Easy “Rainbow” Dinner: Leftover Meatballs with Fresh, Frozen, and Fermented Veggies

Posted on April, 2015 Updated on April, 2015

The triple “F” of vegetables! Fresh rainbow carrots, frozen (then steamed) peas, and fermented purple cabbage help make this easy dinner plate super colorful, and super quick! The most complicated item to make on this plate was probably the rice – everything else is just a step or two from being ready to eat!

Let’s go over how each item made it to the dinner table, in rainbow order of course!

Carrots

Easy! Peel, chop, and eat! Right out of the fridge, no other prep work required. We picked red, classic orange, and yellow carrots to start off our rainbow colors.

Peas

Frozen peas to the rescue! They’re by far the easiest green vegetable I make – just put about half a cup in a small pan, add a couple tablespoons of water, cover and cook on the stove on medium for about 10 minutes. Done! My kids love them because they’re sweet and fun to pop in their mouths.

Fermented cabbage

This is the easiest one on the plate – just pull some out of the jar and toss it on the plate! Fermented cabbage may sound scary, but it’s actually really tasty. I’ll post instructions on how to ferment vegetables soon – it’s actually pretty fun!

Meatballs

These are leftover from our Spaghetti and Meatball Night. This is why I make more meatballs than we’ll need with the spaghetti – because they make such easy leftovers! Just heat and serve. I usually heat mine in a small, covered pan on medium low. They give off enough meat juices that I don’t even need to grease the pan.

Rice

There are already a fair amount of carbs on our plate (carrots and peas are high-carb vegetables) but the rice helps the kids tolerate all these vegetables so I give in on leftover night. Rice has become second nature for me to cook. We only need a small amount so I first rinse about 3/4 cup rice in cold water, until the water runs clear. Then combine the rinsed rice and about 1-1/4 cup water in a pan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Once the boil begins, cover, reduce the heat to very low and cook for 12 minutes. Then remove from the heat and let it sit, covered, for another 10-15 minutes (don’t take that lid off at any point or you’ll disturb the steaming process!). I usually start heating up the meatballs and steaming the peas when I remove the rice from the heat. Then everything gets hot and ready at the same time!

In cooking order…

• Rinse the rice and start to boil
• Lower the heat and cook rice for 12 minutes
• Get out the peas from the freezer and combine with water in a small pan
• Peel the carrots
• Get the meatballs and cabbage from the fridge
• Remove the rice from the heat (remember not to open the lid!)
• Start heating the meatballs and peas
• Chop the carrots into your preferred size and shape
• Plate the carrots and cabbage, followed by peas, meatballs, and the rice. Serve and enjoy!!