Pioneer Woman's Meatballs

We bought ground beef this week with the intent of making Hamburger Helper when we had no time. Instead, we decided to make meatballs. They took two hours to prepare!! We served them with store-bought mashed potatoes but in hindsight a green vegetable or salad would have been a nice addition.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

3/4 cup quick oats

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons very finely minced onion (about a quarter cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

4 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Sauce:

1 cup ketchup

4 to 6 tablespoons minced onion

3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Dash of hot sauce, such as Tapatio

1.Combine all ingredients through black pepper in a large bowl and stir together with spoon or hands.

2. Roll meatballs into Tablespoon sized balls (try to get them all even) and place on a tray. Refrigerate for 45 minutes

3. Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a pitcher

5. Heat canola oil in a large frying pan. Dredge meatballs in flour. Fry in the pan the meatballs until lightly browned. Do batches if you need them.

6. Place the meatballs in a rectangular baking dish. Drizzle sauce over the top. Then, bake until bubbly about 45 minutes.

These were good and we have more for another day! Ours were a little too wet because we only had a pound of beef and failed to reduce the amount of liquid. But, they still worked! 

Italian Shepherd's Pie

This recipe is from a new cookbook I got and has been a big hit -- easy to make and it is very fun to serve in little individual casserole dishes (these are ones that Kath gave me). I think I am using a little more meat and you can decide if you really want to make it into less than six servings. And, the tomato paste in a tube rather than opening a can helps.

Italian Shepherd’s Pie

PREP: 30 MINUTES BAKE: 25 MINUTES STAND: 15 MINUTES OVEN: 375°F

¾ cup shredded pizza cheese or Italian cheese blend (3 ounces)

2 cups mashed potatoes or refrigerated mashed potatoes -- it takes about a lb of potatoes if you make them yourself

8 ounces lean ground beef

4 ounces bulk sweet Italian sausage

½ cup chopped onion 2 cups sliced zucchini or yellow summer squash

1 14 ½ -ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained

½ of a 6-ounce can (1/3 cup) tomato paste

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Paprika (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Stir 1/2 cup cheese into potatoes; set mixture aside.
2. In a large skillet combine ground beef, sausage, and onion; cook until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir zucchini, undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, and pepper into meat mixture in skillet. Bring to boiling.
3. Divide meat mixture among six 10-ounce individual casserole dishes or ramekins. Spoon mashed potato mixture into mounds on top of hot meat mixture in dishes. Sprinkle with remaining quarter cup cheese. If desired, sprinkle with paprika.
4. Place dishes in a l5 x 10 x l-inch baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Source: diabetic LIVING Cookbook

Albondigas Soup

Joey and I got the cooking bug the other day and decided to cook for the remainder of the week. I suggested that I make Beef Vegetable soup in the crockpot. He countered with a plea for Albondigas Soup - which is a Mexican meatball soup.

Never having made this before, I scoured the internet for recipes. I finally settled on this one.The soup promised to be spicy and flavorful--and it also promised to be way too much food for two.

Generally, when a recipe is too much, I cut it down--but in this case, since it was so new to me, I didn't want to mess it up. We invited some people over--but they declined last minute, so, with all the ingredients I moved forward making the whole thing. Thank goodness it was good!

I recommend taking the serving suggestions in the recipe, none of which I followed. It would also be delicious with corn muffins (Jiffy is the only way). I made a few changes to the recipe which I will list here, but I recommend just going to the link above for the details.

Changes:
I used 8 cups of beef broth and it was plenty.
I used more than 1/4 cup of cilantro in both broth and meatballs because I despise trying to measure herbs.
I chopped the garlic, onion and cilantro in the mini-chopper that came with my hand blender--I highly recommend doing it this way!
I omitted the rice completely. (didn't miss it)
I put two 14.5 ounce cans of Rotel tomatoes in because the size was unclear
I only cooked it for an hour total because the meatballs cooked faster than I anticipated.
I could taste the hot Italian Sausage a lot in the meatballs, I recommend using something flavorful but not AS overpoweringly flavorful.
I used 6 carrots and thought more would have been nice. Adding a bell pepper or two might have also added something--probably the rice did this for the recipe creator.

I'll be eating this soup for at least a week, so come on over and have a bowl.

First Hard Freeze

Fall's first hard freeze in our area of north central Indiana means that all remaining vegetables must be harvested and stored. Cheese sandwiches (usually sharp cheddar on wheat bread) with home grown tomatoes on top, broiled until the cheese is bubbly and the tomatoes hot and soft, are only a memory now.

The abundance of eggplant and zucchini in this year's garden

caused me to search past recipes for inspiration. My sister-in-law Gail's recipe filled the bill.

Gail's Greek Vegetable Skillet Serves 4

1 lb. ground beef

2 med. onions, thinly sliced

2 med. cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lb. muchrooms, sliced

3 med. tomatoes, cut in wedges

1 small eggplant, cubed or sliced depending on type

2 med. zucchini , cut in 1/4 in. slices

1 med. green pepper, chopped ,

1 T. salt, more or less

1 t. oregano, fresh or dried

1 c. cooked rice

1/4 c. chopped parsley

Brown meat, then onions, garlic, mushrooms and cook until tender. Add tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, green pepper, salt and oregano. Cover and simmer 25 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in rice. Cover and cook 5-10 minutes more. Sprinkle with parsley.

Delicious!

Meatballs

This is one of those recipes that I make when I need an easy fast dinner. However, it is a recipe that Jake always loves (and Julia too see below:). I never measure anything out when I make these & they always taste good. Sometimes I will throw different spices in if I am in the mood...you can adjust to your likeness. This recipe always make a lot a meatballs & we always have leftovers to make Meatball sandwiches in the sandwich maker with a piece of mozzarella cheese inside.

Click to enlarge: