Baked Meatballs

Happy St. Joseph's Day!

When I married into a Catholic Italian family, I was introduced to St. Joseph's Day.  St. Joseph was the foster father of Jesus and also Mary's husband.  The best way I know how to describe this holiday is to say that Italians celebrate it in the way that the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  They wear red and have a traditional Italian dinner to celebrate.  In my husband's family they have braciole, and I have started making meatballs with homemade pasta and sauce for our family.  The sauce recipe I'll save for another day but here is my simple meatball recipe.

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef

1 beaten egg

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 tsp Italian seasoning blend

1 tsp minced garlic

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a cooling rack on top of the foil.  The fat will drip off the meatballs and be collected by the foil.

2. Combine beef, egg, cheese, 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, and garlic.  Form into meatballs.  Roll meatballs in breadcrumbs.  1lb of meat makes about 18 meatballs.

Thrifty Tip - I purchase ground beef in a bulk pack, then bring it home and separate it into baggies with about 1 pound each.  I put them in me freezer and pull them out as needed.  Buying in bulk saves me $1.50 per pound, well worth the small amount I spend on baggies to separate the meat.

3. Place on baking sheet and bake 20 minutes.

When they come out of the oven I like to drop them right into a pot of sauce to simmer a little before serving.

Approximate Cost per batch: $3.25

*this is just the meatballs, no sauce or pasta*

Approximate nutrition per serving:

Serving is 3 meatballs

270 calories

15g fat

0.5g fiber

18g protein

Usually when I make meatballs I will use 3-6 pounds of meat and freeze everything we don't eat that day.  I save a lot of time and trouble cooking meals ahead of time and freezing them.  To retreat frozen meatballs I heat up some sauce on the stove and let the meatballs simmer for a while, up to an hour or two. They add a lot of flavor to the sauce.

Variations:  I've made this recipe with 1/3 ground sausage and it was delicious!  I will also add fresh parsley if we have it.  The meatballs are yummy rolled in breadcrumbs but if you don't have enough or want to make this recipe a little healthier, you can skip that step and they'll still be a hit.