Paula Deen is the chosen Food Network host for this weeks Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge. Oh Paula. You crazy crazy woman you.
I went over to her own website pauladeen.com for inspiration and found a recipe for sweet and sour meatballs. I LOVE sweet and sour meatballs and as luck would have it, I had a bag of frozen meatballs in the freezer and all the sauce ingredients in the pantry, so I made it for dinner that very night.
I am a fairly frugal person in the kitchen. I don't like to waste food. I hate having to buy a big bunch of cilantro when I only need a teaspoon. Cause you know it's going to go bad before it all gets used up. I don't like recipes where you cook noodles in broth and then toss out the broth. I don't do it. I just cook them in water. So imagine my shock when I'm reading the recipe I've chosen, and it calls for 4 cups of ketchup. For one pound of meatballs. FOUR CUPS OF KETCHUP! Does that not sound just a wee bit excessive? Four cups of ketchup plus 2 cans of pineapple, and a truckload of other ingredients, for a measly one pound of meatballs? Four cups of anything is a lot and I just couldn't bring myself to use four cups (4!) of ketchup. So I halved all of the sauce ingredients, and also didn't pre-cook the sweet and sour sauce since everything was going to be in the oven for an hour.
And it looked pretty good when it was done cooking:
Aside from the day glow color of the photo, you'll see that there is p-l-e-n-t-y of sauce to go around for all those meatballs. I honestly can't imagine needing any more sauce. It was good, very good. I might make it again, but I am always on the lookout for new sweet and sour meatballs recipes.
Please visit Sarah at I Thank My Mother to see who else took part and what they made.
Recipe: Shane’s Sweet and Sour Meatballs
I went over to her own website pauladeen.com for inspiration and found a recipe for sweet and sour meatballs. I LOVE sweet and sour meatballs and as luck would have it, I had a bag of frozen meatballs in the freezer and all the sauce ingredients in the pantry, so I made it for dinner that very night.
I am a fairly frugal person in the kitchen. I don't like to waste food. I hate having to buy a big bunch of cilantro when I only need a teaspoon. Cause you know it's going to go bad before it all gets used up. I don't like recipes where you cook noodles in broth and then toss out the broth. I don't do it. I just cook them in water. So imagine my shock when I'm reading the recipe I've chosen, and it calls for 4 cups of ketchup. For one pound of meatballs. FOUR CUPS OF KETCHUP! Does that not sound just a wee bit excessive? Four cups of ketchup plus 2 cans of pineapple, and a truckload of other ingredients, for a measly one pound of meatballs? Four cups of anything is a lot and I just couldn't bring myself to use four cups (4!) of ketchup. So I halved all of the sauce ingredients, and also didn't pre-cook the sweet and sour sauce since everything was going to be in the oven for an hour.
And it looked pretty good when it was done cooking:
Aside from the day glow color of the photo, you'll see that there is p-l-e-n-t-y of sauce to go around for all those meatballs. I honestly can't imagine needing any more sauce. It was good, very good. I might make it again, but I am always on the lookout for new sweet and sour meatballs recipes.Please visit Sarah at I Thank My Mother to see who else took part and what they made.
Recipe: Shane’s Sweet and Sour Meatballs
