Cheat with meat - make your dollar go further with these Creamy Meatballs

With the rising costs of living, you may be looking for ways to feed the family on a tight budget. Meat can be expensive, so here is a way to make minced (ground) meat go further - mix tofu into it. Now, before you go thinking that tofu is a bit way out for you, it's cheap, comes in many forms and is packed full of protein, not to mention often healthier than meat. Tofu doesn't have much flavour but absorbs the flavour of whatever you put it with, hence a great substitute for meat.
When I buy mince I always buy the best quality I can find. The one I usually buy is around $14 per kilo at my local supermarket. For this recipe I used Silken Firm tofu. If you haven't used tofu before, you can usually find it in the fridge section of the supermarket in the vicinity of the fresh pastas and yoghurts.
This recipe originally had 300g of minced pork and 300 g of minced beef. I used a 300g pack of silken firm tofu instead of the pork. This recipe is for a slow cooker but you could do it all in a fry pan just as easily
Ingredients
3 slices day old crusty bread
185ml or 3/4 cup of milk
300g beef mince
300g silken tofu
60g or 1/4 cup grated onion
1tsp salt flakes
1tsp ground white pepper
1tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2tbsp olive oil
125ml or 1/2 cup chicken stock
125ml or 1/2 cup cream (I used yoghurt for a healthier alternative)

Method
Roughly chop the bread and place in a bowl. Pour the milk over the bread and set aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze out and discard most of the milk.
Combine bread, mince, tofu, onion, salt flakes and spices in a bowl using your hands. Form mixture into 24 meatballs.
Heat half of the oil in a fry pan and brown half of the meatballs. Transfer to slow cooker and repeat with the rest of the oil and meatballs. Pour stock and cream into slow cooker to cover the meatballs. Cover and cook on low for 3 - 4 hours or until meatballs are cooked through.
You may like to stir through some chopped dill just before serving and top with grated lemon rind for extra zing.
This recipe has been modified from "Slow Cooker, through it in and let it simmer" by Murdoch Books.