A Savory Side (Recipe Pics & Review)

I've been giving you recipes for main dishes, like the Honey Pecan Chicken, Tilapia, and Chicken Eggplant Casserole.  I've given you some good recipes for sweet treats like Strawberry Dream Mousse and Diet Soda Cake.  Now I thought I should give you a recipe for a side dish.  One of my family's favorite vegetables is broccoli.  We have it a lot, just steamed, no butter or salt or anything.  I got them used to eating it plain and they like it that way.  Sometimes, though, a little cheese and seasoning is a nice switch.

I got this recipe from one that I pinned on Pinterest.  I am not real good with Pinterest yet, and I don't know who the original recipe was from.  But the pin is on my Healthy Cooking board if you want to figure it out.  (To find me on Pinterest, hover over the black bar on the right and look for the Where to Find Me tab.  My links are on there.)

The ingredients are:

16 oz fresh or frozen broccoli, steamed and chopped
1 C Italian seasoned bread crumbs
3 Eggs
1 C shredded colby/jack or cheddar cheese (the original recipe calls for 1/2 C, but I don't think that's enough cheese for that much broccoli)

Preheat oven to 375F

Put everything into a bowl and mix it up.  I tried mixing it with a whisk (definitely didn't work) and a spatula (not good either), and it came down to just getting my hands dirty and mixing it up the best I could.

Then the original recipe says to line a pan with parchment, but I didn't have any of that.  I used aluminum foil with pan spray on it.  Now, mine did stick to the foil a bit, so if you have it try the parchment, or maybe even waxed paper.

Anyhoo, make some patties...it was a little difficult because the mixture kept sticking to my hands when I tried to "pat the patty" (hehe)  So I ended up just putting a small mound on the pan and then shaping it from there.  There will be enough mixture to make 8 patties of a fair size...a little bigger than a golf ball maybe.

Bake for 15 minutes, turn patties over and then continue to bake for another 10 minutes.  I served 2 patties per person.

I made a pork chop dinner tonight.  Whenever I have pork chops it seems that all my target numbers for calories, saturated fats, proteins, etc. all fall in line.  I don't know what it is about pork.  I think maybe because it fills me up well enough that I don't feel like snacking at all.  I also made mashed potatoes and gravy.  One serving of pork chops is about 4 oz, mashed potatoes are 1/3 C and gravy is 1/4 C.  I used Walmart brand instant potatoes and Walmart brand Mushroom Gravy packet.

For just the broccoli patties, the nutritional information for 2 patties (of 8 total) is:  118 calories, 3.8g fat, .9g saturated fat, 73mg cholesterol, 248.8mg sodium, 228mg potassium, 2.48g fiber and 6.6g protein. (3 Points Plus)

If you'd like to have this entire dinner, the nutritional info (including pork flavored shake & bake) with the serving sizes I mentioned is:  577 calories, 8.6g fat, 4.9g saturated fat, 157mg cholesterol, 754mg sodium, 1005mg potassium, 42g carb, 4.5g fiber and 41.6g protein. (10 Points Plus for whole dinner)

Now, what did my family of taste testers think of the broccoli patties?  They were a success!  Everyone liked them and ate them up just fine.  To me, they seemed a little dry, but that could be from a couple different things.  1) I was in a super hurry and didn't have time to really mix the ingredients well, so the eggs and cheese weren't evenly spread throughout the broccoli.  and 2) the directions say to cook at 375F.  I cooked mine at 400F because that's what my pork chops were cooking at.  I could have turned down the heat on the chops and cooked those 5 minutes longer, but the way I did it the broccoli patties somehow got a little dry.  But that didn't take away from the flavor.  And, I don't know about you, but when I've got a plate of potatoes, meat, gravy and vegetables, everything goes in on a bite, so the gravy moistened up the broccoli perfectly.

My family and I do recommend trying this recipe.  It was a nice switch up from the plain steamed broccoli we normally have.  I hope you enjoy it!  Leave a comment here or drop me a line at happyfairylove@live.com.

Merry Meals,
Lisa
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