meatballs – love faithfully and abundantly

Okay. I’m going to be honest with you. I love to eat and I love to cook. Now, I’m not going to claim to be some award winning chef waiting for The Food Network to call me with my own cooking show, but I can follow a recipe like nobody’s business. You may be laughing at me for this statement, but some recipes make things sound much easier make than they actually are; i.e. biscotti, red chili, homemade biscuits and rolls, my mother in laws no-bake cookies (that are my husbands favorite),etc. Practice makes perfect. If you don’t like how something turns out there’s always next time and more or less ingredients to add. Make them your own.

For all of you mama’s out there; whether that be mama’s to be, 5 years down the road mama’s, or mama’s in the trenches people will always want to give you tips on what to do before the baby gets here, after the baby gets here and sometimes while you’re in labor with said baby. Well one of the best “tips” I received was to create a freezer stockpile before the new baby arrived that I could throw in the crockpot and have dinner 4 hours later. What I didn’t think about before hand was testing out these recipes. I used some pinterest post that gave me a shopping list of everything I needed to make 10 different meals twice. 20 meals stocked up for baby’s arrival. How could this be bad? I’m all about planning ahead! Right? Wrong. I think out of those 10 recipes we maybe liked one. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches became our best friend.

This time around, I started early. I’ve been looking for recipes that I think sound good or that I know are good family recipes and that I think will freeze well for when this new little baby arrives. The go on my dinner list one week to try before I make a larger batch and if they pass the Husband Test of: “Yah, I like this enough to eat it again” or “I don’t want to make a peanut butter and jelly instead” or “This is really good,” then we’re golden.

From now until this baby arrives, I’d like to share with you the recipes I’ve chosen to sustain my family in those first few weeks of adjusting to life as a family of 4.

Disclaimer: you don’t have to be pregnant to want to make these recipes. They’re just good recipes that make good food.

This recipe is one of my family’s favorite recipes. I should mention before I pass this recipe along, that I do not have a Nona and I am not Italian, but I do have a very generous aunt who is Italian and passed her Nona’s amazing meatball recipe onto my mom. For any Italians out there I’m sure you have your own meatball recipe that you love and I’m sure for most of you it’s all about the sauce, but the meatballs are my favorite part (I’m talking hover over the pot on the stove and eat them with a fork favorite part) and I don’t care who knows it.

Nona’s Meatball Recipe

2 lbs of ground beef
1 lb of Italian sausage
2 cloves of garlic (diced small or crushed)
Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Salt and Pepper
3/4 cup bread crumbs (seasoned or unseasoned)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. You’ll thank me when it’s ready and you don’t have to wait for it to heat up.

Start with the meat. Add 2 lbs of ground beef and 1 lb of italian sausage to a large bowl and mix slightly.

Next, you’ll put everything else into the bowl. There are no real measurements with the spices. My recipe says to “sprinkle basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper over meat. I just sprinkle what I think looks right. If I had to put a measurement on it I’d probably say a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of each (except the salt!).

Then add the 2 cloves of crushed or minced garlic, cup of parmesan cheese, the 2 eggs scrambled and the 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs.

Mix it by hand! (Yes, I used gloves because it was so cold).

When everything is incorporated roll out your meatballs and place them on a greased cookie sheet. I like to use a large ice cream scoop to make sure they’re all uniform size so they cook evenly. Once they’re all rolled, your oven should be hot and you can stick them inside!

They’ll bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. I check them after 30 by cutting into one to see if its cooked all the way through. Trust me, you’ll be disappointed if you over cook them!

When you have about 2-3 minutes left you can use the sauce of your choice (jarred, homemade, bought from your favorite restaurant) and put it in a large pot. You’ll want the pot to be large enough to hold all the meatballs and sauce together. There’s no real measurement of how much sauce to use either. You just want there to be enough to cover all the meatballs in sauce so they can simmer together for an hour.

As mentioned before, you’ll want them to simmer together for at least an hour, but honestly the longer the better! Then you can make some pasta, some spaghetti squash, some garlic bread, pull out some hawaiian sweet rolls, or whatever your heart desires to accompany your meatballs for dinner.

We chose pasta because spaghetti and red sauce of any kind is my daughters absolute favorite meal. Yes you can tell an 18 month olds favorite food. If/when you have kids you’ll understand!