Ladybug (3 years old) loves meatballs. Well, so does the rest of the family. But when you have a preschooler going through a picky phase, you become thankful that she likes nutritious foods. Meatballs can be one of them.
I was going to pick up a bag of frozen meatballs at the store this week. Then I turned the bag over and read the ingredients. I couldn't pronounce half the words, and I was grossed out by what I could. Eww.
I decided right then and there that I would get some good ground meat and make my own meatballs. They're not difficult. Just time consuming.
I remembered reading
a post on Frugal Upstate last year about making large batches of meatballs and freezing them. Aha! I bought 9 lbs of ground beef and ground turkey, I came home, and I set to work.
You can easily double, triple or even quadruple this recipe.
Homemade Meatballs2 lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey (or a combination)
4 slices whole wheat bread, toasted and allowed to dry out1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
After toast has dried out a bit, place in a food processor and pulse until you have a find bread crumb. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. (I use my hands.) Use a scoop to portion out uniform size lumps of meat, then form into meatballs. I keep mine about 1 inch in diameter.
Place meatballs on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes (depending on size of meatball) until brown. Allow to cool.
You can then place on a clean cookie sheet with a little bit of space in between each meatball and freeze. Once meatballs are frozen, transfer to large freezer bags and keep frozen until ready to use.
(Mine made about 35 meatballs per pound, about 42 calories per meatball.)
