Yikes! Porcupines!

Oh boy, yet another new recipe that we are trying tonight. I took out some ground beef this morning, but wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it. I googled some things, and found this recipe which received 4 stars. We'll see what we think after dinner tonight!

I made some changes to the recipe, because I wasn't quite sure if it was going to have any flavor.

Porcupines

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, 1/2 cup of water and onion. Blend in salt, celery salt, garlic powder and pepper. Mix well. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the meatballs; drain fat.
3. In an 11x7 inch baking dish, combine the tomato sauce and 1 cup of water. Place the browned meatballs into the tomato sauce, turning to coat well.
4. Cover and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. Uncover, and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

I left out the onion, only because we didn't have one and I didn't feel like going to the store. I added 2 tsp of chopped cumin, a sprinkle of garlic pepper, fresh garlic instead of garlic powder, and added an egg to the meat. I sprinkled in some breadcrumbs, because it just wasn't sticking together and that helped a lot. I didn't fry the meatballs, instead I popped them in the oven for about 25 minutes at 425. I think frying meatballs can dry them out, and I wanted to make sure these were really juicy.

Jesse is always game to try new recipes, so I'll have to update this after we try it out.