Cheap Eats

Now that the weather is cooling down, I can cook again! I missed cooking, but with a too hot house and an unemployed spouse, any place with air conditioning was heavenly. My inner thrifty gal balked at eating out so much this summer, but staying at home all day was pretty understimulating for my husband. Even though Alberta doesn't have a sales tax, eating out is pretty expensive...cheapie places like Swiss Chalet and Denny's can easily rack up a $40 bill with tip. A&W or McDonald's can easily be $10 a person too. We always lose our minds when we go to the US because food is so mind blowingly cheap! The time we at ate Taco Bell in Sandpoint for $10 always comes to mind.

Anyway, I made a simple dinner tonight with enough left over for lunch. I like getting prepared meals from a local grocery chain called Sunterra because they are close to work and inexpensive. They have a "big pan" daily lunch feature with the leftovers becoming grab and go meals for $6.49 each. I thought, well gee, if Sunterra can make a big pan of something and sell it on a bed of rice, I'm sure I can too!

1 small onion
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
6 medium sized chopped carrots
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 cups or beef broth or 1 cube bouillon in 2 cups of hot water
20 frozen meatballs

Dice onion into large pieces and brown on medium heat in Dutch oven (I omitted using a fat).

Add carrots, garlic, soy sauce and broth to Dutch oven, stir and bring to boil.

When mixture is boiling, add frozen meatballs and broccoli.

Reduce heat and simmer until carrots and meatballs are cooked (it seemed like about 10-15 minutes). Serve over rice or noodles.

Although dinner was husband approved, I felt like something was missing from it to give it an extra flavour. Next time I would add celery or maybe hot sauce to zip it up.