Don't forget that the oven is a great way to cook low and slow for tender meats. This batch of meatballs started out as two reduced-priced USDA Choice sirloin steaks. Not the best cuts, but well suited for slow cooking. For less than three bucks, 26 tasty little meatballs made their way into two yummy meals. The Kitchenaid mixer in the Micro kitchen has a meat grinding attachment -- an essential part of any frugal household. The meat was run through twice. In one round, 1/4 of an onion was ground in too. Double grinding helps tenderize cheap meat. The tiny balls were made with the traditional mix of bread crumbs, egg, Parmesan, and Italian spices.
This sheet cooked for a little over an hour and a half at 170 degrees. The parchment paper was set on top of a grate, so that there was heat under the meatballs too. Sirloin is a leaner cut of meat, so there wasn't a reservoir of fat collecting on the sheet. Clean up was quick and easy. Once the meatballs cooled on the rack, they were put out on the back porch to really cool (sub freezing temps makes the back porch a great chilling area). They chilled for about six hours.
There was no time to set up a sauce to slow cook, so the stove-top pressure cooker was put to use for the sauce. Nothing from a jar in this house! One large can of Cento pureed tomato and another of San Marzano, along with half a can of tomato paste was the base for this healthy sauce. In addition to the meatballs, onion and mushroom. It took about an hour to cook.
The base was a mixture of linguine and spiralized carrot. Not shown, was a loaf of crusty bread made with both white and wheat flour.
Carb/gluten avoiders would shun this meal -- but it has a lot of healthy components. Tons of real veggies in the sauce, and along with the carrot in the pasta provide nutrition and fiber. The bread is a good source of fiber too -- it was made with half plain white flour in order to keep it lighter and crustier, then baked with a liberal sprinkle of course sea-salt for flavor. As for the meat, sirloin is a lower fat cut of beef, higher in B vitamins than other sections. Bought at the choice grade and on reduction, it also cost us far less than traditional ground beef -- a far fattier and less flavorful portion of the cow. The meatballs were made with a mixture of panko and whole wheat bread crumbs.
The meal started out with a large salad and finished with fruit crammed jello. We like something sweet after a savory meal like this. In addition to making this dinner, we had a half dozen or so meatballs to put in the freezer for another day.
This was a sensible meal; inexpensive, delicious, and full of real-food goodness. Made with minimally processed ingredients (let's not think about the jello -- it was a convenience), it was 99% made from scratch and typifies the type of meals we like to make and eat in our Microcosm. A post on the lunch from leftovers to follow!
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