Filling Tummies with Porcupine Meatballs

Gosh I love Christmas!!! Is is such a beautiful time of the year when you have little children. Today we took the boys to a store to have their photo taken with Santa for the first time. Our eldest son was absolutely bursting with excitement and afterward he told us that "today is the most lovely day ever". We hunted for Santa's sleigh around the store after the photo and the boys decided he must have come on the bus. So cute!

Our preparations for the big day are going well and the fridge is now jam packed with goodies. We are keeping things very low key in the meals department this week in readiness for all of the rich treats which will no doubt be filling our tummies on Saturday. One of the simple but nutritious meals that I will no doubt be whipping up this week is Porcupine Meatballs. This simple meal is easy with or without a thermomix and can be made more nutritious be using homemade condensed tomato soup, brown rice and serving them with steamed veggies. Yum!

Porcupine Meatballs

Ingredients:

120g brown rice
500g lean beef mince
1 small brown onion - peeled and quartered
salt and pepper
1 450g can of tomato soup (or make your own using this recipe)
230g water

Method:

Weigh the brown rice into the rice basket and rinse well. Cook the brown rice (with 1L water in the bowl) for 20 minutes at varoma temperature on speed 4. Discard water and rinse rice in cold water.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Add onion to the TMX bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 5.

Add the mince, rice and salt & pepper. Mix for 10 seconds on reverse speed 3.

Form the mixture into walnut size balls and place in a baking dish (I use a large glass pyrex dish).

Place the soup and water into the TMX bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 3. Pour over the meatballs and spoon a little of the soup mixture over each meatball if they are not completely covered.

Bake for 1 hour (increase cooking time if your meatballs are larger). Take the meatballs out and turn them over after 30 minutes.

Serve with steam veggies and mash potato or fresh bread rolls.

Enjoy!