Project 365 in 2008 - Photo of the Day 7

I bet you thought I forgot about today's photo! What a busy day. The kids had a doctor appointment this morning. It was a follow up visit for their ear infections that they had on Christmas Day. Turns out Naomi still has some fluid in her ear but no infection so we have to watch her and if she complains of pain to take her back to the doctor as it probably developed into another ear infection. The other two are fine. So the wait continues!

After that we went food shopping. Luckily my husband went with me. We took two carts and split up getting things in the store so it went faster than if I went with all 3 kids alone like I normally do. So I have food for the week. Now what to make? No I didn't preplan anything. We do our shopping like this. Get chop meat, get beef, get chicken. Then go crazy an hour before dinner time and decide what to make. I so need to make a plan for the week but I'm running out of time. I'm hosting a MOMS Club Scrapbooking Mom's night out tonight so don't think I'll get to it tonight. I found a really cool blog regarding menu planning this morning but haven't had the time to sit and read more about it. What I did read was very interesting and I did bookmark it to read later. The entry I read was called Menu Plan Monday.

That brings me to today's dinner and today's photo. This is one of my husband's favorite meals. It is called Sweet and Sour Meatballs. I make this recipe about once a month. It is from the magazine Light and Tasty Collector's Issue by Joyce Penney of St. Mary's Ontario. My husband likes this meal without the peppers and I use chicken ground meat. I also on occasion make it with ground beef but he prefers the chicken instead.

Here's the recipe

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
1 can (20 ounces) pineapple chunks
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon salt (I leave this out because my husband has high blood pressure)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (as noted above I use chicken ground meat)
2 teaspoons oil
2 large green peppers (I leave this out)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup sugar (I use splendor)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce.

Drain pineapple reserving 1/2 cup juice. (Discard remaining juice or save for another use). Set the juice and pineapple aside. In a bowl, combine the egg, bread crumbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Crumble beef (or chicken) over mixture and mix well. Shape into 40 meatballs.

In a nonstick skillet, brown meatballs in oil, drain. Cut green peppers into chunks. Add broth, peppers and reserved pineapple to meatballs. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. Stir in the vinegar, soy sauce and reserved pineapple juice until smooth. Add to meatball mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over rice.

Yield 8 servings.

I guess I didn't mention that I'm completely sore from working out yesterday. I went to the gym and did a kick boxing class. It's been months, no years since I have worked out. I didn't get a chance to do much of the kicking because I was called out of class because my daughter peed in her pants but did all the boxing moves so now my upper body hurts. My mom says, "No Pain, No Gain!" I will be taking 2 days off and going back on Wed to take another kick boxing class. Hopefully I will feel better by Wed to participate again.