Rummage meatballs!

So, the husband and I are about to buy a house (~10 days, hopefully!), so we are trying to not spend all of the little money we have. So, we went excavating our freezer and found supplies for the week. Last night's meal was mango jalapeno chicken meatballs and rice. The past few times I've made this, I simply shove meatballs and rice in the slow cooker for a few hours and steam some rice. This time around, I decided we needed to be healthier. Which bring us to today's recipe!

Meatballs, Rice, Etc!

For Stir Fry: 18 mango jalapeno meatballs 1 leek 1 pepper (color of choice) 4 cloves garlic 1/2 c cubed butternut squash

Rice

For Sauce: 2 tsp soy sauce 1 1/2 tbsp honey 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1/2 c jam or preserves of choice (I used a mixture of peach/raspberry & plum jams) 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar salt and pepper to taste sprinkle of red or green chili pepper flakes

To make the stir fry:

1. Cube the squash; preheat oven to 425; toss squash cubes lightly with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper; bake for ~25 minutes, tossing once.
2. Coarsely slice leek and peppers. Crush garlic.
3. Wait about 5-10 minutes. You want to have about 5 minutes between starting the leeks and the butternut squash coming out of the oven.
4. Begin cooking rice.
5. Heat wok or deep cast iron skillet on medium high heat, add oil.
6. Throw in leeks and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add the garlic, pepper, and squash, tossing constantly.
8. Add the meatballs.
9. While the veggies and meatballs are cooking, whisk together the ingredients for the sauce in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Feel free to play with the measurements and ingredients for this.
10. When you feel everything has cooked long enough, and your rice is done, it is time to eat! I put each part down in layers (rice, meatballs/veggies, sauce), but you can combine any of them however you like!
11. Enjoy!

A little hangover food...

Last night, my husband rolled in late and drunk, which meant that he was going to need some good hangover food to get him ready for the day. Cue me scrounging through the fridge for random things. The end result is this beauty!

The process was incredibly simple. Roast half of a butternut squash (cubed) with olive oil, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper for 25 minutes. Fry up 4-6 cut up slices of jalapeño bacon with one leek, sliced, and 2 cloves of garlic, crushed. When the squash is done, throw it in the cast iron and give everything a good mix. Whisk 3 eggs together and pour over the bacon mixture. Put the cast iron into the oven at 350 and bake for 7 minutes. Sprinkle a little cheese over everything and bake an additional 8 minutes. Quarter and enjoy!