That's what we end up saying in our house when we haven't given enough thought to what we've taken out of the freezer to cook. You all know how much I love meal planning and being organised, but I made a bit of a boo boo with a packet of meatballs. Yep, this my friends, is a post about meatballs.
It's just a quick post really, and the point is not so much the joy of meatballs, but the ways in which you can ensure you waste as little as possible when it comes to groceries. It also makes life easier mid-week when you may have a busy day or you just may not be in the mood to cook.
So there they were, a packet of forlorn looking meatballs chilling out in the fridge. I had intended to use them up today but then my lovely mother in law (i'm not married, but we might as well be) invited us over for dinner today so we jumped at the opportunity as we always do. We're actually sleeping over at my boyfriend's parent's house tonight and chances are that tomorrow we will have some sort of a day out and we will eat out at some stage. Here lies the dilemma. Come Monday, when we would be cooking again, these balls of meaty goodness will be passed their best before date. Now some people are not too fixated on the dates on packaging but I am not one of those people. Psychologically I would not enjoy a meal if I knew the date on a product said that it was expired. I'm also breastfeeding little Billy so I don't like to take any chances when it comes to food.
So I put my thinking cap on and decided to make up the meatball mixture and freeze it so that it would be ready to go some day next week and all we would have to do is leave it out the night before to thaw, heat and serve. I also had a little look at the vegetable drawer in the fridge and found a red pepper, a carrot, the end of a punnet of mushrooms, a chilli and half a courgette. Perfect! This meatball dish would be perfect for using it all up. I then checked the cupboard and we had a jar of 'light' supervalue pasta sauce which I find a little bit bland but nothing a bit of garlic, herbs and seasoning couldn't sort out.
I recruited the better vegetable chopper in the relationship and once all the veg was diced he simply fried the meatballs in a frying pan of frylight with some garlic, added the chopped veg and continued to sauté together. He then added the jar of pasta sauce along with some herbs and seasoning and let it all simmer for 10-15 minutes.
And there we have it, a lunch box of tasty meatballs with lovely vegetables ready to use some day when we don't want to cook. It just has to be defrosted over night and sure it only takes a second to stick on a pot of pasta. Serve with a sprinkle of cheese on top and you are on to a winner. Perfecto! I may end up using it next week when I'm busy comforting my poor baba after his two month vaccinations. Sometimes cuddles are far more important than cooking.
