Meatballs. Yeah commence happy dance

Okay so apparently, I do more cooking than anything. I realized I should probably give away one of my favorite SECRETS...Cooking secrets that is. I'm talking about Meatballs. Homemade, hands messy, a part of your soul, and a whole lot of love poured into each little ball you hand form. These babies are moist, and they taste amazing. I have REFERENCES.


What Cha Need:

1 lb ground beef. (I dont care what percentage...but I use lean ground beef)
garlic powder
salt and pepper
1 egg
3/4 cups of water
3/4 cups fancy cheese (I used asiago, romano, & parmesan combined)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use these A LOT don't I?)
and a honkin' bowl.


Now you see all the ingredients up there? Exactly as they are listed LAYER...See that....I SAID LAYER everything. NO MIXING, no combining early. LLLAAAYYYYEEERRRRRRR. Don't question me on my madness.
This means you put the meat on the bottom, then the garlic powder right on top (now some people in my family are sensitive to garlic so use your best judgement on how much to use), then salt and pepper on top (same use your best judgement rule) and so on and so forth.

Here we are in order

Now when everything is sitting pretty on top of one another in the order listed wash your hands.


Then take off any jewelry that means anything to you that is on your hands. I would hate for meat or crumbs or cheese to get stuck in a diamond, or a crevice you cant clean on your wedding ring or something. See i did it...

This is the part when i usually heat up my pasta sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.

Mixing time!
Now this is fun for the kids to get in on too.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH mix that with your hands. Feel the icky gooey, and mush it all together. I would say do this for about 3-4 minutes.

once everything is mixed and loving one another in that bowl you will need to form little balls about the size of a golf ball maybe a bit bigger, depending on how big you want them. I then place them all in the sauce as its heating up and i cover it. 

Occasionally i will come by and jostle the pan, but be careful not to rough them up too much for they might break apart and you end up with just a "meat sauce".

After about 5-7 minutes on one side in the sauce I turn mine GENTLY over. Recover pan. Again these babies are fragile. Another 5 minutes and i would normally take one lucky pup out of the pan and cut it in half to make sure its cooked through. And i sample too...NO big deal. Usually at this moment i revel in my awesomeness because my mouth just went to some sort of sicilian heaven. MMMM

You are welcome! Now you make!

Wondrous Quesadillas

Wondrous quesadillas!

Toddler approved! 

Ingredients:

Flour tortillas (I only used three being that there is only three in my family)

Ground beef 1 lb

Frozen grilled chicken chunks 

Butter

Shredded mild, sharp, and medium cheddar cheese (I found all three mixed in a bag) 

Steps!

1. Brown ground beef

2. Heat up chunked grilled chicken 

3. On one side only butter one side of the tortilla.

--On medium heat -- heat a large pan to fit a tortilla (folded in half)

[now here is a part where you kida have to work quickly: especially if your pan is already heated]

4. Place tortilla butter side down in pan and on half place a handful of shredded cheese (of all three) in only half of the tortilla. (you might hear a bit of a sizzle when the tortilla touches the pan depending on how hot it is --it's okay) 

Spoon ground beef over half of the tortilla (over the shredded cheese) 

5. place chunked chicken on top of the ground beef 

6.Then quickly fold empty half of the tortilla over the full half. 

Using a spatula press the tortilla down a little so everything sticks together and the cheese spreads-- NICE AND GOOEY!--

Check the bottom side often until golden brown and flip. Continue cooking on the other side until golden brown. I like to use a pizza cutter to cut into triangles and then serve. 

I like to serve them with queso cheese, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream!