Turkey & Brussels Sprouts

So lately Frank has been home for dinner! What a concept... It's actually exciting for two reasons.
1. I love seeing my husband more
2. I have someone to try out my cooking experiments!

I don't know about you, but Pinterest has recently become my main source for delicious recipes to try. Sometimes they work out...sometimes they don't. Sometimes I can salvage the mistakes, and sometimes I have to just let go and make pasta instead.

Tonight...I made:

Garlic Parmesan Turkey Meatballs & Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Barley

Here are the Pinterest links:

Source: cookieandkate.com via Brittany on Pinterest

Source: thegraciouspantry.com via Brittany on Pinterest

To start, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then, I mixed:

1 pound ground turkey

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

10 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp pepper 

1/2 tsp sea salt

into a medium sized mixing bowl. 

Then, I formed them into golf-ball sized meatballs and arranged them on a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper and put them into the oven for about 30 minutes (the recipe says 30-40 minutes). 

While they were cooking, I began to work on the brussels sprouts. First, I cut off the ends and pulled off any browned leaves and coated the brussels sprouts with:

1 tbsp olive oil

sprinkled with sea salt

Then, I heated a large pan and placed the brussels sprouts flat end down for about 2 minutes, until browned.

This is where I messed up a bit. The recipe calls for a iron cast skillet, which I don't have...so I used a regular frying pan. Well...things got a little smokey and my sprouts may have been a little more  brown than I wanted. I immediately took them off the heat and threw them back into my mixing bowl. I decided since I've roasted veggies before in the oven and the meatballs were already in there, I would just throw them into a small cookie sheet with some extra sea salt and put them in the oven until the meatballs were done.

While both my meatballs and sprouts were in the oven, I prepared the barley. I had cooked the barley the night before which I highly recommend only because I'm horrible at multitasking while I cook. All I did was throw some dried cranberries in a bowl with the pre-cooked barley and heat it in the microwave for about a minute.

When the timer went off, I pulled out my meatballs, checked them with a knife and served! 

I poured the brussels sprouts into a serving bowl with the heated barley & cranberries and drizzled the mixture with 1/2 tbsp syrup and 1/2 tbsp balsamic  vinegar. Delish!!

Yummy!! 

What recipes have you tried lately?