Food for kids week: Day 3

What would a week of food designed for children be without these, I ask you?

 
Homemade meatballs and mashed potato.

Quicker than you'd think (but then I was the duffer hand-rolling meatballs for 100 children so maybe I'm unreliable.)

I usually serve them with mashed potato (any excuse, really) but equally excellent with brown rice or steamed greens or whatever your smallies will eat.

Meatballs

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg beef mince

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 large onion, grated

2-3 carrots, grated

1 egg, beaten

1 dessertspoon dried herbs

salt and pepper

2 x 400g tins of peeled tomatoes

METHOD:

In a large bowl mix the mince, breadcrumbs, onion, carrot, egg, herbs and seasoning. It's easiest to mix with your hands.

Whizz your tinned tomatoes up to a puree in a food processor. (In fact this recipe is quickest if you grate your onion and carrot in the processor too. I made fresh breadcrumbs from some old bread first, rinsed the machine out and grated the veggies in it, rinsed it out again and whizzed up the tomatoes. 5 mins tops.)

Pour half the tomato puree into a baking pan.

Roll into ping pong sized balls (using wet hands is easiest) and place on top of the puree. Once finished rolling, pour the rest of the puree over the top of the meatballs.

Cook on about 190° for about 45 minutes. (Check they're cooked by cutting one in half and checking for pinkness.)

Do my kids eat them? Usually. Did they eat them tonight? Nup. 

Tilly ate the mashed potato and decided she didn't like the meatballs. 

Henry made a half-hearted attempt but said he didn't like them either.

Gratifying.

Luckily Adam loved them because he's going to be eating them for his lunch for the rest of the week.

Cooking for kids. Who would do it. At least these are quick to make. But damn I'm glad I didn't spend the extra 45 minutes making a homemade tomato sauce instead of using the tinned tomatoes!

xxx