Wednesday, October 12, 2011

BBQ Meatballs aka. Sweet & Sour Meatballs

These are a delicious variation on the sweet and sour meatball theme. They taste a bit more on the bbq side than the pineapple version of sweet and sour. My family LOVES these over brown rice!
**Pictures to come**


1 to 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
3/4 C. rolled oats
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 C. finely chopped onion
1/2 C. milk
1 tsp. salt
few grains pepper
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Form into about 12 meatballs, each about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. Place in a casserole dish. Cover with sauce below and bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings, 2 meatballs each.

Sauce
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. vinegar
1 tsp. prepared mustard (I like dijon)
1/4 C. barbeque sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and ingredients are well blended.

Serve over rice! We like our meatballs extra saucy, so I usually make a double batch of meatballs (fits perfectly in a 9x13 pan) and make a triple batch of sauce! Enough for left overs! Yummy!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Swiss Apple Sandwich

These sandwiches are very quick/easy to make, and husband-approved. By at least one guy.

But they really are delicious and light and super fast to make. They would be great with sliced turkey or ham, too.

Swiss Apple Sandwich


Ingredients:
Swiss cheese (sliced)
1 apple (sliced)
1 c broccoli slaw
1 tbsp poppy seed dressing
Yummy bread (I used toasted french)

1. Mix together the poppy seed dressing and the broccoli slaw.
2. Assemble sandwiches. I like to go bread, swiss slices, slaw and then apples slices and the other piece of bread.
3. Enjoy!

Makes about 4-5 sandwiches.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Ginger Garlic Stir Fry

Hey all, I wanted to share a recipe that is my go-to for stir fry. It is seriously so easy, fresh and DELICIOUS. Even Chris loves it, and he's no stir fry fan. The secret is my special sauce that I use (eyebrow wiggle and wink).

I love this recipe because it's a good way to use up leftover veggies. I'll usually do this towards the end of the week, when I might have half a cabbage or a lone red pepper leftover. It's filling and satisfying and perty cheap!

Ingredients:

1 c sliced veggies/serving; onions and carrots are always a MUST, and then I like to add broccoli, peppers, cabbage as I have them. If I'm feeling lazy, I sometimes use a frozen stir fry veggie mix.
1/2 c of protein; I usually use tofu, but beef or chicken would be great
1 cup cooked rice/serving
1 recipe of the sauce found below
1 T cooking oil

Ahem. So what I usually do is prepare the sauce below, then I'll marinate my tofu in the sauce. Tofu holds flavors wonderfully. Then I'll throw about a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and cook it until it's nice and crispy on all sides. If you use tofu, save the marinade; with raw meat, this might be unsafe, so you may have to make more sauce.

Then, I'll remove my tofu from the pan and start cooking the veggies in the same pan (you can use 2 separate pans so you could cook your protein/veggies at the same time), adding a little oil if needed. When they are getting close to how I like them I will throw in the sauce I used to marinate the tofu and let the veggies soak it up a little, for about 3 minutes. Then I pull it off the heat. To eat I usually pull a cup of rice and then top it with the veggies/tofu. Delicious, healthy, and fast.

Sauce:
It's mind blowing how easy this sauce is to make—and how good it turns out. And I like to use it because I know what's in it, unlike Bragg's or other bottled teriyaki sauces that can have preservatives or high fructose corn syrup in them (yuck).

1/4 c soy sauce
1 c water
2 cloves garlic, minced (more if you like garlic)
1 tbl minced fresh ginger
1 t sugar (optional)
1 tbl corn starch

Mix the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and sugar together in a small bowl, reserving a 1/4 water. Mix the water with the corn starch until it is dissolved, and pour into sauce. Easy peasy :)!