New Recipe of the Week- Meatball Stew

Tonight for dinner I made meatball stew. I am not entirely sure where the recipe came from because I found it in a folder that I collect random recipes in.

I used homemade meatballs from the freezer but if you don't have any on hand here is their recipe

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

3 tbsp plain bread crumbs

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Stir together the egg, beef onion, bread crumbs, parsley, parmesan, salt and pepper. Form into 1-inch meatballs (about 20) and set aside.

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp low-sodium beef broth

1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar (didn't use this, none on hand)

16 oz baby carrots (used way less- we aren't carrot lovers)

3 large parsnips cut into 2 inch pieces (used potatoes instead, what the heck is a parsnip?)

1 medium size onion, chopped (I finely chopped because we don;t like big chunks of onion)

1 tbsp cornstarch

Stir together 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup broth and the vinegar. Place carrots, parsnips and onion into slow cooker and put meatballs on top. Drizzle with ketchup mixture. Cook on high for 3 1/2 hours or low for 5 hours.

Stir together parsley, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup ketchup, one tablespoon broth and cornstarch. Gently stir into slow cooker. Cook until thick, about 5 minutes.

Now, I didn't use a slow cooker- mostly because I didn't realize the recipe called for one until it was too late. I decided to use my dutch oven (every time I say that name I laugh... maybe I'm the only one). I put the stuff in that the recipe called for, including my frozen homemade meatballs, and simmered until the carrots and potatoes were cooked through. Then I added in the cornstarch mixture and let thicken while I waited for my homemade rolls to finish cooking.

Another thing that I did differently was I used the whole can of broth and adjusted the ketchup, cornstarch, salt, pepper and parsley accordingly. What was called for in the original just didn't sound like enough for what I think a stew is though next time I would make a bit less.

My husband liked it as did I (my son ate a meatball and a bite of a carrot and a potato because he doesn't like saucy food and my daughter put a carrot in her mouth and spit it out- I will break them of their pickiness if it kills me). Next time, to make it a bit healthier, I think I might use canned plain tomato puree in place of the ketchup.

Here is my plate- it may not look good but it sure did taste good! Don't mind the crappy looking roll at the top of the plate- I decided to follow the roll recipe I always use exactly as it was written and now I know that I was right in not beating the initial dough mixture on high speed. The rolls tasted good but they were definitely not as fluffy as they usually are.