Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Because I’m so original and I’m sure no one else had this idea (ha ha), I thought it would be fun to share some yummy recipes that would fit right into your Super Bowl spread this weekend. I don’t really have a dog in the fight this year, so I’m just planning on sitting back with some good eats and enjoying the commercials game. ;)

I’m starting with a classic today -- sweet and sour meatballs. I’m sure everyone has had some variation of these. In my family, we’ve always made ours with grape jelly and chili sauce -- although I’ve also seen versions made with grape jelly and barbecue sauce, or even apricot jelly and dijon mustard. I like to keep it pretty classic, though, and stick with the grape jelly and chili sauce. I love the way the sweet jelly and tangy sauce work together to coat the meatballs with pure deliciousness. This recipe works great with cocktail wieners, too.

If you haven’t tried these (are you living under a rock?!), the combination of ingredients probably sounds a bit odd. But just trust me on this -- these are delicious. I made a full five pounds of meatballs for my son’s first birthday party earlier this month (two slow cookers’ worth!), and they were the first thing to disappear. I’m choosing to believe that’s because they’re just that good, and not because everything else I made tasted terrible. :)

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
from everywhere

3 to 5 pounds frozen meatballs
1 32-ounce jar grape jelly
1 12-ounce jar chili sauce

Whisk together grape jelly and chili sauce. Add meatballs to a slow cooker that’s been sprayed with cooking spray. Pour sauce over the top and stir gently to combine. Cook on low for 5 hours or until hot.

Weekly Meal Planning, Week of 1.31.11

Monday: Pepperoni- and cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, parmesan noodles (these, because they’re easy and pretty tasty too)

Tuesday: Southwest sloppy joes with honey-lime coleslaw, sweet potato fries

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner! Cinnamon roll pancakes and sausage links

Thursday: Cuban sandwiches (made with this pernil), sweet potato fries

Friday: No cooking

Saturday: BBQ chicken and bacon pasta

Sunday: Pulled chicken suiza sandwiches and queso verde dip (without the turkey) for dinner; leftover queso verde dip and spicy sausage dip for the Super Bowl

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time at all, it should be apparent to you that I love soup, I love my Crock pot, and I love cream cheese. So when I saw this recipe, which encompasses all three of those things plus butternut squash, I knew I’d be making it sooner rather than later.

I couldn’t believe how flavorful this soup was, given that the ingredient list was really pretty short. Because of that short ingredient list, you can really taste each component of the soup so clearly -- the thyme, the bay, the butternut squash and garlic and onion -- which combine to give it an overall warm, earthy, slightly sweet flavor. And the texture is incredible -- creamy, velvety, and smooth. Joe and I and both of the boys practically licked our bowls clean.

The only thing I’ll do differently next time is to use the actual ladle as my spoon, so I can get this into my mouth that much faster. :) This is definitely my favorite soup of the year so far!

Creamy Butternut Squash Soupadapted from Taste and Tell
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (2-pound) butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cups chicken broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, cubed

1. Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook and stir 30 seconds.

2. In a 3 1/2 or 4-quart slow cooker, combine the onion and garlic and all remaining ingredients except the cream cheese. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

3. About 40 minutes before serving, remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves and place about 1/3 of the mixture at a time in a food processor or blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Return the mixture to the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Add the cubed cream cheese and stir. Cover and cook on low an additional 25 to 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted, stirring with a whisk until smooth.

Southwest Sloppy Joes with Honey-Lime Coleslaw

I’d planned to post a different recipe today, but I was sitting here planning next week’s meals, and a craving for this particular dish hit me hard. So since these sloppy joes are showing up on our meal plan again next week, I’d figured I’d better get around to posting about them already!

These sloppy joes are absolutely delicious. They’re loaded with corn and beans and green chilies and smoky spices that make them absolutely irresistible for someone who loves Southwest-style food as much as I do. And while they’re delicious on their own, it’s the honey-lime coleslaw that really takes them over the top. The coleslaw is tangy, sweet, and creamy, and it’s the perfect condiment for the slightly spicy sloppy joes. It’s such an incredible flavor combination, and I really can’t say enough complimentary things about this recipe. With a pile of sweet potato fries on the side, this is pretty much a perfect meal!

Some other delicious takes on sloppy joes that our family loves:

Taco joes
Buffalo chicken joes
Pizza joes
Texas BBQ sloppy joes

Southwest Sloppy Joes with Honey-Lime Coleslaw
slightly adapted from Debbi Does Dinner…Healthy & Low Calorie

For the honey-lime coleslaw:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
About 4 cups of coleslaw mix

For the sloppy joes:

1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 onion, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup ketchup
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 4-ounce can diced green chiles, undrained
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

1. For the coleslaw, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, honey and lime juice. Add cilantro and coleslaw mix and toss gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Cook ground beef and onion over medium high heat until beef is no longer pink. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the sauce thickens to desired consistency, adding more ketchup if necessary.

3. Serve on buns with coleslaw on top if desired.

Chicken-Fried Steak

I tend to shy away from labels like “man food” and “girl food.” I mean, come on: Food is food, am I right? I enjoy the heck out of a big, juicy T-bone steak, just like my husband loves a nice, light salad once in a while. However, I’ve recently discovered one exception to this point of view, and it’s chicken-fried steak. To me, chicken-fried steak is completely, totally “man food.”

I’ve now tried two chicken-fried steak recipes -- this one, from the Pioneer Woman, and Paula Deen’s (minus the MSG -- shame on you, Paula!). While Joe loved both recipes, I found myself feeling lukewarm about them. After making Pioneer Woman’s recipe recently, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I just really am not all that crazy about chicken-fried steak.

Wow, I’m not really selling this recipe, am I? I mean, it was flavorful and the breading was crispy and the milk gravy was creamy and it was everything chicken-fried steak is supposed to be. And Joe absolutely loved it and ate waaaaaay more of that gravy than he probably should have. I didn’t think it was bad, but I didn’t love it either. I think it’s just the nature of the dish; it’s just too heavy for me. It’s “man food.”

What do you guys think about gender designations for food? And how do you feel about chicken-fried steak? Am I the only one who just doesn’t love it?

(Oh, and I'm listing the ingredients as they appear in the cookbook. Obviously I used way less than 3 pounds of steak.)

Chicken-Fried Steak
from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

3 pounds cube steak
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk, plus 2 cups for the gravy
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus about 1/3 cup for the gravy
2 teaspoons seasoned salt, such as Lawry's
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
3 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil for frying

1. Mix the flour, seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne and black pepper together in a shallow plate. Mix the eggs with 1 cup of the milk in another shallow dish. Have a third empty dish close by.

2. Lightly season the meat with salt and pepper. Dip each piece into the egg/milk mixture, then into the flour mixture. Now, dip the flour covered meat back into the egg mixture and then one more time into the flour mixture. Place the double dipped meat onto the empty plate.

3. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Fry the meat, several pieces at a time. Cook on one side until the edges start to look golden brown, about 2 1/2 minutes. Flip the meat and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes on the other side. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and keep warm until all the meat has been cooked.

4. After frying all the meat, pour off all the grease into a heat-proof bowl. Do not clean the pan! Return it to the stove over medium-low heat. Add 1/4 cup of the grease back to the pan. Allow the grease to heat up. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of flour evenly over the grease. Using a whisk, mix the flour with grease, creating a paste. When the flour becomes golden brown, while whisking constantly, pour in two cups of milk. Whisk to combine, then let the gravy come to a slow boil. Add more milk if the gravy becomes too thick, whisking it into the flour/gravy. The whole process should take between 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Place the warm meat on a plate with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes. Drizzle with the gravy.