Easy Homemade Meatballs Recipe

Nov

2009

Friday

meatballs

(Photo by alirjd)

Have you priced the pre-made bags of meatballs at the store? They are way more than I want to spend, plus I can’t pronounce all of the ingredients in them and that makes me a little scared.

So, instead of buying them, I can MAKE them! And they are super easy to make too. I love having them on hand to make a quick spaghetti dinner or to just have with rice and gravy.

Here’s my recipe:

(As usual, I don’t really have measurements for this, but just about any combination of these ingredients will turn out well. )

Ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken
Bread crumbs
Italian seasoning or other spices (You could also just get the bread crumbs at the store that already have italian seasoning in them)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Eggs (I use 1 egg per pound of meat)
Chopped onions
Salt & pepper to taste (if desired)

I mix this together by hand really well, shape it into 1 inch balls and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

After it cools a little bit, put the tray into the freezer to let the meatballs freeze individually (this prevents them from sticking together when you put them in the ziploc.)

Once they are frozen, put them in a freezer ziploc bag and you’re done! Then when you’re in the mood for meatballs all you have to do is take out the number that you need and heat them up.

Leeann

The idea of hand mixing, rolling and frying meatballs always turned me off to making them until I found a few short cuts. I mix the ingredients in my Kitchen aid just enough until it is mixed through and then I scoop them onto the baking sheet with a cookie scoop. I'm no longer daunted by meatballs and we always have them in the freezer. I make a great appetizer with 1 bottle of Heinz chili sauce and 1/2 c grape jelly heated with meatballs!

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Rachel @ Surviving The Stores

@Leeann, Oh what a great idea! I don't like the hand mixing either, so that sounds great. And I never would've thought about using Heinz chili sauce and grape jelly... do you put any spices in your meatballs or do you leave them plain?

Carrie

I have almost the same recipe for meatballs and also use ground turkey. I actually use oats soaked in a bit of milk instead of bread crumbs. They turn out really good and are even healthier than bread crumbs - which also have lots of ingredients that you can't pronounce. I started this when I was pregnant with #3 and many of the bread cumbs had msg's and lots of salt. I haven't looked back. If the mixture needs thickening up I just add more oats.

@Carrie, I was thinking bread crumbs as in "toast bread and make breadcrumbs yourself" but using oats sounds so much easier!! I will have to try that next time! Thanks for the tip!

Paula

I love the idea of baking the meatballs. My recipe is very need to your, but I always fry them in olive oil. Since we are trying to watch our weight the baking them will really help us out! I think I need to ask my hubby for a freezer for Christmas. The bottom freezer in my new frig doesn't hold near as much as my of top freezer one did.

Jamie

Yay! I just did too this last night after family packs of ground beef were on sale for $1.79 per pound at HyVee. I called it my "ground beef extravaganza" since I bought 3 packs and made 2 meatloaves, 38 meatballs and browned the last package and divided it up into 3 containers. My freezer is now full of already cooked meat (my pet peeve is thawing frozen RAW meat).