whatever Balls

Step 1: Assemble your ingredients

-About a pound of some type of animal. I use venison, elk, or kangaroo.

-Package of greek yogurt (PRO TIP: Use the plain kind. Do not use the kind with fruit mixed in).

-Variety of vegetables. I use onion, peppers, and either spinach or kale. In an ideal world, you dice up a bunch of fresh ones. That's what I typically do. In this example, I was short on time so I just used some frozen veggies. You'll want to create a roughly 2:1 or 7:4 ratio of meat to vegetables.

-A handful of oats. In this example, I took some of Andrea's oatmeal which also had chopped pecans mixed in. Whatever!

-Random seasonings. Whatever you like.

Step 2: Mix everything in a bowl

Step 3: Make the balls

-Everytime I do this, I end up with 11 whatever balls. Never a dozen. It ALWAYS comes out to 11.

Step 4: Bake

-I can't tell you exactly how long to bake them for. In this example, I pre-heated the oven to 375, put the balls in, and then went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. When I got home, 43:45 had passed and they seemed done.

Step 5: Eat

Breakfast of Champions

[The following post was written by Andrea]

Jake and I love a hot breakfast. Back in the winter/spring, we would make sure to have sausage and eggs every weekend because we never had enough time to make it in the mornings during the week. Weekday breakfasts used to be whatever we could find at work - yogurt, a cheese stick, granola bar, etc. With both of us doing most of our mileage in the mornings, this breakfast was insufficient in terms of recovery and feeling satisfied. I personally would end up starving by 10am and eat a ton of unnecessary carb snacks.

So, we decided to make a breakfast casserole that we could reheat at work and have every day of the week. We looked around for recipes online, but nothing seemed quite what we were looking for. After experimenting, Jake and I have now created what we believe is a great meal. We make it every Sunday night, and take 5 servings each with us to work during for the week (it easily makes 10 nice servings). What is amazing is how much it fills us up with less than 200 calories! It's filled with vegetables, protein (20 grams per serving!), and tastes delicious. There has been a big difference in our recovery and energy levels.

I would highly recommend trying our casserole. Here's the basic ingredients, although its great to add/substitute other ingredients (vegetables & meats) as you wish:

10 oz Diced Peppers

12 oz Diced Onions

12 oz Chopped Broccoli (or spinach) 

16 oz Cottage Cheese (fat free)

10 oz Rol-Tel Tomatoes (1 can)

16 oz Ground Turkey 

24 oz Fake Eggs

(Extra taco seasoning and salsa as desired)
Update (10/4): In all honesty it tastes a lot better when you use real breakfast sausage, like Jimmy Dean,  instead of ground turkey. That adds a little bit of fat to the breakdown below, but those calories are well worth it in terms of flavor!
Update (2/28/12): Jake has been adding a bag of chopped spinach to the casserole. Good for extra ruffage and iron!

Steam the vegetables first, then make sure you drain off all the excess water (squeeze it out... this is important or it will come out too runny). Cook the meat in a frying pan. Drain the Rol-Tel can (again, to prevent it from being runny). Then mix the veggies & meat in a 9x13" casserole dish (make sure you spray it with Pam) w/ the cottage cheese and fake eggs. Bake at 375 degrees for 60-70 minutes.

The nutritional breakdown:

1685 calories (~170 cals / serving)
207 grams of protein (~20 g / serving)
36 grams of fat (~3.5 g / serving)

The finished product!...