Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Freezer Meals: Meatballs


I must be on a blogging kick lately.

Anywho, I have been having very erratic cooking "mood swings." I will go all out and make a great meal one day, then the next few days it will be either cereal, or toast. Sooo, I've been trying to figure out how to have better options when I don't feel like cooking. This is a great "pull out of the freezer meal." My only problem now is that we may have meatballs for dinner every other day :-) (p.s. don't look at my dirty oven :-)

This is my latest and it tastes really good. Oven-baked meatballs. I used this recipe (alton brown) as the base.

Here is how I modified it:
  • Instead of the 3 different meats, I did one half ground beef and one half pork (ground pork or mild Italian sausage).
  • I doubled the recipe so that I could have more for freezer storage.
  • You can form the balls by gently grabbing some with a cookie scooper. I ended up just doing it with my hands.
  • In this recipe you bake the meatballs in a mini muffin pan so that you can still get a nice crust on the meatball, without having to saute them.
  • The meatball shape turns out better if you can let them sit on a plate or tray in the fridge for a few hours. I tried some that were freshly rolled, and they ended up looking like meatball mini-muffins. I guess they still will be good once you cover them in sauce.
Once baked, let them cool then keep them in a zip lock bag in the freezer.

To unthaw, let them simmer in some marinara sauce. (You could also microwave them if you are in a hurry.

They may cost a little more than Costco meatballs, but they taste WAY better.

Anywho, I must be in the nesting phase of pregnancy. Right now Pete and I are painting all of the doors in the house. :-)

3 comments:

Mommymita said...

blogging must be a form of nesting.

I made a bunch of these throughout the year - 12 lbs at a time. I also added cooked quinoa and pureed spinach and they had a greenish hue. The kids still liked them and I loved having dinner ready in no time. Too bad this basement kitchen doesn't have enough counter space for even a 3 lb. batch.

Becca said...

mmmmmm.........meatballs! Try them on a leftover baquette w/ sauce and parmesan.

Buffy said...

looks good. I use a recipe for oven baked meatballs from Rachel Ray and they are fast and really good. My kids love them. They have parmesean-reggiano cheese in the center of the meatballs. It is so fun trying new recipes. You are a total super mom/woman! Is there anything you don't do? :)haha