I've had a really crazy week, it's a wonder I am able to blog! Thursday night I like to cook in, so I need to always remember to post something.I bought some ORGANIC (yay, I finally found organic meat here!) ground beef at Albertson's.* It's been sitting in the fridge since Sunday just waiting to be let out of it's plastic wrapping. I had the idea of just breaking it up and sauteeing it with some onions, but meatballs seemed like a better idea. I can make a whole bunch, stick them in the fridge and just snag them for some protein whenever I need.
Also, this week I signed up to give away one of my meals to the homeless. Biola has this Brown-Bag Ministry where students can sign up and give away 1 or 2 of their meals at specific times. This means that the food gets bagged up and given away to the homeless in Long Beach, and depending what meal time you chose, you cannot go to the cafe for Wednesday lunch or Thursday dinner (I chose Thursday dinner). I wanted to do this last semester, but missed it at the beginning when they were featuring sign-ups. I find that always don't use 1 or 2 meals per week, and why not give them away to a good cause?
Because I am in college, my cooking kind of evolves with anything that I have in my food drawer (yes I have a whole drawer dedicated to food) or on my shelf, or in the 3.8 cubit feet mini refridgerator I have in my room. This is not your typical meatball recipe, but I think I did pretty good for having limited access to ingredients.
Cayenne Meatballs
makes over a dozen meatballs
1 Tbsp organic coconut oil (Spectrum)
1 lb organic ground beef
6 Tbsp organic oat bran (Bob's Red Mill)
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large egg
1 tbsp ketchup (Organic Annie's)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
To make the meatballs:
1. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Form with into little balls of desired size with your hands (mine were about 1.5 inch in diameter).
3. Place onto a medium heat skillet with melted coconut oil. Cook for a few minutes until brown on one side, then roll over, and repeat.
I thought they were good, but not great. The cayenne gave it a kick I love, but they desperately needed some onions. I would have preferred bread crumbs over oat bran, but I have to work with what I had.
-Two days later- I had 2 meatballs for lunch today with some cayenne peppered white quinoa, ketchup and crumbled feta, with orange pepper slices on the side. It was so good! The meatballs I warmed up in the microwave for about a minute and a half, and I thought they were MUCH better the second time around! I shouldn't have been so critical. Add onions and these will be spectacular! Meatballs anyone?
Drew from Cook Like Your Grandmother is having a giveaway! Be sure to check out his awesome site and maybe you'll want to enter for a a chance to win. Look out! Some of his recipes are deadly, both in taste and in calories. I can't wait to try out his Frozen Chocolate Truffle/Mousse Pie, though I will definitely alter it a bit to make it GF as well as healthy!
2 comments:
The meatballs look so yummy! It's so neat you bought the meat organic on a student budget. I try to whenever I can, but that's not often enough! Where do you find oat bran?
Thanks Lauren! It was a splurge, but actually wasn't too bad. I justified it because you can make a whole batch of meatballs, then stick them in the fridge. If you only eat one or two at a time then that's several meals down the road! They can also easily be frozen too :)
I find oat bran at Whole Foods or a local health food store. I have been recently buying lots of things online (easy to get GF things this way), so I will probably try there when my supply runs out. I love vitacost.com for all my GF needs including food and personal care products, but they only carry the non-organic oat bran. Organic oats are a must, so I would search elsewhere.
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