Meatball and Macaronni Soup

Oh My Goodness!!!!  Such deliciousness.  Can be as FAILSAFE as you want or not.  And it only took 500grm of mince to make a big pot that fed 8 hungry people, some who had 4ths---yes I'm looking at you MrJ!!   Definately a keeper.

Finely sliced/grated vegetables-I used carrot, cabbage, frozen peas and frozen green beans
Finely sliced shallots/onions
Finely sliced garlic
Chicken stock, about 10cups-I used a mix of chicken stock, bean stock, quick stock and water as I didn't have enough chicken stock
Mince, about 500grm-mixed with a little rice flour, seasoned and rolled into teeny little balls about the size of your thumb nail
Macaronni, about 200grm

Gently saute the vegetables, shallots and garlic.  Add chicken stock and bring to the boil.  Gently drop in meatballs in a few batches, stiring between.  Sprinkle in macaronni.  Let gently simmer until meatballs and macaronni is done.

Limes

Friday I went to the fruit shop and bought a few boxes of cheap fruit.  There was a box of limes $3 so I divided it into lime pickle, lime marmalade and with the few remaining I made some fresh lime cordial to celebrate my remembering to renew the soda stream refill.  Friday afternoon the house smelt so fresh and clean with all the cutting, juicing, soaking and letting the fruit to marinate. Yesterday I made the marmalade.  I made it clear and I strained all the nasty peel bits out-YUCK I love marmalade but can't stand the peel, who wants to spend their breakfast spiting out bits of pithy, bitter peel?  I set really well and tastes good.  I think there is a pithy aftertaste but DH says its OK.  This morning I had it on fresh hot Artisan bread.  Ahhhhh.  And 2 cups of good coffee.  DH went fishing so I got up with him and set the bread to rise and baking and while that happened went back to bed with a book.  When the bread was ready I made the tribe babycinos to have with their bread and took mine back to bed.  I ignored the fight and came out after to wipe the excess jam and honey off the table :) :) 
DH returned empty handed so we had vegetarian refried beans with baked potatoes and salad from the garden. 
Tomorrow I have to make the lime pickle.  Then it has to be kept for 3months before opening.  We learnt the hard and bitter, very bitter, way that is it better to wait.  So I have 3months to put up some brinjal (eggplant chutney) and sweet mango chutney and then we can have a delicious Indian feast. 

Went to the fruit and vegetable shop and got a few bargins from the cheap table.  A box of bananas for $3.50 and 2 boxes of assorted veg mainly tomatoes for $2.50 each.  Wonderful!  I ended up making 3 1/2 jars of tomato sauce, roasted the capsicums and pickled the cucumbers.  I only went in there to get lettuce for dinner but ended up changing dinner plans as MrM and MsR requested mushrooms "but you never get mushrooms and I loooooooove them" so dinner of salad and roast potoatoes became mushroom/chicken pizza for the kids and capscicum and chilli for DH and I.  Mmmm I love homemade pizza and we have it quite a bit here.
The house smelt so richly of the simmering tomato sauce.  I froze it as it is a very rare treat as we eat mainly FAILSAFE .  Same for the bananas, will make them into banana cakes and freeze them and dole them out occassionally and the pickles. 
So back to the original plan of salad and roast potatoes for dinner tomorrow.  Big leafy green salad and teeny tiny crunchy garlic roasted potatoes.  Can hardly wait.......