If you live anywhere near me, you are in need of food, and I get a last minute call from the food ministry, that only means one thing...your getting meatballs from my freezer.
They taste a lot better than that sounds.
I was never one to make meatballs. I thought they were too complex and too much trouble, especially since you can buy the bagged ones in the freezer section. I am more of the take the easiest route kind of girl. I don't make my own spaghetti sauce either. Im more of a Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking type instead of a Julia Child The Art of French Cooking type.
Then my friend Tyler, who claims she does not like to cook, never fails to impress me that she was in the kitchen making meatballs for her freezer and she let me in on her secret.... and her recipe.... they are not so difficult to cook and they taste a lot better than the bagged ones in the grocery store freezer.
Here is her recipe, with my variations:
Preheat oven to 425.
Combine 4 pounds of lean ground beef (I use 90/10 ground sirloin and then add 1 pound of ground sausage) with 4 large eggs, 1 cup milk, ½ cup finely chopped onion, 2 cups bread crumbs (Tyler makes her own breadcrumbs, I buy mine), 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 4 tsp salt, (I only use 2) and 1 tsp pepper in a large bowl.
Mix until well blended.
Shape into 1 1/2" balls.
Arrange on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 15-16 min until no pink remains. Drain (I've never drained. There’s never grease).
Makes about 8 dozen (96) meatballs.
Make ahead and freeze tip: Place baked meatballs in a single layer on baking sheet. Freeze 2 hours then remove to freezer bag. (This keeps them from sticking together when frozen.) Label. Freeze for up to 3 months, but they wont last that long.
Put the freezer bag on the counter for a couple of hours and they are defrosted.
Then throw them in spaghetti, make a meatball sandwich, serve with ketchup like mini meatloaves, drown in BBQ sauce, or my very favorite way to enjoy them is with the sweet and sour sauce from this recipe Tyler gave me with no variations from me, because it is perfect.
Brown sugar, packed 1 1/3 cups
All-purpose flour 3 tbs
Water 2/3 cups
White vinegar ½ cup
Ketchup 1 tbsp
Low-sodium soy sauce 1 tbsp
Mix brown sugar and flour well in medium saucepan. Stir in water, vinegar, ketchup, and soy sauce. Heat and stir until boiling and thickened. Makes about 2 cups sauce.
Add meatballs. Simmer until heated through. (Or, toss in a crock-pot to simmer throughout the day – this works well when the meatballs are frozen. Or, toss in a casserole dish and put in the oven at 350 until warmed through – 30 min when thawed, 2 hours from frozen.)
Happy Foodie Friday!
8 comments:
I tend to buy the turkey meatballs, trying to get a bit healthy, but these sound like they're worth a try!
- The Tablescaper
LOL! I love how you say I "make" my own bread crumbs. It's a lot less fancy than it sounds.
- save crusts and let them dry out on counter (1-2 days)
- put in bread bag
- roll with rolling pin
- save until needed
My girlfriend uses oatmeal instead of bread crumbs, for a healthier alternative. Or, for gluten-fee, I've crushed up rice crackers.
Linking up. :)
These sound delicious and well worth trying. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary
Those sound delicious and that is such a nice thing you do to minister to people in need of food!
Christi @ A Southern Life
http://asouthernlife.com
This is almost like we make meatballs in Belgium. We never buy them ready made. You hardly find them. We are still of people that are cooking from scratch. Try these meatballs with cherry's.I mean the kind of sour cherry's in glass in a sirop kind. Make a sauce out of the juice and a bit of cornflower and then put the cherry's back in. This is lovely with cold or warm meatloaf or meatballs! It is a traditional meal in our house and I have known it all my life.
I am going to give these a try! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a great idea, I will give it a go.
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