It’s Wednesday. Should I do a weekend recap? Or is this past weekend old news? But if I don’t talk about the weekend, then I don’t really have anything to talk about. Or any pictures to show. Yeah I should just talk about the weekend.
WAIT DID I TYPE THAT OUT LOUD?
Weekend recap it is!
On Saturday my friend and I took Mac to the new outlet mall. I will keep bragging about him being the happiest li’l shopper ever. Though now that he’s older, he’s learned how to grab onto things as we’re cruising along. So if you happen to buy that cute clearance gray sweater at the Eagan LOFT store with one sleeve really stretched out, go ahead and blame my kid.
Later we drove an hour out to my parents’ cabin. Lots of boating.
Fact: being on a boat makes reading a girly magazine 99% more enjoyable than reading it on land.
Made some zoodle tofu stir fry for dinner.
Then on Monday I tried something new. Something cah-razy. Something that falls under the category of church cookbook redos.
Stuffed peppers are great- I mean, they’re kind of time consuming but tasty. I didn’t feel like doing all the boiling of the peppers and all the stuffing of the rice and all the cramming in the pan. I decided to make them in meatball form, and it not only saved time, but it was just as good.
Stuffed Pepper Meatballs
-2 large bell peppers or 3 medium (your choice as to what colors), finely diced
-1 large sweet onion, finely diced
-2 cups low sodium chicken broth
-2 cups instant brown rice (dry)
-2 lb lean ground beef (93% or 96% if you can find it)
-2 eggs
-1 teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika
-1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
-1/4 chili powder (I used my ancho chili powder)
-1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
-Dash of seasoned salt
-2 cans fire roasted tomato sauce
-1 large can crushed tomatoes
-Few shakes of oregano, garlic powder (or minced garlic), onion powder, pepper, salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat both a 9x13 and 8x8 glass baking dish with olive oil cooking spray.
1. In a medium saucepan, get that broth boiling over medium high heat. Add rice, peppers, and onions. Cover and turn heat to low. Cook until all the liquid has absorbed, stirring occasionally.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine beef and rice mixture. Add eggs (don’t add eggs directly on top of hot rice otherwise the eggs will start to cook!) and seasonings. I find it really just works best to use your hands to get the meat mixture all squishy and combined.
3. Form meatballs with your hands, making them about 2”. Mine were slightly bigger than golf balls if you need that super scientific point of reference.
4. In another bowl, combine crushed tomatoes with fire roasted tomatoes. Add a few shakes of the seasonings, or really whatever seasonings you want.
5. Pour tomato sauce over meatballs. Spread it out a bit. It’s ok that not all the meatballs will be totally covered.
6. Bake uncovered for 30-45 minutes, or until internal temp registers at least 165 degrees. Baking time varies according to how big you’ve made your meatballs. I had a total of 24 meatballs, and those took a full 45 minutes.
7. Serve meatballs with a scoop of tomato sauce. I like having the combo of the smooth crushed tomato sauce plus the chunky fire roasted ones. I topped with a teeny sprinkle of some leftover quesadilla cheese I had on hand. Yum-may.
I served these with a side of broccoli and a slice of 45 calorie whole grain bread. These will freeze really well, and obviously it makes a large batch. You could easily halve this recipe. Per meatball: 100 calories, 9 grams carbs, 3 grams fat, 9 grams protein
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