M is for Mini Meatballs for Kids Cook Monday

Wow, this is so cool.  My first blog post for The Kids Cook Monday campaign.  I am excited!

For dinner tonight Bee helped me cook Mini Meatballs (Bear had boycotted her day sleep so wasn't in the mood to help cook).  We served them with spaghetti pasta and a tomato pasta sauce.  Normally I would make my own sauce but since Bee was helping I decided to keep things simple and use a good quality store bought salt-reduced pasta sauce.  I try to keep salt to a minimum in our diet not only because a low salt diet is healthier but also because salt aggravates Bee’s eczema on her hands and face. 

This is what you need to do to make Mini Meatballs:

Process 2 slices of day old bread in a hand blender to form breadcrumbs and then place in a large mixing bowl.

Under my supervision, Bee uses the hand blender to process the breadcrumbs.

Finely chop 1 brown onion in a hand blender and add to breadcrumbs in mixing bowl.  If your child is old enough you could get them to grate the onion.  

 Pound 1 clove of garlic in a mortar and pestle with a tiny amount of salt.  I don’t normally add salt to our cooking but a very small amount will help break up the garlic.  You could use a garlic press if your child had strong enough hands.  I find the mortar and pestle is more fun for them!  Add the garlic to the bowl.

Pick the leaves from a sprig of fresh thyme and add to the bowl. 

 

Now add 1 egg, 400g beef mince, 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce and 1 carrot finely grated to the bowl. You could up the vegetable content of these meatballs by adding in grated zucchini (courgette) and finely chopped mushrooms.

Bee carefully adding the egg to the other ingredients.

I finely grated the carrot before we started ready for Bee to use.

Mix thoroughly with your hands and form into teaspoon sized balls.  This is the part Bee was uncomfortable with.  She tried to make the balls with a spoon but found it too difficult and didn’t want to touch the mixture.  I didn’t push her.  We will try again another day.

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Fry the meatballs until browned all over and cooked through.  If serving them as spaghetti and meatballs pour the tomato pasta sauce over the meatballs and heat through for 5 minutes.

Bee helping to serve up the spaghetti.

Serve and enjoy!