Swedish Meatball-iscious!

Here's the best recipe for Swedish meatballs I've ever seen and morphed into our own. We served it with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans that were drizzled with some unsweetened butter and fresh lemon juice. The meatball gravy is delish! One of the best things about this recipe is that it's a 2-for. You make half the mixture into meatballs and freeze the other half for next time.

I have made it four times in as many weeks with some alterations, too. You can add some warmed, frozen spinach to the mixture and replace bread crumbs with Panko. You can also use entirely ground beef and prepared garlic. Very forgiving (my kind of recipe) and delish every time!

Start 2 hours before you want to serve.

MEATBALLS:
1.5 lb ground beef
1.5 lb ground turkey
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup diced onion
6 cloves minced garlic
4 tsp Kosher Salt
3 tsp ground pepper
5 TBSP Wondra
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tsp Worshestershire Sauce
Up to 3 cups Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 egg whites

In large skillet over medium heat, cook onion and garlic in EVOO until tender (about 6 minutes). Add salt and pepper, whisk in Wondra and beat til smooth.  Stir in cream and Worchestershire Sauce, mix all. Pour contents into large mixing bowl and set aside to cool. (About 12 minutes). When cool, mix eggs together and add meat and eggs to bowl (use hands). Add in enough bread crumbs to make meat mixture firm but not over-breaded. I use at least 2 3/4 cups.

Form half of the meat mixture into 1 1/2" meat balls. Place them on parchment-lined jelly roll pan about an inch apart. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for one hour. Place the remaining meat in a freezer container and freeze up to 6 weeks for another night.

Bake meatballs in preheated oven at 400 for 35 minutes.  Rotate during last ten minutes. Start your side dishes and gravy.

GRAVY:
Use the same large skillet you did for the onions - great seasoning! Whisk together:
4 TBSP unsalted butter
4 tsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups beef broth
salt
pepper

Bring to simmer, add cooked meatballs and let simmer and thicken for 15 minutes. Stir occaisionally so gravy covers meatballs. Serve with your side dishes, smack yer lips and rub yer belly.

4 Paws from Spot once those onions were done cooking! Why didn't I make this one for 2 years??

Roast Beast

This is my "go to" meal when I want to serve something yummy and more than a casserole. I actually thought I had already posted this, so here goes.

MENU
Roast Beef
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Veggie Choice

INGRED'S
Roast Beef
1/2 cup Newman's Lite Balsamic salad dressing
Kosher Salt
Ground Pepper
Refrigerator Basil
Red Potatoes
@ 1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 32-oz carton of low sodium beef broth
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 stick unsalted butter
Wondra
Kitchen Bouquet

Either a day ahead of time or at least 3 hours before cooking: salt, pepper and basil your roast. Place it in a Ziploc with the Lite Balsamic and refrigerate. Rotate/shake as you think about it.

Preheat oven to 350. 30 minutes before you want to cook it (and it will take 1.5 hours at least), put roast on counter to sit at room temp. Place beef in roast pan, lower oven temp to 325 and bake for 1 hour. When timer rings, take temp and continue to cook until meat is at 150 for rare or 160 for medium.

When the 1 hour timer rings, bring large pot of water to boil. When water is a rolling boil, add desired amount of red potatoes, halved. Bring to boil and cook til tender, about 20 minutes but check at 15. You don't want soggy potos. It's okay if they are done earlier than the meat, just drain and mash with enough buttermilk to your desired consistency, then cover.

The gravy takes about 15 minutes. Place the cubes of beef bouillon and the stick of butter in a large skillet on medium. Cook til butter is melted. Bring to boil. Whisk in Wondra, 1 TBSP at a time, til butter is absorbed. (About 2-3 TBSP) Boil about 1 minute, then slowly whisk in the beef broth. Add some pepper, some salt, and some Kitchen Bouquet if you'd like the gravy more brown. Bring to boil again for 60 seconds, then simmer until everything else is ready.

We use a version of this gravy with all kinds of menus. If chicken, the cubes and broth are...chicken! Wondra is our gravy friend. You could also add drippings from what you're cooking to the gravy. Just promise you won't use canned gravy anymore.

Leftovers? Try this! Slice chilled Roast Beast on a wooden platter with Tuscan bread, Brie Cheese (or Cream Cheese) and make mini sandwiches. Throw in a sliced cucumber or sprouts. Serve with Tomato Soup.

