Arms and Abs + Teriyaki Meatballs

Did you miss me yesterday today? I chose sleep over blogging, but I certainly missed it and actually felt guilty. Luckily, I'm back with a great recipe and upper body workout for you today.

Last night, Terry and I had a double date with Terry's coworker and his wife. They just bought a house, so we offered to provide the main dish as a very small housewarming thing. Terry requested my meatball pasta, but I was in the mood for something new. So I took the meatball idea and ran with it.

Tropical Teriyaki Meatballs

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 3 links of hot Italian pork sausage, casings removed
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• ¾ cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the rice:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ onion, roughly chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 ½ cups diced pineapple
• ¼ cup teriyaki sauce
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

For the meatballs:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Roll turkey mixture into 1-inch balls and add to the pan, careful not _­­to overcrowd. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, browning the meatballs on all sides. (Note: You’ll likely need to cook the meatballs in two batches.)

Transfer the browned meatballs to a foil-lined, greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through (cut open and make sure there’s no more pink!). Place the cooked meatballs in a heatproof bowl or baking dish. Pour the teriyaki sauce over the meatballs and allow them to marinade for as long as you can (overnight, perhaps!).

For the rice:

Heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic powder, and ginger; cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly tender, about 7 minutes. Add the pineapple and teriyaki sauce and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Add the brown rice immediately before serving.  

Serve the meatballs and rice together (reheat the meatballs in the oven or microwave before serving).




We all really loved the meal! Our friends served a delicious, refreshing salad as well as lemon cake. Everything tasted delicious! The highlight of the evening was getting to visit with their adorable one-year-old baby, who loves to smile at my husband and wave! 

Today, I got to come home immediately after work. Coaching cheer is a blast a lot of the time, but it consumes almost every Friday night from September through February. So when I got home at 4:00 today I got my weekend chores out of the way and completed the following workout with Terry.

We  rested as little as possible between exercises (maybe 10-15 seconds), and our arms especially were burning! The we had to complete a 4-mile run for our half marathon training plan. The first mile felt tough, the second and third went really well, and the last was grueling. But we did it!

Tonight's dinner at Wahoo's gave us a break from the kitchen and rewarded us for a good week and a tough workout. Now Terry's off for one more scuba dive tomorrow, and I'll be implementing some major updates and reorganization on BLWB tomorrow. Get excited!

Hope you had a great week! Enjoy the weekend!