Warm up with a bowl of Hearty Meatball Stew!

 Today I am grateful for...

SOUP!

If you were to ask me 

what my favorite meal is, it would definitely be some kind of soup, 

served with some kind of homemade bread or bread sticks. 

 

I can honestly say that I never tire of soup!
Those bowls of comfort and nourishment, 

those pots of soup, that you put whatever veggies/meat that you have in your fridge, you simmer them together and they taste absolutely delicious!  

 Kimmie + a bowl of soup = HAPPINESS!!

 

While most of the soups I make up are really brothy  this is definitely a HEARTY soup to warm you up and give you energy during the fall and winter months.  

My favorite thing about this soup is the variety of veggies in it, 

with my favorite being SWEET POTATOES. 

You wouldn't think that a soup with sweet potatoes in it would be so good, 

but it is and is definitely in our family's top 5 favorite soup recipes.

I have always made my meatballs with ground beef, 

but, I had some excess chicken breasts and so I decided to try grinding them up and made chicken meatballs for one batch of soup.  

Both the beef AND chicken 

 were hits with my family and it's nice to have a meat grinder so that when you get low on ground beef you can grind up chicken breasts instead to add to your recipe.

Meatball Stew with Winter Vegetables
2 medium potatoes diced
2 large carrots diced
1 large onion finely chopped
1 to 2 Tbsp beef Bouillon granules
1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. pepper
(seasoned meatballs…recipe below)
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup flour
---In a Dutch oven or large pot bring 6 cups of water to boiling. Add in potatoes, carrots, onions, bouillon granules, oregano and basil and pepper. Return to boiling….reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
---Meanwhile, prepare seasoned meatballs. Add in sweet potatoes and celery to hot broth mixture. Add uncooked meatballs a few at a time to the hot broth mixture. Return to boiling and reduce heat and simmer for 15 more minutes, or until veggies are tender and meatballs are fully cooked.
---Stir in frozen peas
---Stir together, ½ cup water with 1/3 cup flour (until it is not lumpy) and stir this into soup…cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Enjoy!

SEASONED MEATBALLS
In a bowl mix
1 pound ground beef (OR ground turkey or chicken)
1 beaten egg,
½ cup dry bread crumbs,
1 tsp minced dried onion,
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce,
¼ tsp garlic powder, dash of pepper.
Mix all ingredients well and shape into one-inch balls

Enjoy taking your abundance of veggies 

and making up a hearty pot of soup today!

I hope it becomes a favorite with your family, like it has with ours.

Beans bring Sunshine!

Okay, so, hopefully after today I won't lose any followers (BIG WINK!)

Anyone who know me,
knows that I am an adventurous spirit
and I love to venture out and try new things.

One of the biggest fascinations I have had is thinking back to simpler times and how our forefathers survived and cooked without many of the modern conveniences that most of us can't live without.

I'm grateful I have a husband who is 100% supportive of my adventurous endeavors and most of the time he is coming up with adventurous things for us to try as well.

Even though most of the time I appreciate all of the modern conveniences in my life, I do enjoy honing my primitive skills as well...thus the reason for my post today.

Tracy got an interesting gift from his parents
for his birthday last year. They got him an antique (made circa 1920) keystone meat grinder. They purchased it at the old Graff Mercantile in Hurricane, Utah while visiting relatives there.

This may surprise some of you but ground meat hasn't always been available conveniently wrapped on a styro-foam tray at the grocery store . We've had fun watching old reruns of Little House on the Prairie lately. Who knows, maybe the real Caroline Ingalls had a keystone grinder like ours...purchased from none other than the Oleson's Mercantile!
******************************

At Christmas time we got a great deal on some chicken breasts. We got 44 pounds of chicken breasts for $56.00. I spent a little over an hour cutting them apart and packaging them up to put in our freezer. Even though it was more work then I intended on, it gives me peace of mind to have some quality meat in our freezer.

SO, I called Tracy a few weeks ago and said
"Guess what I just did?"
He said he had no clue. I told him I just got done cleaning our meat grinder because I had just ground some fresh chicken for our Sunshine Bean Casserole we were having that night.
He was surprised at my industriousness!

I think I am going to enjoy doing this
in the future to make our ground beef stretch. People use ground turkey all of the time, so why not ground chicken?

I have to say the Sunshine Bean Casserole was absolutely delicious and you couldn't really tell the difference. I found this recipe my first year of marriage and that was the name of it
"Sunshine Bean Casserole".
I thought it was such a happy sounding name, so that is what I continue to call it.

Sunshine Bean Casserole

Soak 1/2 cup of each bean (Lima beans, Red beans, Garbanzo beans) (you will have 1-1/2 cups total beans) in water overnight.
Drain off water and refill pan with clean water.
Cook until tender.

(If your family is not fond of Garbanzo beans, I would just do 3/4 cups Lima beans and 3/4 cup Red beans--as long as you have 1-1/2 cups of dry beans you are fine with whatever choice you choose---VERY versatile recipe).

1 pound ground turkey or beef
1 large onion chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ Tablespoon mustard
2/3 cup catsup
1 teaspoon cumin
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
(salt and pepper to taste).

Put cooked and drained beans in casserole dish.
Mix lightly, set aside.
Cook ground turkey/beef, onion and garlic til meat is lightly browned.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Mix with beans.
Cover and bake for 1-1/2 hours in a 325 degree oven.
(Mixture can also be cooked in crock pot on low for 3 to 4 hours).

Great served with
French Bread or Sweet Corn Bread

Enjoy!

How Frugal is this meal?

ground chicken--$1.50
dried beans--.51
onion/garlic--.25
catsup, sugar, vinegar--.50
spices/mustard--.15
...............................................
Total--$2.91
(We fed 4 people 2 dinners and
2 people 1 lunch for this price)