Ingredients (makes about 30 meatballs)
- 1lb ground beef
- 8oz lean ground pork
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup soft bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- **end of traditional ingredients-can optional ingredients if desired**
- Fresh herbs to taste (optional)
- 1/2 tsp crushes red pepper (optional)
- 1 tsp salt (optional)
- 1 clove garlic (optional)
Instructions on how to make the meatballs later on in this blog
This recipe was perfected to be simple and easy. It’s my “cheater” dinner when I know I will not have time to cook!
One weekend each month I make a few batches that will last 1-2 dinners/week. You must freeze them as air tight as possible to avoid freezer burn. I recommend eating them within four weeks of freezing to avoid freezer burn. Regular ziplocks are fine.
For cooking
- Large crockpot
- 24 oz can Hunts pasta sauce (one 24oz can sauce for every 10 meatballs, really can’t have too much, some will evaporate when cooking)
- Turn crockpot on high 4 1/2 hours
- Dump in sauce
- Put in desired amount of meatballs STILL FROZEN (helps them not fall apart while cooking)
Meatballs will be fine to cook on high for 4 1/2 hours and sit on warm until you are ready to eat. Can start at lunchtime for a 5pm dinner or in am and allow to sit on warm til dinner.
If you wish to have spaghetti with your meatballs I suggest cooking that when you are ready to eat. I DO NOT recommend putting the spaghetti into the crockpot unless you like your spaghetti mushy!
Now for instructions on how to make the meatballs:
- Place defrosted meat in mixer (8oz pork, 1lb beef) until evenly mixed.
- meanwhile mix the eggs, Parmesan and breadcrumbs in a separate bowl(add optional ingredients to egg mixture at this time as well)
- Add the egg mixture to the meat and mix evenly
- using a spoon scoop out a decent size meatball and roll in palms until packed and round
- Place meatball in ziplock bag to be put in freezer
Be sure to store in freezer on flat surface so they do not squish. Once frozen you can store however you wish.
When you remove meatballs from freezer you can break off the desired amount easily with a simple bang on the counter.
The ingredients listed at the beginning of this blog is enough to make about one large Ziploc bag of meatballs if you wish to make more than one bag you can double the recipe in one batch but I would not recommend more than that at one time.
My kids dislike the onions and pepper so I make them without all the optional ingredients and they are delicious! It’s even enough to season the sauce while cooking. The Hunts sauce tastes nothing like it does strait out of the can! I promise!
Buon Appetito!!!!!!
Live Love Littleton 