Friday Feast! Moroccan Meatballs - Bulk Cooking

Moroccan Meatball Stew
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita

I thought I would start a new feature on my blog for us busy Moms and everyone else I know. Every Friday I am going to (try to) post a recipie that I like to make for my little family. Sometimes it will be plain old good food, other times it will be something you can cook in bulk and freeze for those crazier days, sometimes they are one pan meals (seriously who needs to drown in dishes too?); and once in a while it will be something that is super good that you can make on the cheap-cheap (gawd I love a bargin, even in the kitchen)!!!!!!! Or today, it fits all the categories! I will tag it under Friday feast for now, that way you can always hit that tag and see all the related posts.

Todays Recipie is something you can batch cook the main ingredient (which I totally suggest because any other way is a pain for this) and can be turned into two different meals for the family!


Basic Recipie - Moroccan Meatballs

1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp crushed dried chillies
2 lbs lean ground beef
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup currants (little raisins)
1 large egg
2/3 cup fine bread crumbs
salt and pepper to tast.

Combine all ingredients, (and I actually prebake the meatbals in the oven so it cuts down on cooking times later on) make meatballs and freeze. For 2 of us I freeze 16 - 18 meatballs in each ziploc bag and this makes a decent batch of food leaving enough for leftovers for ManToy to take to work.

Make some Tomato, Meatball and Rice Stew

Thaw a portion of the meatballs and cook (or warm up in a pan of you precook like I do)

1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cup beef broth
1 28 ounce time of diced tomatoes - use juice and all!
1/2 cup long grain rice (no instant Uncle Bens crap here girls!)
1 Tbsp liquid honey
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Optional but tastey: 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint

Saute onion in small amount of oil until it is soft. Add beef broth and tomatoes (with all the juice in the can) to the onions and bring to a boil. Add rice, honey salt and pepper. Cook , covered for about 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Add the meatballs back ito the pan, add lemon juice (and optional mint) and stir well. Cook for 3 minutes until evenly hot. Serve.

Make some Moroccan Meatball Pitas or Wraps

I like to put the meatballis into a wrap with some sauteed peppers and onion, topped off with a little plain yoghurt. Makes a tastey lunch or a fast dinner!

The Nitty Gritty
I managed to score 10 lbs of lean ground beef for 10$ at a local grocery store on a super good special. With a bargin like this dinner worked out to about 4$ a night (including the rice, tomatoes, lemons and currants needed) and I could make about 16 dinners worth of meatballs for the freezer fom that 10$ of beef. Each batch I made fed the two adults and the baby (take the currants out for the little ones teeth) and leftovers for someone to take to work the next day.

P.S. Don't mind the photo, my presentation sucks since my 22 pound Sous Chef (LittleMan) was hanging off my leg the whole time.