Meatball lovers - here's 5 recipes for your mealplan!

For me, meatballs are always a winner.  Kids love helping you roll them up, and will generally eat them if they've had a hand in making them.  You can experiment with flavours and tastes and even types of meat (Ok, maybe not horse as Ikea recently found out) but it's a great way to jazz up plain old mince of any kind.

I always find something comforting about meatballs, probably because they are one of my Mum's specialties and I guess my girls do too - because there are never objections to meatballs at our house!


1. Hungarian Meatballs
These are a beef/pork mince combination and are quickly prepared and then sent off to simmer in your slow cooker.  You can fast track these on the stove if you like too.

2.  Spicy Tagine Meatballs
These are made from beef mince (but you could use lamb) you can add extra yoghurt and have less paprika if you want less spice.  I love these and they are going on my meal plan this month for sure!  If you don't have a tagine, just a pot with a snug lid in fine!

3.  Smokey oven baked meatballs
So easy to prepare and pop in the oven - ready in an hour go-to-whoah!  I made mine with beef but I think you could use chicken or turkey mince too - I've made them with pork mince with spectacular results.

4.  Moroccan Turkey Meatballs
I never get tired of this one, my kids love it too, it's so flavourful and moist - which are two things that turkey isn't used to being called!  You can try this with lamb or beef mince too!

5.  Swedish Meatballs
If you are a fan of the Ikea Meatballs - leave those ones behind, these are BETTER.  Back me up those who have tried them!  They literally melt in your mouth so I would suggest making a double batch, because if you don't you will have only yourself to blame because I warned you!

So which one do you like the look of?  Have you tried any of these?  Let me know what you think!

Put it on the Meal Plan: Saucy Slow Cooked Beef Stroganoff

This is a firm family favourite, I can't believe I haven't blogged it before.. not until I was doing my meal plan and linking all the recipes I was going to use I realised I didn't have it... only a 30 minute version which is alright, but I prefer this one.

We all like our sauce in this family too and there is often requests for second helpings of pasta with 'just the sauce'.  So over time this has become more saucy to accommodate.  I've also noted in the recipe how you would make it in the slow cooker or in the oven (which I did in this case).

Ingredients:

1 kg blade steak, cubed

2 tb plain flour

1 tsp paprika

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 brown onion, roughly chopped

1/2 cup red wine

400g tin diced tomatoes

3 cups beef stock

2 tb tomato paste

2/3 cup sour cream

1.5 cups mushrooms, sliced

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees or if using a slow cooker, omit.

In a plastic bag mix your beef flour and paprika, shake to combine.

Have your onions and garlic on standby and heat an heavy based pot/casserole pot/saucepan or your slowcooker insert on the stove with a tablespoon of oil.

Add the onions to the pan when it gets hot and heat until onions become soft and translucent.  Add the meat and brown.

Then add the wine, tomatoes and only 2 cups of the beef stock, stir well.

Lastly add the tomato paste.. it should look like this:

Pop the lid on (or transfer to oven proof dish with a lid or foil) or transfer to your slow cooker.  Cook for 2 - 3 hours (set your slowcooker on high, or slowcook it on low for 5 hours)

When it comes out it should look like this, if it's a bit dry - don't worry.

Add your sour cream and mix through.

Then add your mushrooms.

 Add the remaining 1 cup of stock now.  Add a bit more if you like.

At this point you can put it back on the hob or in the slowcooker on high with the lid on.  Make your pasta

Then serve on pasta (or rice if you like!)  The beef will be melty-in-the-mouthy.  And that slow cooking would have made the sauce lovely and rich.

Add it to the meal plan or bookmark for your next one :)

Slowcooker pork loin with instant apple sauce!

When I was feeling poorly last week - the last thing I could face was anything that was going to take me more than 15 minutes to prepare.  I had very distinct short bursts of energy  - so slowcooker came to my rescue with a pork baked dinner that I didn't need to baste every half hour.

Because really with pork you do have the tendency for it to go dry very quickly and the best pork there out there is the pork that's moist without tasting fatty.  Throwing this in the slowcooker delivers that and then crisp it up in the oven for a shorter period gives you the caramelisation you love.

Putting your potatoes and apples and onions underneath your pork also gives it a gorgeous sweet taste and those potatoes and onions get lovely and caramelised too - not to be missed - and your apples become the build in apple-sauce.. I mean how can you lose?

Ingredients:

6 red rascal (or any other hard potato) cut in half

1 large brown onion, cut in quarters

2 large pink lady apple, cut in quarters

1 kg pork loin  - if it is stringed or netted, remove

2 sprigs parsley

1 tb dijon mustard

1 tb brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Method:

Cut up all your onion, potato and apples..

Scatter them somewhat evenly on the bottom of your slow cooker

Make your rub by mixing together mustard, garlic, roughly chopped parsley and brown sugar.

Place your pork loin on top of your potatoes, onion and apples, then rub the mixture over the top.  Put the lid on and put it on low heat for 3-4 hours or high for 2 1/2 hours.

If your slowcooker insert is oven proof and actually fits in your oven (Can't wait to move to our new house, bigger oven!) transfer dish to the oven

If not, take out your pork loin and then transfer your veges to an ovenproof dish and then place the pork loin on top.

Turn the oven up to 160 degrees (no lid) for 2 1/2 hours.

The crackling will caramelise as will your potato and onion and make a gorgeous apple gravy in the bottom of your tray  - win!

