Grilled Turkey Meatballs and Cabbage

We're in the middle of a late August heat wave where I live. This past week has gone from humid and sticky with a little rain to hair dryer-esque, where the heat just blast you in the face relentlessly at all hours. High temperatures really throw a kink in my Sundays, as I rely fairly heavily on my oven for premaking a week of meals and can't in good conscience turn the damn thing on when it's over a hundred degrees out. I do, however, have a big ol' gas grill at my dad's place across the street, and a grill's sort of like an oven, right? Like a hot box with a thermometer on the front? Tomatoes and potatoes, I guess.

Grilling is a perfect way to keep my house cool while getting in some low-effort cooking. I don't like fussy foods when I'm making large quantities, so I stick to dishes I know are set and forget, ones that can handle a few minutes of overcooking, if necessary. It's Sunday, I've had a few beers, time tends to wiggle a little as it passes on days like this, so it's easy to get distracted.

This afternoon I grilled up a week's worth of lunches for eating at the office. Eating out everyday is unhealthy and expensive, plus there's always been a slight allure to the idea of making your own food, packing your own lunch. It's silly, but it's mildly exciting for me. This week, I made cheesy turkey meatballs and cabbage. I'm tightening up on my low-carb eating, so I'll be making a lot of wads of cheesy meat. They're versatile enough to allow for experimentation with flavor combinations, and are always simple, savory and satisfying.

This meal, like all of my meals, started as an idle thought, as I am ever thinking of cooking. Thought gives way to desire, to plan and finally purchase on Saturday, my day for meal planning and grocery shopping. Sundays I cook it all, Saturdays I just plan out my meals and grocery list, get it from the store to my fridge and leave it at that. I'll get this urge to cook a bunch, but curb it, as it's real easy to get overwhelmed all of a sudden if you do too much in a single afternoon. Shop on Saturday, cook on Sunday. It's a method that really works for me.

I used a pack of ground turkey and mashed it up with an egg, some panko, and some leftover herb goat cheese and cream cheese vegetable spread that was laying around in my fridge, and a bunch of shredded Parmesan. Not the shakey kind, but that'll do, as will cream cheese or any cheese you've got on hand. Like I said, meat wads are extremely versatile! I seasoned them with a bunch of stuff, salt and pepper, rosemary, majoram, thyme, basil, parsley, minced onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, sage, and oregano.

I foiled and oiled a long baking pan and put wads of the meaty mix on it, five to a row. I got like 30 on this long pan I have. Then stick the pan in your grill at 400ish for 20m and you're good to go. Cabbage was insanely easy (as cabbage is known to be): chop the cabbage, separate the leaves, put in a bowl with chopped garlic and onion and shake with oil, salt, pepper, paprika and minced onion. Pour into baking pans (I used round cake pans and a lidded casserole dish) and foil/lid and bake until limp, 30m or so.

I also cut up some bacon and stuck it in the grill for an easy protein breakfast. I fork whisk two eggs in a big ceramic ramekin I have, add a bit of salt and a bunch of pepper and nuke it for a minute or so, until it's not runny anymore, then toss in some cooked bacon and cheddar. Easy as eggs.

So for a little prep work and some idle patience, I have five lunches and enough bacon for breakfast all week. Cheap, tasty, and healthy. Subway and sushi can suck it!

(But not sushi, I'm gonna go there every time I get paid, because $13 for all you can eat is a freaking deal and eel sushi with wasabi and ginger and a couple bowls of miso and a sneaky sapporo makes me very happy.)