Leftover Love

During WWII, leftovers were practically as valuable as gold.  Wasting was unpatriotic! So our grandmothers had to come up with creative ways to reuse leftovers.  Many of the comfort foods we consider common deliciousness were created as a result of WWII kitchen wizardry.  Today, with the rising cost of food, and little sign of economic improvement, this kind of "magic" is almost a necessity! That in mind, and the fact I had some leftovers that were about to perish, I decided I would try my hand at creating a yummy dish out of virtually nuthin'!  The result: meatballs!

I am going to give the basic meatball recipe I came up with.  From there you can do anything!!  I decided to make a meatball stew, but more about that later. 

Ok, something almost every WWII housewife had was a meat grinder. They were often used to chop nuts, make breadcrumbs, chop veggies finely, crush ice, etc, as well as grind meats.  Most had a hand crank kind, and they are still available today.  They tend to run about $35 to $100-ish.  The electric are double in cost and then some, depending on the brand and model. I used an attachment made for my Kitchen Aide mixer. If none of these are possible, a good food processor might do the job.

LEFTOVER MEATBALLS

4-5 Cups Ground Cooked Meat

20 Crackers

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Milk
(add more if mixture does not hold together as a ball)

1Tbsp Italian Seasoning
(Or any salt free seasoning blend you like)
1/4 Cup Oil

1Tbsp Garlic Powder or 1-2 Whole Garlic, minced

2 Tbsp Dry Minced Onion or 1 Small Onion, minced

1/8-1/4tsp Ground Black Pepper (Optional)

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Combine the ingredients, mixing well (hands are good for this, but remove all jewelry!). Shape into 1/2 " to 1" meatballs. Roll in flour. Put in skillet that has been preheated and has 1/4 Cup of oil. Cook for about 5 minutes on medium to medium low until brown, carefully turn the meatballs with a spoon to brown another side. Repeat until meatballs are brown.

Left-over Beef and pork

Here are the meats I had to deal with, a beef steak and a couple pork chops...not too exciting.  I diced the beef into 1" pieces and the pork, as it was denser, into 1/2" pieces.

Diced Beef

Grinding

Once it was all ground, I ground up some stale crackers.  It helps clean the grinder a little plus it makes the cracker extra fine, like meal.

Ground meats, cracker meal, egg, spices, oil and milk

Mix it all together and VOILA, meatball mix! I rolled the mix into 1" meatballs and rolled in plain flour, then placed in a skillet with 1/4 Cup of oil on medium heat.

Meatballs in flour

Meatballs in skillet

Once cooked, they are ready for whatever you want! Just a little warning, they are delicate, and can fall apart a little easier than traditional meatballs.   I do not recommend these for soups.

Cooked meatballs

I went with a meatball stew.  They whole menu was very WWII traditional:

Meatball stew

Brown rice cooked in Beef Broth

Chop Salad

Iced tea

Going further on the "Waste Not, Want Not" philosophy, this is a kind of "Use it Before You Lose It" meal.  We are near shopping day and the stores are getting a bit low. There were lots of things in the fridge and pantry that had to be used or thrown out in a day or two. The meatball stew consisted of cooked meatballs, stewed tomatoes, beef broth I had in the fridge, less than a serving of Tomato Juice I had at the bottom of the can, some flour and seasoning.  I simmered it until the sauce thickened.  I had about 1 cup of brown rice left in the cupboard.  Used the rest of the beef broth to cook that. There were a couple radishes, sweet peppers, celery about to go limp, some green onions on a similar path as the celery, and a lonely, very soft tomato. I chopped them all up, added a couple tablespoons of mayo, and TA-DA, Chop Salad!  The whole family enjoyed it including the finicky teen-aged daughters I love! 

But it doesn't end there!! Remember the Chop Salad?   Well, I took the stuff I chopped OFF the veggies, put them in a pot with water and seasoning. Simmered about an hour and got myself two cups of veggie stock! 

Discarded veggie peelings

Veggie peelings, cooked about an hour

2 Cups Rich Veggie Broth