50/50 Meatball Stew -- give me some tasty meat on a budget baby!

Chewing a bone is nice. In my opinion, the best part of the meat is always connected to bones -- ribs, any kind, are tasty without a doubt. So are rack of any animal, ham hocks, beef tendons, among many other tasty cuts. But sometimes, we just feel lazy. Won't it be nice just to bite off a big juicy piece of meat without worrying about bones? That's why I love meatballs -- just as meaty as anything can be, and with a little bit more surface area to soak up all those heavenly sauce. And, since it's made of ground meat, you can pack the flavor of beef/pork/turkey/chicken all into one very tasty bite!

Recently we have been doing most of our grocery shopping at our local food co-op, where you can find high quality of ground meat for a very reasonable price. For the record, the ground chuck is usually $2.99/lb, and the ground pork is even cheaper at $1.99/lb. They carry the meat in small quantities as well, which is so great for a small household like us. This meatball meal took 3/4 pound of ground beef and pork each (thus the name 50/50), and provided two dinner servings plus two (very hearty) lunch servings.

50/50 Meatball Stew

serves 4

(for the meatball)

• 3/4 lb ground beef
• 3/4 lb ground pork (or turkey for a low fat version)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 breadcrumbs (which I made of this bread)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder
• 1 tsp each dried oregano, dried thyme, dried parsley, dried marjoram
• 1/4 parmesan 

(for the stew)

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup cooking wine 
• 1/2 cup vegetables of your choice (I used green beans)
• 1/4 cup silvered almonds (optional)
• chopped cilantro for garnishing

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients (for the meatball) in a bowl and shape into tennis sized balls.
3. Bake on a baking sheet for about 5 minutes.
4. Heat up the butter in a skillet. Transfer the meatballs and brown all sides. 
5. Pour in the cooking wine and the tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes. 
6. Add in the vegetables and almonds. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes. 
7. Just before serving, add in some chopped cilantro for garnishing. Serve immediately.

Nutrition:
Each serving contains about 452 calories, with 38 grams of proteins! In addition, it contains a good amount of Iron, Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B12, and Selenium. Not a bad choice for dinner if you ask me!

(Read More http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/recipe/3053881/2#ixzz2vFY5MGs2)

Cost:
About $2.5 per serving. We actually did not set a budget for our food last month, but somehow the total came down to less than $150/person, which is less than $5/person/day! Hearty meals like this certainly helped!