Recipe of the Week (April 3-9, 2011): Bacony-Cheesy Chicken Meatballs

In the world of creative foods, there has to be located, somewhere in the deep recesses of the history books, a place reserved especially for the freakishly weird concoctions. There is where you will find my Bacony-Cheesy Chicken Meatballs. While they are not the most aesthetically pleasing morsels in the world, they are indeed tasty.

One day, faced with the type of boredom that tends to attack the ungainfully unemployed (after having been unceremoniously laid off from my job of four and a half years), I found myself wandering aimlessly around my kitchen in a stupor. What to cook . . . what to cook?

After rummaging around in my refrigerator, freezer and cupboards and pulling out ingredients that I imagined would work well together, I managed to compose a melange of flavors that did, indeed, blend together in a symphony of culinary triumph. Well, at least I thought they did. The end result was the Bacony-Cheesy Chicken Meatballs.

Enjoy

* * * * * * * * * * *

1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 lb. ground chicken
10 ozs. frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
8 slices of turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 ozs. Basil and tomato crumbled feta
1 Tbsp. grill seasoning (recommended: McCormick Montreal Seasoning)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine onions and minced garlic. Squeeze the water out of the spinach until completely dry. Mix together chicken, spinach, bacon, feta and grill seasoning to the bowl, along with a liberal drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. DON’T OVERMIX. Form mixture into balls. Place the meatballs on a nonstick cookie sheet and bake 15 to 18 minutes until they are golden or until juices run clear.