Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Hey college students! Looking for a quick and easy recipe? One that you can make in bulk and is not too hard on your wallet? These Sweet and Sour meatballs by Melskitchencafe is what you’ve been looking for! This savory meal is an American dish (a variant of many other kinds) that is great for lunch or dinner. We will be baking the meatballs as our method of cooking. It is one of the best ways to cook meatballs. This recipe is beginner friendly and only takes an hour of your time.

Budget-Friendly

For limited budgets, some of the ingredients can be found at the USU SNAC pantry or your local food pantry. The food pantry may have quick oats, eggs, and rice. These are not always in stock, but you could go and look. Buying generic brands of food and using coupons can also help to save some money. The generic brands work just as well as the name brand foods.

Cost Breakdown of Recipe

Ingredients	Amount	Unit Cost of Ingredient	Recipe Cost of Ingredient
Lean ground meat	1.5 lbs	$3.96/lb	$5.94
Quick oats or old-fashioned oats	3/4 cup	$1.99/18 oz	$0.22
Eggs	2 eggs	$4.29/12 count	$0.72
Onions	1/2 cup	$0.78	$0.39
Milk	1/4 cup	$2.98/gallon	$0.05
Salt	1 tsp	$0.57/26 oz	$0.004
Pepper	1/2 tsp	$5.98/6 oz	$0.08
Worcestershire sauce	2 tsp	$1.00/10 fl oz	$0.03
Brown sugar	1/4-1/2 cup	$1.84/32 oz	$0.12-$0.23
Apple cider vinegar	1/4 cup	$2.12/32 oz	$0.13
Yellow mustard	1 tsp	$1.12/20 oz	$0.009
Barbecue sauce	1/4 cup	$2.49/18 oz	$0.35
Rice	1 cup, uncooked	$1.64/32 oz	$0.41
Broccoli	2 cups	$1.48/lb	$1.48
TOTAL RECIPE COST			$9.93
Cost per serving (serves 6)			$1.66

Nutritional Pointers

When cooking with meat there are several different kinds of meat to use, for example there is 93% and 80% lean ground beef. The difference between the two is that 93% beef only has 7% fat whereas 80% beef could have up to 20% fat. Since 93% lean ground beef is low in fat it is great to use in meatballs, making homemade hamburger patties, meatloaf, sloppy joes, and several other dishes. With meat that is lower in fat, it has more protein and fewer calories per serving. We used 93% lean ground beef in our recipe.

Nutrient	Nutritional Benefit
Broccoli	Excellent source of folate and fiber.
Lean ground beef	Healthy meat option and great source of protein, iron, and zinc.
Oats	Nutrient dense and an excellent source of protein and soluble fiber.
Rice	Excellent source of protein and potassium.
Milk	Great source of calcium, vitamin D, iodine, and protein.

Our Experience Cooking These Meatballs

This recipe is very easy and straightforward to make. It is best to start off by creating the meatballs and the sauce (we doubled the sauce recipe), then setting them aside to start the rice (as that rice takes a bit longer to cook than the meatballs). After the rice starts boiling, place your meatballs in the oven. There are a few different ways to make broccoli, you can roast, steam, or boil. We prepared our broccoli by steaming. Another quick way to make broccoli is to set it in a little bit of water and add chicken bouillon to it then microwave or boil/steam until you can stick a fork into the broccoli, this adds a little more flavor. 

We placed the meatballs on top of the rice and poured the extra sauce over the meatball and the rice. You could add the broccoli to the rice and meatballs for a one bowl dish (yay less clean up!). The end product is delicious and savory. There’s different ways to incorporate your favorite spices or no spices if preferred, into the meatballs. The sauce being good as is, could be made creamier by adding a roux. It’s all up to your preference. That’s what makes this dish so great!