I mentioned recently that last month we had to streeeeeeetch our food budget quite a bit due to some mismanagement and having an extra week hold over to get our food money. As such there was some definite creative cooking and I wanted to share with you probably my most impressive there’s nothing in the cupboard recipe.
We had a couple friends coming over too so I was sweating it just a smidge hoping these turned out okay haha.
Basically what I did was make them while taking precarious notes of the exact ingredients for you….and promptly lose my notes. Sigh. The cover will be here for the iPad soon so I can have it in the kitchen with me. Praise the Lord.
Regardless the basic principle is this, take a couple cans of black beans and mash them up with your mash potato masher. Then if you have any meat (we had the tiniest bit of sausage leftover) throw that in there and anything that will make it taste yummy….mushrooms, onions, garlic, etc. Season the tar out of it with whatever italian seasonings you have and lots of black pepper and a smidge of salt.
Then take an egg (or a couple if it needs more glue) and mix those in and then rip up a couple slices of stale bread into about quarter size pieces and mix it all up well.
Spray a cookie sheet with pam and make meatballs on the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 min or so. If yours hold together okay you can try to turn them once or just leave them in place til serving.
While those are in the oven boil your pasta and start the sauce. I was out of tomato paste so shhh don’t tell anyone, I used ketchup instead. 1 giant can of crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic and fresh herbs from the garden, and some water with chicken bouillon stretched it out enough for us to have company over too.
You can make any of your stale bread into garlic bread and no one will ever know it was stale. We have a great bread truck here in town that we pick up free bread from so we took some of the staler stuff and whipped up some garlic bread with it.
Then serve with lots of cheapo Parmesan and dig in!
The whole meal turned out great, the “meatballs” had great flavor and were rather light in mouth texture. They didn’t taste like beans at all and my most picky eater friend devoured an entire plateful. The boys were even eating the leftover meatballs straight off the cookie sheet!
Day Before Payday Spaghetti and Black Bean Meatballs
Ingredients
- black beans
- beef or sausage
- filling ingredients: mushrooms onions, garlic, etc.
- Italian seasonings
- salt and pepper
- egg
- stale bread
- spaghetti noodles
- crushed tomatoes
- chicken bouillon
- ketchup
- parmesan cheese
Instructions
- 1. Take a couple of cans of black beans and mash them up with your mash potato masher.
2. If you have any meat (we had the tiniest bit of sausage leftover) throw that in there and anything that will make it taste yummy....mushrooms, onions, garlic, etc.
3. Season the tar out of it with whatever Italian seasonings you have and lots of black pepper and a smidge of salt.
4. Take an egg (or a couple if it needs more glue) and mix those in.
5. Rip up a couple of slices of stale bread into about quarter size pieces and mix it all up well.
6. Spray a cookie sheet with pam and make meatballs on the cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 350 for 20 min or so. If yours hold together okay you can try to turn them once or just leave them in place till serving.
8. While those are in the oven boil your pasta and start the sauce.
9. Add crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs. Mix water with chicken bouillon and ketchup to stretch sauce.
10. Make any of your stale bread into garlic bread by spreading with butter and seasoning with powdered garlic (or fresh if you're feeling fancy).
11. Serve with lots of cheapo Parmesan and dig in!
