Meatball love

I love pre-made meatballs.  How great is it to just throw them in your crock pot with sauce? A jar of chili sauce and a jar of grape jelly make delish BBQ sauce for them.  A can of mushroom soup, some sliced mushrooms, and a little chicken broth make a nice sauce to simmer them, then spoon over mashed potatoes.  And marinara over them makes an easy sauce for pasta.
But I came upon a recipe for homemade that sounded good, and I wanted to make them myself. 

It called for pine nuts and raisins, which I am not likely to have success with.  People here will see a raisin in their meatball and wonder if I have lost my mind.  So here's what I came up with:

Mom's Meatballs
2 lbs. lean ground beef
4 slices bread
3 gloves minced garlic
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. minced fresh onion
4 large eggs
1 1/2 t. salt
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 c. dry breadcrumbs OR oatmeal


Pre-heat the oven to 325 and grease a piece of foil on a cookie sheet. Cover the bread slices with a little water and set aside.  Mix all else in the order listed, except dry bread crumbs. Squeeze the water from the bread and crumble it in.  Add the dry crumbs last and mix it all well.  Shape into meatballs and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool and refrigerate or freeze.
*Don't be afraid of dry oatmeal - it's actually pretty good in meatballs and meatloaf!

This made enough for 2 meals - tonight it's tomato basil sauce over spaghetti.
The rest I froze for another meal.

I like the fresh parsley and parmesan in them - they smell wonderful!  And baking them was a thousand times easier than doing them on the stove top which makes a big mess!
While they cooked, I cleaned up the  kitchen.  

And now the house smells soooo good...
Check it out!

I added them to my crock with the sauce, then cooked the pasta and stirred it in.
  It's easier to serve that way, I think.
Time to dig in!

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