Meatball Sub Sandwiches

Last week, Dexter posted his first blog post with some beef nutritional information and a wonderful Italian Meatball recipe.  We used the meatballs to make the best Meatball Subs.

I hope you checked out his post.  He has a list started of things he wants to cover in blog posts and even has a teacher or two helping him with ideas when he gets done with his homework.  He is also working on infographics about beef.  

Since Dexter and some of his friends are just beginning to cook on their own and use this blog as a place to find recipes, I thought it might be a good idea to get a few more step by step instructions on making the perfect meatball sub sandwich.  Last year for Christmas gifts I made this awesome Garlic Parmesan Mix from Tip Garden which totally made the sandwiches better.  It has been popular with all the kids that have ate at my house since I made it.

 

The Best Meatball Sub Sandwiches

8 hoagie buns
1.5 cups prepared spaghetti sauce
¼ cup butter
1 tablespoon garlic cheese mix
Mozzarella cheese

Simmer cooked meatballs in 1.5 cups of prepared pasta sauce.  Melted butter mixed with 1 tablespoon of the mix to brush on the bread. Place the buttered bread on a cookie sheet under the broiler until they are good and toasted.  Spoon the meatballs and a little sauce on the toasted buns, topped with Mozzarella cheese and stick them back under the broiler until the cheese is melted.

During the busy season, I think I will put them in a crockpot to warm with the sauce.  When I say busy season, I am not sure that with two teenage boys there is a slow season.

I want to try them in a crockpot spaghetti recipe from the Show Barn Cook.  I this would be a great recipe for the show season, wrestling tournaments and my upcoming calving season.  

The guys all said this was one of the best recipes I had made in a long time.  Good thing they liked them, because I made a triple batch of the meatballs.  Two batches went into the freezer for my stockpile of freezer meals for calving season. Speaking of calving season, it is right around the corner and I am hoping that the temperature swings and winter weather will calm down for a week or two.  I need to finish up my “nesting” projects before the calves start hitting the ground. 

Did You Know by Dexter & Italian Meatballs

My oldest son is working on a new 4-H project this year.  I am encouraging him to write an article for the local newpaper once a month and I am planning to share it here as well.  Let me introduce Dexter. He is a 16 year old sophomore in high school.  He talks about cattle way too much, enjoys wrestling, likes to eat A LOT and I am making him cook, too.  He is involved in 4-H, FFA, as well as the church and school choirs.  He manages a Facebook page called MAD Cattle Company (Maddix & Dexter...because I wouldn't let them name it DAM Cattle Company ;) )


If you like the recipe or the facts he shares, please share with your friends and follow MAD Cattle Company.  We are going to track how many people see these for part of the project so please share!  As he gets more views, he is motivate to work on the next online project.  If you have questions about beef as a consumer, leave them in the comments and he will try to answer them in future posts.  Thanks! A Kansas Farm Mom

Did you know that a serving of beef is 3 ounces? Do you know how big that is?  Well to answer the second question a three-ounce serving of beef is about the size of a standard deck of playing cards (not a Uno deck of cards).

Yes, you read that right a serving of beef is that small.  Last Sunday after wrestling the day before, I wondered what I could do nutritionally so I wouldn’t be so stiff and sore after each tournament.  So of course, since I raise cattle, I began to look at the nutrients and their amounts in a three-ounce serving of beef.  I found out that beef contains 25 grams of protein.  I also found that protein from a meat source is more readily available than a plant source and protein is needed for the repairing of all muscles.  

                Did you know that the United States produces 20 percent of the world’s beef with only seven percent of the world’s cattle?   

Much of the reason has to do with the time and effort progressive cattlemen spend utilizing resources and genetic improvement that pushes for higher quality and heavier weight calves.  Many of you may be confused on how this might affect you.  The way that this affects every person in the U.S. is that 90 percent of U.S. beef is consumed in the U.S.  Furthermore, I found that America has been importing more lean trimmings of beef for hamburger and stew meat and exporting the fatter trimmings.  So, I think that as U.S cattle producers start to dial in on the perfect blend of quality and lean less foreign beef will be served in the U.S.

We recently tried this new recipe this is extremely good with spaghetti or as meatball subs.  Enjoy!

Italian Meatballs

1 egg

1 pound ground beef

½ cup bread crumbs or 2 slices of bread, torn into tiny pieces (you can use seasoned bread crumbs)

½ cup canned spaghetti sauce

1 teaspoon onion flakes

½ teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Break egg into a large mixing bowl and beat lightly with a fork.  Add ground beef, bread crumbs, spaghetti sauce, onion flakes, and salt.  Mix everything together with your hands.  Shape mixture into 1 inch meatballs.  Arrange them next to each other in a 9x13 baking pan.  Bake 20 Minutes.

