Mediterranean Meatballs & *Special* Hummus

I'm in a cooking kind of mood! Today, I tried a Mediterranean meal.

To start, a green salad with tomatoes, olive oil, salt & pepper. Is that Mediterranean? I don't even know:

Now this next dish, I can't take credit for this delicious twist on hummus. I know I read it somewhere, but I cannot recall exactly where as I have so many cookbooks and magazines on the go right now! In one of my books, it suggested topping your hummus with some chopped kalamata olives and feta before putting it in the oven for 30 minutes. I didn't get pita bread so we spread this on normal bread (Udi's gluten free for me!) and used it as a vegetable dip for an appetizer:

I found a great Gluten Free cookbook at the library called "More From The Gluten-Free Gourmet" which is written by Bette Hagman.  There are lots of breads in this book which I'm not quite ready to tackle but there were quite a few main dishes as well. That is where I found this recipe for meatballs:

 Mediterranean Meatballs
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
1/3cup grated onion (If you actually grate an onion, be sure to wear eye protection!)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2tbsp chopped raisins
1tbsp chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)
1tbsp minced fresh parsley
dash pepper
salt, to taste
1/2tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp allspice
1/4tsp nutmeg
1 1/2tbsp margerine, melted (We only had the real deal.. butter)
1 to 2tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil & only enough to stop the balls from sticking)

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium mixing bowl, knead together all the ingredients, except the oil until well mixed and smooth. With wet hands, form the mixture into 1-inch balls.
In a frying pan, heat part of the oil. Fry about a third of the balls at a time on medium heat, shaking the pan to keep the balls rounded and brown on all sides. Cook until brown all over. Drain on paper towl and then put in a 2qt casserole. Brown the remaining turkey balls in batches, using more oil if necessary.
When all the meatballs are browned, bake the casserole for 30 minutes to complete cooking. If you prefer, refrigerate the casserole to pull out and finish cooking just before serving. Good both hot and cold.

Oh I forgot to mention, it wasn't just Jason and I for dinner tonight. Someone finally figured out how she could be with us at dinner time WITHOUT sitting on the table and getting sprayed with water:

MY REVIEW: Great meal! The meatballs had a very unique flavor... I was hesitant on the raisins but found that I really enjoyed the sweet flavor and all the spices worked nicely together. They were a little time intensive to make but the house is clean and it's about -40 outside, so what else am I going to do? If I were to make these again, I would attempt to make some sort of sauce to accompany them. Jason suggest a chutney (grape was his thought) would compliment them well and I think that's a damn good idea.

JASON'S REVIEW: The spices and texture was perfect. I really enjoyed this meal. I enjoyed it so much, I organized the dish towels.