Looks gorgeous right? Leave to rest for about 10 minutes before carving.

Make yourself some greens and dinner is ready!  The pork will need to sliced thick, it falls apart so easily!

Slowcooker braised lamb chopped with whipped chive potatoes

Hands up who needs one of those recipe that takes minutes to prepare and you can serve it up and feel like you made an effort?  Ok, put your hands down friends because this is one such recipe.  It's one of those recipes you keep for a rainy day - real or figuratively speaking.  Braises to me remind me of my Nan, she's the queen of the braise and I think there's no better accompaniment to braised lamb than mashed potatoes.

It doesn't get any easier than this!  You can double or triple this recipe, it will always turn out - you may need to account for an extra hour cooking time if you do..

Braised lamb chops

Ingredients:

Lamb chops (I used 8 lamb loin)

2-3 large cloves garlic, thinly slice

1 small brown onion, peeled and finely sliced

2 sprigs thyme, chopped

2 sprigs oregano, chopped

2 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped

Method:

Put half your onion on the bottom of the slowcooker.  Place chops on top.

Sprinkle rest of ingredients on top.  Place lid on slowcooker and place on low for 8 hours or medium for 4-5 hours.

Look at this!  

You also have the option of once you remove all the chops from the slowcooker put 1 tb cornflour diluted in 2 tsp of the stock left behind and then turn up your cooker or move to a hob (if your slowcooker base will do this) and heat for 5-15 minutes until you have a thick-ish gravy.  Easy!

Now for the potatoes, once cooked whip with your mixer... for about 1 minute on a medium speed will do it.

For every kg of boiled potatoes add 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup milk and 1tb (25g) of butter, plus a pinch of salt.  With some scissors, cut/chop about 3-4 sprigs and throw into the bowl with the potato.  Whip again until well combined.

Serve with some steamed greens - that looks (and tastes) like you went to a lot of effort, but you didn't! Put your feet up and let someone else do the dishes..!

Or doesn't that happen at your place?

Slowcooker BBQ pork - 3 ingredients!

A busy Mama just doesn't have time sometimes to lovingly cook a meal for an hour or more - sometimes it's got to be quick and dirty.  This is one-such-recipe.  Bung it in, throw a couple of things in and walk away.   It taste absolutely delicious and leftovers for lunch on bread rolls (or even hot on buttered roll...drool!).


Ingredients
1 boneless pork shoulder (mine was 1.2kg)
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup brown sugar


Method:
Put your pork shoulder in the slow cooker, pour over the Worcestershire sauce over the top and then pack the brown sugar on top.

Place on high for first hour, remove cover and baste, then turn down the slowcooker to low for a further 3-4 hours.

Serve and dribble sauce over the top, it will literally fall apart and melt in your mouth!  I serve this with leftover lazy-as-sin potatoes!

Lazy-as-sin slowcooker scalloped potatoes

Man I love my slowcooker.  This past couple of weeks I've been a bit obsessed with it.  I finally too my own advice and got the Breville flavour maker slowcooker (I've been telling everyone else to buy for near on two years).  What I love about it is how you can use the inner on the stove and transfer to the oven afterwards if you like too.  Brilliant.

This one I chucked together Friday afternoon in less than 10 minutes and served with my homemade swedish meatballs.   I even had leftovers for Sunday's dinner too!


Ingredients:
1kg new potatoes, sliced (I left skin on)
1 brown onion, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tin cream of anything soup (I used celery but mushroom, chicken, asparagus anything would be good!)
1/4 cup lite sour cream
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup tasty cheese (optional)


Method:
Place potatoes, onion and garlic in your slow cooker.

Roughly mix your soup, sour cream and milk in a jug and pour over the top.

Put lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5. For the last 30 minutes sprinkle over the cheese...

Crisp up until the grill for 10 minutes if you like!

RECIPE: Shortcut slow cooker tuna pasta casserole !

Hello!

As you might have guessed I've been rather time-poor recently.  My big project I've been working on has gone live - but before that one ended, I've started another 2 phases of the project and preparing another!  It's caaarazy.   So these days on the rare days I do get to cook I find myself wanting to spend time with the frills and basically, sleeping!

This one's super cheaty.  It's not something you'd want to eat every day but it's a firm favourite with kids and I love it for the comfort-food factor.  The added bonus is it only has a few ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to prepare.  And there's leftovers - feeds us two meals!  And the biggest bonus for me is my biggest Frill Miss Eloise can make it with me.

Ingredients

1 tin cream of mushroom soup

300mls cream or evaporated milk

2 large tins of tuna, with brine (don't drain)

2 cups uncooked macaroni

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn (you can use whatever you like, mixed veges if you like!)

3 shallots or spring onions, chopped

1 cup shredded/grated cheese

1 tsp ground pepper

Method:

One by one  add all the ingredients to your slowcooker...albeit the cheese.

Remember if you want to use evaporated milk instead of cream, that's a lower fat option..

Eloise loves to cook with Mummy.  I miss my frills!

If you're in a bit of a hurry, pre-cook your macaroni for 5 minutes - this will cut down the cooking time in the slow cooker to 1 hour on high.

I love white and black pepper, but you can add other herbs like parsley or chives also if you like!

Cook on low for 5 hours or medium-high for 3 hours.  About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the cheese.

Delicious!  And so simple, great for a lazy or busy day!