Meatballs Lithuanian Style, or “Kotletai”

Aah, food. Love to eat it, love to prepare it, but it confuses the heck out of me. The other day I was thinking yet again about eating out, but the same eternal question started bothering me: why go out to eat on a workday when you can make a delicious meal for a fraction of the cost and without leaving your house in under one hour? Let’s talk about this.

Don’t get me wrong. Going out to eat is a beautiful thing. Waking up on a weekend and deciding to go out for breakfast or planning out what new restaurant you will try for dinner. Meeting up with friends for an appetizer and a few drinks. It gives you a fantastic feeling of anticipation, a touch of extraordinary, a hope that maybe, just maybe you’re are more than just a simple person.  But every day, after work, when I am tired and kind of starving the only thing besides food that might make me less “hangry” (hungry+angry) is the idea that I will be in my warm house in yoga pants, not dishing out fake smiles when all I want is my food. Right now. Here are a few reasons:

1. Since I buy food for the week, I kind of know what I have in the fridge and for how many days. It takes a bit of preplanning (like one second) and I come home already knowing what will be for dinner. 

2. Since I make 20 thousand decisions at work during the day, deciding which restaurant to go to for dinner is a painful experience. One person wants Chinese buffet, the other wants an international ambiance, the third one wants something that is close and serves super cheap food in a super nice environment (what is cheap and what is nice? LOL), aaaaahhhh…. Most of the time I just want to eat something, and most likely it is not served in any of the discussed places.

3. Timewise, making a decision where to go, getting everyone in the car, driving, waiting for the order, eating and then coming home takes much longer than to make dinner at home.

4. Did I mention cost effectiveness? For a family of five, going out to eat can cost us half of our weekly food budget.

5. Okay, I can compromise on take out. Once in a while. When basketball and swimming and docs appointments get in the way and I wasn’t on top of my planning game (or didn’t want to be because let’s face it, I’m not perfect…).

I think the biggest reason, though, why I am reluctant to go out to eat versus cooking by myself is because it’s programmed in me. I grew up with my mother and grandmothers and aunts cooking at home, and going out to a restaurant was a special occasion. That was the culture. Of course, times have changed significantly, but somehow our childhood experiences stay with us. It’s as simple as that.

All right. Now that I’m done expressing my opinion about public eating establishments, how about I treat you to something goooooood, eh? Would you like a recipe of a nice dish you can make, say, on a Tuesday or Wednesday night? Of course you would!:)

Meatballs Lithuanian style, otherwise known as “Kotletai”

Simply Ieva

Meatballs Lithuanian Style, or "Kotletai"

10 minPrep Time

25 minCook Time

35 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• 2 ½ lbs ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 2 slices of white sandwich bread (can be dry (if it ever gets dry:)
• 1 cup of milk
• ½ medium onion, diced or finely grated
• salt and pepper, to taste
• herbal mix of your choice. I used a teaspoon of pre-made mix of paprika, chili pepper, black pepper, garlic, salt, basil, oregano, rosemary and oil. But you can totally improvise here.
• Pasta sauce

Instructions

1. Take the two slices of bread and soak them in milk for a few minutes. Sometimes all it really takes is for the bread to be soaked through, so the timing is truly optional here.
2. Add the eggs, onion, spices and the soaked bread to the ground beef and mix well.
3. Form palm size meatballs from the beef.
4. Heat oil in a deep skillet and place the meatballs in it. Cook for a couple of minutes until they are browned on each side and then take them out and set aside until you put another batch in.
5. When all the meatballs are browned, place them back in the skillet, pour a half a cup of water or broth, cover with a lid and let them simmer for 20-30 minutes.
6. Once the meatballs are almost cooked, pour a jar of pasta sauce over them and let them sit for a few minutes.
7. Serve with mashed potatoes and salad on the side.
8. Enjoy

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