W4DW- Cheesy Mostaccioli

I usually post my recipes on Wednesday and call them What’s for Dinner Wednesday, but this week it is Thursday and here is why.  I had this post all done except for the picture.  I had the card from the camera in the slot ready to download when the farmer called.  He wanted to take pictures of his sprayer, so he can try to sell it and get a new one.  Was I ready to take pictures?  Right now.  Sure!  So, I took the pictures and wasn’t getting enough, so I left him with the camera and went to finish supper.  When he came in for supper, did he bring the camera?  Ummm.  You guessed it, NO.  I finally retrieved my camera and the picture of this week’s W4DW after I operated the combine all afternoon and had the boys doing their homework in the combine for 2 hours.

If you are interested in a used sprayer, there are pictures of it at the bottom of the post.  ;)

I have talked before about how I love to stock my freezer when I am getting ready for one of our busy seasons.  I like to cook ahead of calving season, but also harvest.  I have written about how different times of the year demand different recipes in my Farm Wife Meal Planner.   We are getting ready for corn harvest, soybean harvest, calf weaning and wheat planting.  It looks like this year it will all take place at the same time, so I better get busy stocking the freezer.  Here is one that my family loves.

If you have kids in your house, anything with pasta and cheese is sure to be a hit.  I adapted this recipe from a Pampered Chef recipe about 12 years ago.  It makes a huge batch, so if you have a bunch of hungry boys to feed it might just be the ticket for you.

Cheesy Mostaccioli

1 (16 oz) package mostaccioli, cooked

1 cup onion, chopped

2 pounds ground beef

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 clove garlic

¾ teaspoon black pepper

28 ounces tomato juice
1 package spaghetti sauce seasoning packet

1 (10 ¾ ounce) can condensed cheddar cheese soup

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350*.  Brown ground beef and onion for about 10 minutes or until beef is no longer pink, drain off drippings.

Stir in seasonings, tomato juice, spaghetti sauce mix and soup and mix well.  (You can also substitute a jar of spaghetti sauce for the tomato juice and seasoning packet.)

Combine pasta, meat sauce and 1½ cups of the mozzarella cheese in large casserole dish. 

At this point, you can continue with the recipe and bake or freeze for another meal.

Cover the dish with either a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. 

Carefully remove cover and sprinkle remaining cheese over the top of the casserole.  Bake uncovered an additional 10 minutes.

 This make 12 servings.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

And one of the 20+ pictures of the sprayer that delayed my post.  Gosh I love being a Farmer's Wife!  :)  Have a great rest of the week and wonderful weekend!!

W4DW- Josie's Italian Restaurant

What's for Dinner Wednesday?  Well, I haven't cooked much.  We've been eating a lot of what I cooked earlier like things in my Farm Wife Meal Planner.  We did go out to eat about a month ago to one of my favorite restaurants.  If you have to pick your days carefully, they are only open Wednesday through Saturday and don't open until 5 pm.

Josie's is located in the small town of Scammon, Kansas.  I have yet to find another business in town other than the gas station on the highway, but there is always a crowd at Josie's.  They serve authentic Italian food with recipes their great grandmother used to make.  YUM!

The service is impeccable something you usually don't get in a small town and they have a bar as well.

If you go be sure to request the anti-pasta, with your salad.  In fact, I give the boys my salad and just have the anti pasta.  ;)

Olive oil, green olives, black olives, garlic, artichoke hearts, mushroom and pastrami. 

My oldest son thought he needed the full size lasagna last time we were there.  He ate the rest for lunch the next day.

One of my favorites is the toasted meat ravioli.  The red sauce is out of this world.  It doesn't over power you with garlic and is almost sweet to the taste.  You can now even buy jars of the sauce at the restaurant.

The alfredo sauce was pretty good, too.

The dessert selections are amazing.  We love the cheesecakes.  The Turtle Fudge is our favorite.

The boys found out that the last trip the kids got free Dibs with their meal, but one of them still wanted cheesecake.

I hope you stop by Josie's sometime if you are ever in Southeast Kansas, Southwest Missouri or Northeast Oklahoma it isn't far from any of them.  It certainly is a hidden gem of an eating establishment off the beaten path, but well worth the drive.

And no I was not paid to do this post.  They don't even know I exist.  I just love good food and would like for them to continue to have a successful business.
-A Kansas Farm Mom

W4DW-Italian Beef Roll

As promised, I have another What's For Dinner Wednesday for you, but first let me address the video that was released yesterday by HSUS.  My family takes great pride in caring for our animals.  We would never abuse them or cause physical damage to them.  Our cattle harvest grass for us, and provide us with our livelihood.  Abused animals are not productive and above all abusing animals in not ethical.  Please do not think that all livestock producers treat their animals in this manner.  Just as I do not assume that all parents abuse their children, do not assume that all farmers behave in the manner that was seen on this video.  The people in this video would never have a picture in their family album that look like this:

 Yes the calf has a custom made coat and insulated barn to keep her warm.

Or This Picture:

Yes, these calves are in my house and ended up spending the night inside as it was too cold outside.

Or This Picture:

Taken at 5:00 am.  Apparently, the future cattleman couldn't sleep either with sub zero

 temperatures outside and came to check on the patient before he went back outside to mama.

Also, inside my house.  Calves and adults cattle on our farm are treated with the utmost respect!

