The Farmer Wanted Beef: Swedish Meatballs

Every once in awhile I start cooking a lot of chicken. And my farmer husband gently reminds me by usually saying, "Can we just have BEEF sometime soon?" For the most part, he doesn't complain at all about my cooking and is very appreciative. Every time I ask him what he wants for dinner he usually says "You could heat up a turd and throw some gravy on it and I'd eat it." He usually doesn't care, as long as there's a hot meal when he comes in at night from the field. Except for when I cook too much chicken.

So the other day I went perusing on Pinterest to find a recipe for something that was just beef, and decided on Swedish Meatballs. They just sounded good, and Monday was a chilly day so I thought it would be perfect. I have made them before, but wasn't fond of the recipe, so I found another that I had most of the ingredients for. You can find the original recipe on the link below, but I had to adjust mine because I didn't have some of the ingredients.

Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:
-3/4 Cup seasoned bread crumbs
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-3 Tbsp parsley
-1 tsp ground pepper
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp season salt
-1.5 lbs of ground beef
Gravy
-4 Tbsp butter
-1/2 cup flour
-2 1/2 cups milk
-1-14 oz can of beef broth
-1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-1 tsp ground pepper
-1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1) In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Add beef, mix together with hands. Shape into 1 1/2 inch meatballs. In a large skillet, brown meatballs in batches until done. (If there is grease left over from the meatballs you can use this for the gravy. If not, use the 4 Tbsp of butter).
2) For gravy, melt butter over medium heat in the same pan you used for the meatballs. Gradually whisk in flour, continuing to stir until mixture is light brown. Do not burn. Gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Whisk in beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
3) Return meatballs to pan, cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes longer, or until meatballs are cooked through, stirring occasionally.
4) Serve over egg noodles.

One thing that was great about this recipe, was that it made a lot of meatballs for just the two of us. A couple weeks ago I bought a couple of those Reynold's disposable aluminum pans with lids so I could prepare a couple freezer meals to have on hand when I have the baby. I took the leftovers of the meatballs and gravy and put them in the tray you see in the picture above, and placed them in the freezer.

Oh, and at the end of the meal, the farmer was pleased with the beef, and really liked the recipe so I'll definitely be making this again. Moral of the story: if you're married to a farmer/rancher who raises beef, you should probably feed them more beef than chicken :)