The Canadian Press
Sixty per cent of kids don’t eat enough vegetables and fruit, so adding shredded vegetables to everyday foods helps. It also add moisture and flavour.
“Once you’ve got meatballs there’s five or six different ways you can turn that into a lunch,” says registered dietitian Carol Harrison.
Meatballs can be tucked away in the freezer and used in soups, subs, pizza toppings, pasta dishes, on skewers with chunks of pineapple, and served with barbecue sauce.
If you make a big batch it’s time well spent. Rather than rolling the meatballs individually, a great time saver is to bake them in a pan, then break them apart. They’ll be square rather than round.
Here are some tips from Harrison for freezing meatballs:‚Äî Lay cooled meatballs flat in freezer bags so they’ll freeze individually and thaw quicker too.
Minimize freezer burn by pressing air out of the bag before closing.
Label with a “use by” date. For meatballs, that’s within three months.
Thaw meatballs in the fridge.
BIG-BATCH SPEEDY SQUARE MEATBALLS
With your supervision your child can wash, peel and grate the carrot and attempt a fine dice with the onions too. Remind your child to set a damp tea towel beneath the cutting board to prevent it from slipping on the counter.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
1 kg (2 lb) lean ground beef
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250 ml (1 cup) dry breadcrumbs (preferably whole wheat)
150 ml (2/3 cup) each of finely grated carrot and finely diced onion
15 ml (1 tbsp) Worcestershire sauce
2 ml (1/2 tsp) each of salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and spray 2 foil-lined baking trays with canola oil.
Divide meat mixture in half. Form each half into a big flat patty about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick and place one on each tray.
Press a knife into each patty to form a 6-by-6 grid that makes 36 2.5-cm (1-inch) squares, but don’t cut all the way through
Bake until a digital thermometer inserted at the centre of the meat reads 71 C (160 F), 15 to 20 minutes. (Meat may look cooked, but that doesn’t mean all bacteria are killed. Use a digital thermometer to check for doneness.)
Let cool. Meatballs will break apart easily.
Makes 72 meatballs.