OK Now off my soap box and on to the post I promised and already had ready before yesterday morning.  A recipe your mom might even enjoy for Mother's Day!

May is Beef Month and the second recipe I have chosen to share with you is my Italian Beef Roll.  This is a recipe I used when I competed in the Beef Ambassador Contest when I was in High School.  It is like an Italian flavored meatloaf with cheese rolled in the middle.  Another Beef Ambassador recipe you might enjoy is Porcupine Meatballs.  Yummy!

1.      Start with 1 pound of lean ground beef.  Add ¾ cup oatmeal, 1 egg or ¼ cup egg substitute, 1/3 cup chopped onion, ½ teaspoon oregano, ½ teaspoon pepper, and 1 clove of garlic or 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder.  Mix well.  Beef is the #1 food source of zinc in the diet.  It is responsible for growth and development and maintenance of the immune system.

I feel I need to back up a step here and talk about the garlic.  I love to use fresh garlic.  I sold Pampered Chef products for a few years before I had kids and ran into a few people who didn’t know how to use fresh garlic and were a bit afraid of it or had used way too much of it.  So here is my tutorial on Fresh Garlic.

This is a bulb of garlic:

The piece I have pushed out with my finger is a clove of garlic.

A clove of garlic is a small piece of the bulb that easily separates itself.

I like to use a garlic press to get the garlicky goodness out of a clove.  You can peel it and chop it, but then your hands tend to smell like garlic for a while.  You just put the clove in the press and squeeze to release the flavor.  Has anyone ever been to a garlic farm?  I wonder if the smell is overwhelming.

2.       Mix the tomato paste and water together.  I use tomato paste mixed with water in place of tomato sauce.  Tomato sauce is actually quite high in sodium and the contest I competed in judged how healthy your recipe was, so either works fine.  Add a 1/3 cup of the tomato paste mixture to the ground beef mixture and mix well.  Reserve the remaining tomato paste and water for later.  The cattle on our farm are cared for with the utmost respect.  We handle them with a calm, quiet manner and don't even own an electric cattle prod.  We truly believe in the words "Take care of the cattle and the cattle will take care of you."

3.       Now here is where you need to work efficiently and now get distracted by your kids.  Place a piece of waxed paper on top of a cutting board at least 9 by 12 inches.  Shape the ground beef into a flat rectangle about 8x10 inches on the waxed paper.

4.      Sprinkle ½ cup of Mozzarella cheese evenly over meat.

5.       Roll up like a jelly roll, using the paper to help hold the meat together.  You have to work quickly, because the meat starts to soften the waxed paper and it will tear if you take too long.  This was easier to do when I was in high school and didn’t have little boys who needed help with homework in the middle of fixing supper.

6.       Press the seams together and push the ends to seal, so the cheese doesn’t melt out of the roll. 

7.       Now, place a 7x11 baking dish over the top of your cutting board. 

8.       Flip the cutting board over, so your meat roll is in the baking dish and remove the waxed paper.

9.       Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Beef is an excellent source of iron.  The type of iron in beef is Heme iron, which is 3-5 times more easily digested than the iron found in other foods.  For example, much of the iron in spinach is not available to the body unless the spinach is eaten with meat.

45 minutes was long enough for us to feed the bottle calves and do a little heat detecting on the heifers that are ready to be bred.  All chores are done before we eat each night.  The boys understand that the animals rely on them for all their food and that the animals should come before their own wants.

10.   Pour remaining tomato mixture over the roll and sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.  Beef is an excellent source of zinc, iron and protein.

11.   Bake an additional 15 minutes.  

12.   Let cool and slice.  Enjoy! 

  Agriculture is my life’s calling, and I take pride in producing food that is safe, nutritious and affordable. I feel confident in knowing that consumers can go to their local grocery store or restaurant and purchase food that is safe and wholesome for their family, which is the same grocery store I go frequent to buy food for my family.

   I understand that contemporary agriculture doesn’t look like it did when my and my husband's grandfather's farmed (and probably yours as well), but like many other industries we have had to become more efficient to survive. The production practices we use are ethically grounded, scientifically verified and economically viable. They allow me to maximize efficiency and meet the growing demand for food.

    A Proud Kansas Farm Mom

·         

Italian Beef Roll

1 lb. ground beef

¾ cup oatmeal

¼ cup egg substitute or 1 egg

1/3 cup onion, chopped

½ t. oregano

1/8 t. garlic powder or 1 clove garlic

½ t. pepper

6 oz. can tomato paste

½ cup water

4 oz mozzarella cheese, grated

Combine ground beef, oatmeal, egg substitute, onion and seasonings.  Mix tomato paste and water and add 1/3 cup of mixture to beef mix, reserving the remainder for later use.  Mix well and shape into a flat rectangle about 8x10 inches on waxed paper.  Sprinkle ½ cup of cheese evenly over meat.  Roll up like a jelly roll and press seams together.

Carefully place into a 7x11 inch baking dish.  Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Pour remaining sauce mixture over the roll and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake an additional 15 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes and slice.