meatballs

 

meatballs with tomato sauce, meatballs with brown gravy, meatballs in a sub roll with bbq sauce, everyone needs a good meatball recipe...here's the one I like.  change it up to fit your needs--don't like pork?  add only beef.  want a fresh flavor, add some fresh Italian parsley!

don't worry about making too many--freeze some for another day!  

ingredients:
2 tbsp. olive oil (+small amount for baking sheet)
1 medium onion, diced small
1 lb. lean ground beef (I use ground chuck)
1 lb. ground pork
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs (works fine with Italian too!)
2 eggs
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
2 tbsp. freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk (water is ok too)

instructions:
preheat oven to 425 degrees F

very lightly oil a baking sheet.  (a little oil on a piece of paper towel works perfectly!  or spray with cooking spray.)

heat olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat, add onions and cook until translucent (don't brown!)
let cool.

use your hands to mix together beef, pork, bread crumbs, eggs, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese and milk.  mix in cooled onions.

form meat mixture into about 1 1/2" balls (I use my small cookie scoop to get equal portions!)  arrange on prepared baking sheet.

bake in preheated oven 20 minutes or until browned and cooked through.

add the meatballs to your favorite sauce (tomato, bbq, brown gravy).

enjoy!!!

these freeze really well!  put meatballs into a zip lock freezer bags in a single layer, remove the air, zip and freeze.  use small bags for smaller portions, so you only pull out what you need!