a complete meal.

So two days ago I made a scrumptious supper which got ravenous reviews from my husband! (And yes, he WILL tell me if he doesn't like it...he is very outspoken like that.) And the kids liked it too :)

I just realized that I didn't take any pictures though, shucks! Here is the menu plan:

"Even good cold" Meatballs
Chateau Potatoes
Cucumbers & cream
Mint Patties

Meatballs:
2 lbs ground beef
1 cup quick oats
1 cup milk
3 T very finely diced onion
1-1/2 t salt
few dashes of black pepper
1/2 c flour
oil for frying

Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
2 T sugar (or brown sugar)
2 T Bragg's liquid aminos (soy sauce)
few shakes of dried minced onion

In bowl combine first 6 ingredients for meatballs. Roll into golf ball size balls. Preheat oven to 350. Heat oil in pan. Roll meatballs in flour and lightly brown meatballs in pan on both sides. As they brown, place them in baking dish. (mine filled a 7-1/2x11 pan and an 8x8 pan.)

Mix together sauce ingredients and pour evenly over meatballs. Bake 30-45 mins or until hot and bubbly.

Chateau Potatoes:
(I know I have this recipe somewhere on my blog but since I can't find it, I figured I'd post it again!!) These are super easy and by far Nathan and my favorite way to eat potatoes...a Legatt family recipe!

6-7 large potatoes (you wanna shoot for about 6-7ish cups of mashed potatoes when you're done)
1 container small curd cottage cheese
3/4 cup sour cream
1-1/2 T very finely diced onion

Peel potatoes, boil until soft, mashed them in large bowl, stir in rest of ingredients and beat with mixer until well combined. Now most of the time we just eat them right from here because they are still warm but if you are not eating immediately or they have cooled off a little, pop them in a 350 degree oven until hot.

Cucumbers & cream:
cucumbers (I usually get those super long ones wrapped in plastic at the store. They are usually more expensive but the taste makes up for it! They taste as if they were straight out of the garden!!)
a large dollup of mayo
salt and pepper

Dice the cucumber. I usually slice it the long way a few times and then rotate it and slice it again a few times, then start at one end and cut the other way so I get little squares. This is very important as they don't taste the same if they aren't cut this way...Nathan is VERY picky about this! :) Once you have your cucumber cut up, throw a little mayo in...maybe start with 2 tablespoons. You can always add more...you just want enough to make a nice dressing, nothing too over-done. And trust me on this...it WON'T taste like mayo, esp if you use the right amount. I do not like mayo, but this is the only way I prefer to eat my cucumbers! So mix in the mayo and then add some salt and pepper. I heard it once from a very seasoned cook that she added "a little bit of salt and a whole lotta pepper!" You do what you want. And this is a perfect side dish for almost anything!! Also it makes for a GREAT gravy-type thing to put on top of mashed potatoes!! Yes, you read that right! It was nothing that I had heard of before until I married nathan and he suggested I would make cucumbers and cream to go on top of the 'taters, and it is OH SO YUMMY!! (And please don't ruin this dish by adding vinegar...yuck!)

Mint Patties (for dessert, of course!):
4 oz cream cheese
1 tsp mint extract (this is 1/2 peppermint and 1/2 spearmint...SO good!)
4 c powdered sugar
1/4 c milk choco chips
1/4 c semi-sweet choco chips (if you only have milk chocolate, that's ok, just do all milk choco)
2 T butter

beat cream cheese and extract together, gradually add powdered sugar. Taste mixture, if you want stronger flavor, add more extract. Shape into balls. Size is up to you. I made some larger and some smaller, but most ended up about the size of the store bought little peppermint patties. 1/2 inch to 1 inch ball is a nice size. Place on waxed paper and flatten into patties. Cover and refrig or freeze until firm. Melt chocolate and butter on stove. Cool slightly. With back of spoon, smear some chocolate on top of patties. Cover and freeze until hard. Place in plastic bag and store in freezer.

Whew! And remember, if you have left overs, this is a meal that is SOOOOO easy to heat up the next day for a simple meal!! Nathan even took some of the meatballs to work and ate them cold for lunch...he said they were perfect!

And it seems as though a lot of my posts have been about food lately so if you're not into food as much as me..sorry! but it's pretty much because food is my life right now!....and lotsa kids...and lotsa dirt...and more dirt. But pretty soon the official "Legatt Elementary School" will be in progress so I've been busy researching and studying and looking at different options, etc so soon I'm sure I'll be posting more about that!