Meatballs

Meatballs

This recipe is so easy and tasty you will never buy pre made meatballs again. They can be kept for a week in the refrigerator and up to a year in the freezer.

Put any amount of ground beef in a bowl to make the meatballs. I used 3 pounds because I will separate the beef to cover a few meals. If I am going to cook one meal I will usually cook 2 or 3 other things at the same time. This saves me time during the week of preparing other dinners.

Next I add everything from veggies to seasoning. I put in mine a bag of onion soup mix, some garlic, ½ cup per pound of any mixture of diced onion, green and yellow pepper, a jalapeno, some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix these ingredients well with your hands yes I said your hands. Take off your bling and get your fingers in there and mix everything up good. It can be very liberating. Just remember to wash your hands good before you touch anything else.

At this point I made 4 hamburger patties and wrapped them until later in the week and I fried up a little less than a pound for another meal that week.

With the remainder of ground beef I added 2 eggs and some type of crumbs. I took Friday nights toasted baguettes and put them in the oven to toast them even more. When they were done I put them in my food processor to make my own bread crumbs. You can use crackers, chips, pretzels, oatmeal or whatever you have in the cupboard. Just grind them up into small crumbs.

I then will roll my meatballs. They can be as big or small you would like. Unless I am making cocktail meatballs I will make them big. Cook them on 350 degrees for 10 minutes then I will flip them or they will burn and cook for another 10 or 15 minutes or until the internal temperature is 160 or above. If they are small meatballs they may not take as long to cook. Keep an eye on them to not overcook them.

I feel a meat thermometer is a must because you don’t want to over or under cook you meat products.

You can make as many as you want for future meals because they freeze really well. If you freeze them put them on a plate or baking sheet in freezer until they are frozen then put them in a freezer bag. That way they won’t stick together and you can just use one or two meatballs at a time. They are good 6 months to a 1 year.

Some will stay in the refrigerator after being cooked until Spaghetti night then I will just add them to some sauce. That recipe is to follow. Don't forget the infamous meatball sub.


Enjoy

Beef Cabbage Stew

This is a wonderful pot of Beef Cabbage Stew that can be very low in calories and fat if you want it to be or you can add some protein and make it heartier. It is up to you and I will give you variations that can make that happen.

Beef Cabbage Stew

I started this beef cabbage stew with a huge soup pot. I put in the bottom a few cans of diced tomatoes, any flavor you want. I added the tomatoes with green chilies variety for spicey hot.

I then added green pepper, onion, celery, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, green beans, and some tomato purée. You can omit or add any other veggies you would like. I let this cook for a while until all the veggies were cooked.

I added some lean ground beef and more sauce if needed. I didn't want mine to be soupy but it needs to have enough liquid to cook veggies. You can add some rice if you want or beans would be great too at this point. If you want to keep the carbs low just omit the rice. It works well just with the veggies and cabbage.

I added some sausage so my husband would not feel like he was eating diet food.

When that was hot though I added about ¼ of a head of cabbage chopped. I added that and cooked covered for another 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

I uncovered the beef cabbage stew and let some liquid evaporate if it is too watery. It should not be like soup but the consistency of stew. It works great for lunch the next day.  The beef cabbage stew is a wonderful way to get vitamins and can be very low in calories.

Cool and server.

Enjoy



Health properties of Cabbage

Hamburger

This hamburger recipe is so easy and tasty you will never buy pre made hamburgers again. These hamburgers can be kept for a week in the refrigerator and up to a year in the freezer.

Put any amount of ground beef in a bowl to make the hamburger patties. I used 3 pounds of beef because I will separate the beef to cover a few meals. If I am going to cook one meal I will usually cook 2 or 3 other things at the same time. This saves me time during the week of preparing other dinners.

Next I add everything from veggies to seasoning. I put in mine a bag of onion soup mix, some garlic, ½ cup per pound of any mixture of diced onion, green and yellow pepper, a jalapeno, some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix these ingredients well with your hands yes I said your hands. Take off your bling and get your fingers in there and mix everything up good. It can be very liberating. Just remember to wash your hands good before you touch anything else.

At this point I made 4 hamburger patties for the grill and rolled the remainder into meatballs.

I then put the hamburgers on the grill and cooked until they were 170 degrees internally.


 

 

We dress our hamburgers with tomato, peppers, onions and lettuce. Sauces we use are mustard, mayo and ketchup but you can use anything you want. This is the best hamburger recipe.




 Enjoy this BBQ Season.



Some Gourmet Burger Recipes

Smoked Beef Roast

We picked up an electric smoker a year ago for free and have been enjoying the taste of smoked meat and poultry.  We decided to smoke a beef roast and it turned out wonderful.

 

 Smoked Beef Roast

 

 

We started with a seasoning rub and coated it really well.  Your rub can be of any ingredients you want or you can use a store bought mixture.   You can create one by combining garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper, cumin, Italian seasoning, and any hot pepper powder you would like.  All of the ingredients can be used or omit the ones you don’t like.

 

Rub the meat with the seasoning and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or overnight if you have the time.  Let it rest out on the counter for about 10 minutes before you put it on the smoker. 

 

 

Always soak the smoking chips over night before you use them.
 

Smoke the beef roast and keep on low (250-300) for 3-5 hours or until it is 160 degrees internally.  

You can achieve the same effect on the gril if you keep it on low and use favored chips in a tin can filled with water.  Be sure to keep filling the water in the tin can of chips as the roast cooks and it evaporates.  The chips could start on fire if you let the water run out of the tin can.

 

Take the beef roast off the smoker and let it rest for about 10 minutes.   The smoked beef roast can then be sliced up for sandwiches.  You can use any kind of sauce and topping on this sandwich.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will post a recipe with the leftover smoked beef roast.

 

 

Enjoy