Jessica Barnes, PhD, RDN, LDHello Villagers,
I love cooking meatballs and my kids love to eat them. They are fantastic in soups, stews, pastas, or by themselves with a little dipping sauce.
Frozen meatballs used to be my go-to because of convenience, but I started making my own in order to control the quality of ingredients that went into them. Anytime lean ground beef would go on sale, I would make these in bulk and freeze them for later, but that still took a lot of time on the front end. Then I found this handy-dandy meatball maker that greatly reduced my rolling time. (For the record, they are not paying me to promote this product, I just wanted to share my helpful find.)
Once all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together by hand, simply place the mixture into the bottom tray, pat it down, and then place the top tray on and push down. This part required all my body weight, but I managed to get all of my meatballs sectioned off. Next, remove the top tray and pull off the meatballs one by one. The sides needed to be pat down to even them out, but otherwise, they were good to go! If you don’t have one of these gadgets, rolling by hand will be just as delicious!
If you are planning to eat the meatballs right away, bake them for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. If you are saving them for later, place them on a sheet pan, making sure they do not touch, and freeze overnight. Once frozen, store in a freezer-safe Tupperware or ziplock bag. They can be cooked from frozen, they’ll just need a few extra minutes.
This Italian version works great for spaghetti and meatballs or simply dipped in a little marinara sauce.
Enjoy!
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place all ingredients into a large bowl.
- Using hands, mix until thoroughly combined.
- Using hands or meatball maker, roll mixture into 32 even meatballs.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
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