Spot was not near the kitchen tonight, so NO PAWS. :( She was busy plotting ways to meet the neighbors by pacing underneath a window. Go figure.

Prep Once and Cook Twice Mini Meat Loaves

Spending about an hour in the kitchen (or more, depending on how big or small you make this) is well worth your time. Today I morphed this recipe to share with a family from church plus my own. Not only did this one make enough for two families of four (mine includes two teenage sons*), it also yielded enough to make 30 meatballs to freeze for a second menu option! They will come in handy in a week when it's our turn to cook for our small group.

I really like this menu because there are some hidden vegetables that just add to the taste: invisible cauliflower hiding inside the mashed potatoes giving a tiny extra crunch and the truck load of spinach mixed in with the personal meat loaves. Yum! My fam needs to eat more veggies and this recipe makes it happen.

The other cool thing is that this recipe is just full of low fat healthy ingredients! Hubba-bubba, next time I cook it's gonna be really f a t t e n i n g!

(* Son's best bud is over so much, he's our tax deduction)


MENU 1:
Mini Meat Loaf, Cauli-Mashed Potatoes, Secret Gravy

MENU 2:
Mini Meat Loaf or Meat Balls!

Prep Time: 45+ Min.
Cook Times: 35 min. Meat Loaves, 18 min. potatoes, 12 min gravy
Serves 8-10 both times


INGREDIENTS:
Parchment Paper
1½ lbs. extra lean ground beef
½ lbs. lean ground turkey
2 bags Pepperidge Farms Bread Stuffing
2 boxes frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 eggs
1 large red onion, diced (or 3 small)
4 twigs fresh Rosemary, chopped
1½ lbs. red potatoes
½ head cauliflower, steamed and broken into florets)
¼ to ½ cup buttermilk
1 stick unsalted butter
Wondra (3-4 TBSP)
1 carton low sodium Beef Broth (32 oz.)
3 Beef bouillon cubes
Kosher Salt
Ground Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil


MINI LOAVES:
In large skillet, sauté onions in Extra Virgin Olive Oil til soft. Stir in defrosted, drained spinach. Using a giant bowl, add salt, pepper and Rosemary, add meats one package at a time. Combine well, then add skillet contents and eggs. Mix with hands: After these ingredients are well-combined, slowly add enough bread crumbs to hold the mixture together. With this amount of meat, it took me two bags. Do not overdo the bread, you still want the loaves moist.

Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Firmly form mini loaves the size of a large baked potato. Make 10 loaves and place them on the paper, evenly spaced. Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 35-40 min. til browned. (The rest of the mixture can be made into meatballs or more loaves and frozen.)

CAULI-MASHED POTOS:
(I multi-task and do some of this while sautéing.) In large pot over slow boiling water in a steaming basket, steam cauliflower florets covered, about 10 min or til tender. Remove cauliflower and set aside, add more water and bring to boil. Add rinsed, halved red potatoes with skin on and bring to boil again. Boil for 12 minutes or til fork test shows tender. Do not over cook. Drain potatoes. Using same pot, return cauli and potos, salt and pepper to taste. With potato masher, slowly add as much buttermilk as it takes to mash potatoes to your desired density. We like them stiff, so we don’t use much milk. Recover in pot til time to serve.

SECRET GRAVY:
Use the same skillet that you sautéed in and did not rinse. Melt the stick of butter. (I set this on the stove while the loaves are cooking and the butter is almost melted by the time I get to the gravy.) Add 3 Beef Bouillon cubes. One TBSP at a time, slowly whisk in enough Wondra to thicken the mixture until it is almost, but not quite the texture of sand. Break apart the cubes as they warm in the pan. Heat til bubbly, stirring constantly – about 3 minutes. Slowly stir in the beef broth until well mixed and bring to boil, adding salt and pepper. Reduce to simmer until thickened. Keep warm til serving, stirring often.


COOKING ORDER:
• Steam Cauliflower while prepping meat loaves
• Meat loaves in and cooking 35 minutes
• Boil potato water
• Mash potatoes, cover
• Start gravy when 10 minutes left on loaves cooking time


MENU #2 MEATBALLS:
Thaw in fridge overnight. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment and bake at 375 for 25-35 minutes, til hot but not over cooked. Serve with more Cauli Mashed Potos and gravy… or as tidbits on toothpicks with a cheese platter when your friends come over.

Although this is super yummy, Spot gives this two paws only because she was hanging out with her brothers while I cooked