Friday, September 7, 2012

A Delicious, Versatile Meatball


I think we all have those crazy nights when it seems almost impossible to get dinner on the table.  For myself, I had two boys in hockey, I was President of my childrens' PTA, one child in soccer, the other in baseball, one took guitar lessons, Mr. P coached two hockey teams and sat on the Minor Hockey board all while running a business with never-ending working hours.  As you can see, life can get pretty hectic in our household!

One of my saving graces was to have a few batches of meatballs made up in advance and frozen so that they were ready in minutes.  When I was too tired to fix much else or I had to get the kids fed in a hurry, quite often meatballs were our meal of choice.  Mostly because they are so versatile. 

A favourite in our house is Meatball Soup.  I saute some celery, carrots and onions, add in some chicken stock, noodles and meatballs and we have a hearty dinner that everyone loves.  Another favourite is Meatball Subs.  I heat up some meatballs in some spaghetti sauce and put them on a bun, shred some mozzarella cheese on top and put them under the broiler for a minute.  Sometimes I would use hot dog buns since that would be all that I had on hand.  We also do Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Using angel hair pasta makes this meal extremely quick to put together.  Much faster than going to a fast food joint for take out!  Of course, we also enjoy eating meatballs on their own with boiled potatoes, gravy and whatever vegetable I have in the freezer.  There are just so many other ways that you can use up some pre-made meatballs.  You could cover them in BBQ sauce and heat them in the crock pot (this is also great to take to a potluck!) or Ikea has a fabulous mustard, cream sauce mix that tastes wonderful poured over meatballs.  Like I said, meatballs are very versatile!

Here is my recipe for meatballs.  I love this recipe not only because there is lots of cheese in it but also because I can sneak in a serving of spinach without my family realizing it.

Meatballs
 

Ingredients:

3 lbs of lean ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 pkg. of frozen, chopped spinach with all the water squeezed out
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine all of the ingredients above.


Shape into small balls.


I found this great little ice cream scoop a couple of years ago.  It makes forming meatballs so much easier and they are a uniform size so that they cook evenly.  I had been looking for one of these for a while and when I finally found one I scooped it up (no pun intended)!

Place meatballs on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes.


They should be lightly browned and the cheese should be oozing out when they are done.


After letting them cool a little, I put them in large ziplock bags and placed them in the freezer.


I ended up making 2 batches and each batch made 80 meatballs.  I am now ready for when one of those crazy nights hits and, best of all, I don't have to feed my family fast food.

What is your go-to meal on a hectic night?



1 comment:

  1. Oh go on, Sherry. You did so intend that pun. And it was a cute one.

    Oh, and nice recipe too btw.

    ReplyDelete