Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Successes and failures



Half of dinner was a success. The other half - er, not so much. I made an albondiga type soup tonight. It wasn't exactly like my mom used to make as I don't remember her putting a lot of veggies or potatoes. But I used to love it when she made albondigas! So, I made my own version.

This was my portion.


When I put my spoon in, I noticed it elevated the ingredients a little.


The pictures don't do it justice. My oldest son is the pickiest eater, so I usually gauge how "friendly" recipes are by him. He loved it! My youngest wanted more salt...
Albondigas
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 c. brown rice
2-3 carrots, chopped
2 potatoes chopped into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup of fresh green beans
4 mushrooms sliced
1 can beef broth
1 can vegetable broth
4-5 cups water
1. Mix ground beef and rice with your favorite seasonings. I used cumin, garlic powder, onion power, pepper and a little sea salt. Make little meatballs.
2. Meanwhile, heat a dutch oven. Coat with a little cooking spray and start cooking the meatballs. until browned all around. Depending on how lean your meat is, drain any fat.
3. Add your two cans of broth and water. I don't like the rich flavor of using only beef broth so thats why I only used a can of beef and a can of vegetable broth. I usually just put enough water to cover or make enough soup. My family loves the liquidy part of the soup.
4. Chop carrots and potatoes if necessary and add to the soup and let come to a boil. I let it boil for about 10 minutes. Then add the green beans.
5. Lower heat and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Add the mushroms. Season with your favorite spices again. I used cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, dried cilantro, dried Mexican oregano and a little salt. I don't use a lot of salt and figure it is better to let people add it according to their own taste in my house. Once the mushroom look cooked and the rice looks cooked ( a few loose grains will rise to the top), its ready!
All in all it takes about 30- 45 minutes to cook. The one thing I had planned on adding that I didn't was a can of corn. Its a good thing I didn't because that was enough carbs and starch with the rice and potatoes. I will probably interchanged the potatoes and corn in this recipe. I really liked this. It had a healthier twist to a down home favorite from my childhood. Next time I might even try it with turkey instead of beef!
Another Fiasco!
Now for the failure. Dum dum dum dum! I attemped to make kales chips. All was well until I got side tracked with taking the pics of my soup. Then, they burned!


I tried to use Kath's Kale Chips ( http://www.katheats.com/?page_id=2544 ) but it didn't work. I'll have to try again. All I could taste was the burned taste. I was looking forward to them too!

Well, FH wants to use the pc so laters!

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