Have a Ball

I love feeding my kids; sitting across the table looking at their beaming faces and hearing their lovely compliments makes my day.  Well, it would if it ever happened that way.  The truth is my kids begin every meal with a complaint.  Whether it is that they have the wrong cup, or their meat is touching their green beans, or they wanted their potatoes mashed, fried, hashed, boiled, baked, roasted or whatever way I didn't make them they have a complaint.  Always.  Sigh...

In spite of that obstacle I really do like plating up something that I at least have a chance of getting rave reviews for.  For whatever reason, my family likes food that rolls... so here are two good ones.

Meatballs

1lb. 85/15 ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 C plain bread crumbs
3T ketchup
1T salt
1t parsley
1/2t pepper
1/2t garlic powder

1.  combine all ingredients and form into 12 balls
2.  bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done

These meatballs are not my Italian grandmother's special recipe - you'll have to wait a while for that one - but they are super easy, multipurpose meatballs.  My kids eat about two a piece per meal and I can freeze what I'm not using and have a great main dish on hand for them.  The secret is in the sauce.  You can reheat these meatballs in your favorite marinara, BBQ sauce or gravy and serve them tons of different ways.  With marinara they are good over pasta or on a toasted sub roll with melted cheese.  With BBQ sauce they are great with macaroni and cheese or cornbread.  With gravy you can serve them with roasted potatoes or buttermilk biscuits.  If you know you are going to be using them cocktail style you can reduce the size to 1" diameter and cut the cooking time by 10 minutes.  You can also sub out the beef for ground chicken and add 1T of olive oil.

Peanut Butter Balls

1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C honey
2/3 C nonfat dry milk powder

1.  combine all ingredients and roll into 18 1" balls
2.  chill

We love these sweet treats around here.  The "recipe" is so simple that your kids can probably make them without you.  The candies are satisfying and made with real food.  Not things you can say about all candy.  They keep well if refrigerated but get softer as they get warm.  The texture should be somewhere between cookie dough and a truffle.  I like to roll these in granulated sugar after they are chilled to keep them from sticking to each other.  They would also be good rolled in chopped nuts or toasted coconut.  Yum.  Oh, two is plenty.  You really don't want anyone eating the whole batch.

Enjoy!!