What was for dinner?

Ok so yesterday I was still exhausted from working for the past 3 months. Between taxes all day long and then taking care of 6 kids and cleaning I really think it is a possible fatal combination if the person isn't strong enough. So I woke up in the morning and said I wanted real food for dinner, since most nights while I was working was pre-made frozen meals or take-out. I also didn't want to spend a ton of time cooking though because I knew I was just to tired to do that. Then I looked in my cupboards and fridge and realized that I really didn't have a great selection of choices either. I kept stocked on most of the basics while working, Milk, eggs, a few frozen and canned veggies.. that type of thing but not a great selection of stuff. Have you ever got to that point. Now I am not really a cookbook type of cook most of the time. I have learned over the years what flavors taste good together and so usually I make things up as I go along.  So today I am posting my latest creation for you, We named it Meatball Sloppy Joes. I documented what I did this time just in case it tasted good.. and it did, so I am going to share it with you today. I am sure there is probably some great recipe out there in the great world wide web that will be more professional than mine but remember this is me just throwing things together from my pantry and freezer.

Ok soo when I was rummaging through my cupboards I came across Crushed Tomatoes, and Whole Tomatoes and though a sauce would be good and then decided to add in some tomato soup for the flavor and a can of V8 juice again the extra flavor it has. Now 2 of my kids are not big tomato fans (don't ask me why since we cook with them soo much) so the trick I use to get them to eat them is I add a touch of molasses to those meals. That dark hint of sweetness changes enough of the flavor that they love what ever it is I make. I also found some meatballs I had bought for Mike and the kids to use for meals while I was working and thought that would make for some nice protein. 





At that point I was thinking more towards a soup and then I found my Brown Minute rice and the idea of the sloppy joes jumped into my head. My aunt had shown me once how Wheat could be cooked to look and taste like hamburger in meat sauces so I thought why not try the same with the rice. I also looked into my collection of epicure goodies to see what would taste good. I picked out my Chive and Onion Sea Salt for both flavor and seasoning as well as my Herb & Garlic Dip mix. They were simple but both have lots of flavor.

So I added the first group of stuff, including about a 1/4 cup of the molasses into my slow cooker and also about a teaspoon of the sea salt and 2 tbsp's of the herb & garlic mix. Warning!! When dumping whole tomatoes in, next time I will do them first because they splashed up my crushed tomatoes. Claudia laughed so hard that she fell off her stool!

I then added in 3 cups of the rice and 2 cups of water because I wanted to keep the saucy texture.

I stirred it all together and wiped up my mess and put it on to cook for 6 hours on high. It probably didn't need that much time but I knew we weren't going to be eating before that time. and you have to admit when tomato sauces of any kind get that little extra cooking time they just taste sooo yummy!

So this is what it looked like after 6 hours.. so goood! I tasted it and thought it could use a touch more kick so I added a few of shakes of Worcestershire Sauce. Not all people like it but I love that extra dimension it adds.

I lightly toasted up some large hamburger buns and then filled them with 3 meatballs and a large scoop of the sauce. I cut up some watermelon and cucumber for a summer feel to the meal and to keep with the made easy theme and we enjoyed an extra yummy meal :)

As a side note here, this would all make for a yummy meat free sloppy joe, just leave out the meatballs. The kids had seconds of this with just the sauce on the buns. If I do this I might add a bean in of some kind to replace the protein element to the meal.

Now what would a summer type meal be like with a dessert so we fired up our center burner on our BBQ and grabbed some of our new EXTRA LARGE campfire marshmallows and roasted them for a special treat. It was the perfect end to the perfect quick and easy meal.

Hope you enjoyed my version of a quick and easy meal... enjoy it yourselves, or make up you own. My kids favorite meals are the ones I don't use a recipe for. I have learned to write them down now since they complain when I don't know how to make it again.

And to finish this post a picture of how Josh loves to cook his Marshmallows :D

Burnt Sugar, Yum ;)