My Basic Meatball Recipe and Sweet and Sour Sauce

I have to be honest, I loathe rolling meatballs.  It takes forever and I have to scream at the top of my lungs to get someone to help me turn on the faucet when it’s time to wash my hands.  And don’t think about adjusting the volume on the TV or answering your phone, once you dive in with both hands, you’re committed.  Barring a fire, flood or injured child,  you’re not touching anything until you’re done rolling.   But, the end result is worth the hassle. 

 I like to grate veggies into mine for a couple reasons. #1) kids dig meatballs, even with grated veggies. Tricky right?  #2) Moisture digs veggies. And that means your meatballs with be moist. 

Once you’ve baked these off, the possibilities are endless.  You can make a sweet and sour sauce, as I’ve done in the picture here.  You can add them to marinara for spaghetti and meatballs or make meatball subs.  You can make Swedish meatballs, cheese stuffed meatballs, spicy meatballs, meatball soup, meat kabobs. Ok I’m kidding about that, but how could I let this moment slip by without a Forrest Gump reference?   You get the picture. 

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs ground sirloin (or whatever happens to be on sale)

1 lb ground pork

1 medium zucchini grated

½ medium onion grated

½ bell pepper grated

Pinch crush red pepper

1 package Sazon seasoning

Salt and pepper

1 tbs onion powder

1 tbs garlic powder

1 egg

¼ cup breadcrumbs.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Call your assistant to be ready to help you wash your hands.  Mix all of these ingredients in a bowl until blended, but please don’t over mix your meat.  Form into balls, I usually make them a tad smaller than golf balls.  Place on prepared cookie sheet, lined with foil or parchment paper.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

From here you can add to your favorite sauce**sweet and sour sauce below**, or allow to cool and freeze or refrigerate.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
1/2 bottle grape jelly
1 bottle chili sauce
1 small can crushed pineapple with juice
Sriracha to taste
1-2Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs agave syrup
Salt and pepper


Mix all ingredients in a pan over medium heat.  Add meatballs and allow the heat through.  You can add raw meatballs and above ingredients to a slow cooker to keep warm.
Serve over Jasmine rice and garnish with scallions....mmmmmm!!!!

Curry Rice

This is one of my all time favorite rice dishes.  The aroma of curry may linger in my tiny house a little longer than I prefer but it is completely worth it.  This dish travels well and is wonderful for a potluck.   I still happen to have a bit of this leftover in my fridge and may take a curry rice break. BRB!! 

mmm…just as good as a leftover…mmmmm…

So this rice is extremely easy to make and will easily impress.  Let’s get on with it..shall we? Oh, side note, you’re looking at someone that is not all that fond of raisins, but they really do make this dish.  Don’t leave them out the first time, even if you’re not a fan.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs butter

½ medium onion

1 cup Jasmine Rice

2 tbs yellow curry powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tbs chicken bouillon

1 snack size box raisins

2 ¼ cup boiling water

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter in oven proof saucepan over medium heat.  Add rice and onion and cook until onion is transparent.  Add the salt, curry, chicken bouillon and raisins.  Stir to combine.  Remove from heat and carefully add the boiling water. It will sizzle and splatter so do this with caution.  Stir once and cover.  Place the pan in the oven for about 30 min.  Fluff rice with fork and enjoy!!

Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice

Please excuse any typos or any sentences that might not make sense. The season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy is moments away so I’m rushing to get this out to you because it’s scrumptious!

The inspiration for this recipe came from a dish I had at an Indian restaurant. I don’t think it was called curry chicken but I honestly don’t have a clue what the menu said.  But I do think this recipe is very similar to what I had.  The good news is, since we don’t know the name of the real dish, we can’t really compare it. =)

Ingredients:

8 pieces boneless skinless chicken thighs

¼ cup all purpose flour

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt/pepper

3 tbs oil or enough to cover the bottom of your pan

1 medium yellow onion

¼ cup diced carrots

3 small cloves garlic

2 tbs tomato paste

1/4 cup of wine or chicken stock

3 heaping tbs red curry paste

14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes

1 snack size box raisins

½ cup heavy  whipping cream

Rice

Jasmine rice

½ cup frozen peas

2 bay leaves

Cooking Instructions:

Heat oil in pan on medium heat

Season chicken thighs with garlic, onion powder and salt.  Toss chicken thighs into a Ziploc baggie with flour to coat.  Shake off excess flour and lay chicken in pan.  Be sure to not crowd the chicken or it will steam instead of brown.  Brown the chicken on both sides.  Remove chicken from pan. 

Turn heat down to medium low.  Add onions, garlic and carrots to oil.  Add salt and pepper.  Cook 3-4 min until tender.  Stir tomato paste into onion mixture.  If you’re working with a gas stove, pull pan off head to add the wine. Deglaze the pan by scraping the brown bits from the chicken off the bottom.  Let the wine mixture simmer for about 2 minutes to thicken and deglaze.

Stir the tomatoes and raisins into the wine mixture.  Add chicken back in along with any juices. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes on medium low until chicken is cooked thru and tender.  When about ready to serve, stir in heavy cream.  This is not necessary but does enhance the sauce.

I follow the cooking instructions for the rice but while the water is boiling I like to flavor it with a couple bay leaves and half of an onion.  Before adding the rice pull the onion and bay leaf out.  When the rice has about  4 min left to cook, add frozen peas.

Dish chicken and sauce over rice and enjoy

I made this last night.  Then I got a phone call from my husband letting me know they would be working late.  So here's the picture of what the curry chicken looked like after I packed up every little bit of it and took it to base for the boys to eat.  Hope they enjoyed!!