Homemade Meatballs!!!

These meatballs were DE - ee - licious! I pulled them from a meatball sub sandwich recipe...maybe one day if i'm feeling up to the challenge I will try the hoagie rolls and sauce they included and I'll post it on here too!

But in the mean time....MEATBALLS! I really try not to buy frozen foods or pre-made meals. And if I do I try to include something from scratch. Since I was obviously using boxed pasta (let's get real I may be a student but I DO NOT have time to figure out how to make my own pasta) and jarred sauce from the store I decided I'd make my own meatballs.

As an appetizer I cut up some fresh cucumbers from my garden and set out some hummus! I'm so proud of the garden. And the cucumbers just keep growing. If anyone wants some let me know!

Back to Meatballs :)

Hereeeeeee are the ingredients

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs. unsalted butter

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 of a large onion (finely chopped)

1 c. italian style breadcrumbs 

1 large egg 

2 tbs. dried basil

2 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 c. milk

Step 1:

• In a skillet heat the butter and olive oil (I actually wait to do this till i've mixed the other ingredients and shaped the meatballs. If it gets too hot then your meatballs will burn while you are shaping the other ones)
• In a large bowl mix the rest of the ingredients.

 *** there will be a lot more meat then that, but I took this after I made some of them

Step 2:

• Form the mixture into balls and let it brown slightly on all sides. Pay attention because they brown and get crispy very quickly.

Step 3:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. As the meatballs finish browning take them out and put them on a parchment lined baking sheet. (I didn't have parchment paper so i just put some olive oil on the pan so they wouldn't stick)
• Bake for 20-30 minutes or until they are cooked through. Mine cooked through quickly and were done in about 15 minutes.

Before Going in the oven! There were quite a few more than this by the end

Finished!!

THESE. WERE. SO. GOOD!!!!!!!!

I didn't technically follow the recipe exactly...go figure. For instance, I used both my onions the other day when I was supposed to save half. Soooo no onions were used. I opened the refrigerator to grab the milk....and there was no milk WHOOPS! so neither of those things were used in the creation of these meatballs. I did however use some parmesan cheese and I added that when combining all the ingredients. This was a minimal MINIMAL effort meal, perfect for the middle of the week. And you could definitely half it if you are only cooking for yourself or for two. Although, I had left overs for lunch today and it was just as good as last night! 

For those of you with kids you could let them help you shape the meatballs. It's kind of a fun way for kids to get involved and to know what's in/be excited to eat their food!