Fooding

 

Have you ever gotten into your head that you just had to have a particular food? It’s not so much of a craving, as just I really, really want to have this. I got that last weekend. I absolutely had to have sweet and sour meatballs – and I just so happened to have some ground beef in my freezer (from when my daughter absolutely had to have beef – that was her body telling her she needed iron, and we always listen to our bodies in my house).

So, I went searching for sweet and sour meatball recipes. My husband got in on it to, because he liked the idea. He insisted that we go with the chili sauce/grape jelly version even though I thought it sounded absolutely disgusting – really? Grape jelly? Ew!

But I started to make it – reading all of the fantastic comments on allrecipes.com as I did so. They gave me some terrific ideas of how to make the recipe better, so I picked and chose from them and this is what I came up with.

I have to tell you this sauce is so good, after we’d eaten all of the meatballs out of it, I kept the sauce to use with some chicken breast later.

 

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

For the meatballs:

1 lb 80% (or higher) less fat ground beef

¼ cup matzah meal

1 egg

1 small onion chopped fine

OR

1 package cooked frozen meatballs

 

For the sauce:

1 jar chili sauce

1 jar grape jelly

1 can jellied cranberry sauce

1 tsp (or more to taste) sriracha (asian chili sauce – it’s hot!)

½ Green pepper cut into bite-size pieces

Pineapple juice and pineapple chunks

2 tsp corn starch as needed to thicken sauce

Instructions:

  1. Chop the onion up into super small bits, mix with the rest of the ingredients for the meatballs.
  2. Fry the meatballs, pouring off any fat
  3. Let them rest (and lose more oil) on paper towels
  4. In a sauce pan, pour in all of the sauce ingredients except for the pineapple juice and fruit chunks
  5. Break up the big pieces of jelly (both grape and cranberry) to make a smooth sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes as you fry the meatballs.
  6. Add in the green pepper and about ¼ of the can of pineapple juice and ½ of the fruit chunks.
  7. Feel free to add in any additional veggies (carrots, peas, whatever, sneak those babies in there!)
  8. Add the meatballs into the sauce and let them simmer for 30-40 minutes.
  9. Serve on a bed of rice or egg noodles. Delicious!

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9 comments

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  1. Alix Rickloff

    February 16, 2012 at 8:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Reply

    Merry,
    Congrats on getting the fooding blog up and running. And thanks for the recipe! I can see I’ll be stopping here often when I’m stuck in my what-to-make-for-dinner rut.

  2. Gail Barrett

    February 16, 2012 at 8:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Reply

    I love the sign! I wonder which dictionary they used?

    1. Merry

      February 16, 2012 at 9:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

      Reply

      They probably came up with it off the top of their heads — I mean, it does make sense. If you call a place where you can lodge, lodging, why not a place where you get food, fooding? :-)

      1. Gail Barrett

        February 16, 2012 at 9:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

        Reply

        We have an old mah jong sent my parents bought in China about 30 years ago. The instructions are in English…sort of. We have spent many perplexing hours trying to decipher them.

        1. Merry

          February 16, 2012 at 10:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

          Reply

          Chinese translations are the worst! And sometimes very funny. But that’s one good thing about India, most people speak at least some English (or a version of it, anyway).

  3. Linda

    May 4, 2012 at 9:02 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Reply

    Great recipes. Hubby and I try to eat vegetarian at least 2-3 days a week, and naturally center on healthy foods. As a result, my youngest son Nick is now hooked on Indian food. I’m making a Mexican black bean & chicken caserole tonight for dinner, but really must try each of your recipes on the family. They look scrumptious … and I’m really into lentils, which are very tasty. :)

  4. Elise Hayes

    May 31, 2012 at 9:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Reply

    Mmm…kebabs! The recipe looks yummy, I always grill, and I’m tired of my regular chicken grilling recipes. I’m going to try it. Thanks, Merry!

    1. Merry

      May 31, 2012 at 10:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

      Reply

      No problem! Tell me how they work out. :-)

  5. Kim MacCarron

    August 26, 2012 at 8:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Reply

    I can’t wait to try the chicken and cinnamon with spices recipe! It looks so good! Thanks for posting these great recipes!

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