Michelle's Craft: Chicken Balls with Couscous Salad

Hello Blog World,

As you know I am on a healthy lifestyle challenge, trying to change my health, life and shape one day at a time. It’s going ok so far.

One recipe I have been making for a while now which is lovely and light especially as the weather warms up here in Australia is Chicken Balls with Couscous Salad. It’s a bit higher in calories and fat than a normal garden salad but it still falls into a very acceptable level in my opinion of a healthy low fat, low calorie meal weighing in at 365 calories per serve with approx 9.6 grams of fat. Therefore, I will be sharing this recipe with you today.

Firstly gather your beautiful fresh ingredients

Mix them up

Ok I know, it doesn’t look too appetising yet. Once it’s all mixed form into balls, i make mine about 1 - 1/2” round. I don’t like them too big.

Then cook them in non stick pan, with a little bit of spray cooking oil.

While they are cooking prepare the couscous salad, and serve these babies on top of that and I also add a dollop or 2 of my low fat tzatziki.

Close up

Full Recipe & Directions for Chicken balls and Couscous Salad

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Ingredients

1 slice stale bread, torn into chunks
250g chicken mince
2 green onions (shallots), finely chopped
¼ cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil (I use spray oil and only 1 tablespoon for the couscous)
lemon wedges, to serve (optional, I don’t really like lemon wedges so I omit this)
Couscous salad:
1 cup (250ml) boiling water
1 cup (200g) couscous
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lebanese cucumber, quartered lengthways, sliced
2 green onions (shallots), finely sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted

Preparation method

Place bread in a small bowl and cover with water. Set aside to soak for 5 minutes, then drain and squeeze dry. Place in a large bowl with chicken mince, chopped green onion, half of coriander and egg. Mix thoroughly and season. Using wet hands, shape into about 16 small balls.

Heat half of oil in a large frying pan on medium. Cook meatballs in batches for 5-7 minutes, tossing frequently, until browned and cooked through. Set aside.

To make couscous salad:
Combine boiling water and remaining oil in a bowl. Stir in couscous, cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Fluff up with a fork to separate grains. Toss through remaining salad ingredients and remaining coriander.

See pretty simple, yummy and healthy. While the recipe itself does not give you the nutritional value there is a fabulous website out there I have found called Spark Recipes. You don’t have to join to view or print recipes, but it is free and there is a recipe calculator, where you just add all your ingredients, enter the amount of servings and it calculates the nutritional value for you. You can even add your own ingredients if you can’t find what you are looking for!

So I have used this calculator and the nutritional value for this meal (and I realise it’s only approximate but it shouldn’t be too far off ) is