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Meatballs!!!

Meatballs are easily one of my favorite foods.  I just like them better when others cook them.  They aren't a ton of work but its just a process.  And they are best when they can sit in the sauce and soak it up all day.  On my kick of prep ahead foods, I decided meatballs were on the menu.  I made about 2.5 batches.  One for dinner and one for the freezer.  There would probably be 3 meals but I think the husband likes meatballs more than I do.   The ingredients used were:

  • 2 lbs of ground beef
  • 2 lbs of ground veal
  • 2 lbs of ground sausage
  • 1 lbs of ground chuck (ideally you would use all good quality ground beef but I went with what I had on hand)
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons pepper
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2-3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
  • 2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1.5 cups breadcrumbs (I had panko on hand but any are good)
  • 1 handful of parmesan 
First steps, getting all 7 lbs of meat out of the packages.  Fortunately my best friend gave me these awesome giant bowls for Christmas.  I think she picked them up at Costco.  They are probably the most used thing in my kitchen other than my Organics pan.




Next add in all the goodies (basil, parsley, eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.  



Unfortunately there is no good way to get everything mixed other than with you hands.  Mix everything several times, blending as much of the meat into each other.  It helps get all the good flavors of each meat into each bite.



Next is the not fun part.  Rolling everything into balls.  It was hot this weekend (so in my infinite wisdom I decided to use the oven) so I wanted to get everything onto two baking sheet so my meat loaf would also fit in the over and it wouldn't be on for too long.  I have previously made them on aluminum foil.  That was disastrous and I picked pieces of foil out of my meatballs for far too long. This time I used parchment paper, which worked great.  Though next time, I might put them on a cookie cooling rack to keep them out of their own oil. 



I baked at 400 for about 25-30 minutes until they were done.  Next I tossed them into a crock pot with some marinara sauce I had made to get them to absorb all those great flavors.  I put them in the fridge that night and warmed them up the next day for dinner.  I made cauliflower rice to go along with it and added a little cheese.  Pretty happy with how they turned out and I have a meal in the freezer.


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