BBQ Meatballs

Well, hello!  It's been a while since my last post; sorry for that!  But we've been having a wonderful time the last couple of weeks celebrating the fourth and spending time with out-of-town visitors.  I love summertime!!

So, I just took a look at the pictures of things I've made that are waiting to make their appearance here and I noticed that I have LOTS of yummy goodies and treats and just a few dinners.  Can you tell what I enjoy making more?  But, hey, who doesn't?!

Anyway, today's recipe is one of the few dinners I've had patiently waiting.

                                    

This recipe comes from my friend, Holly.  I so look up to her!  She's a gorgeous, genuine person, a fantastic mother, she's has an amazing creative talent, and she's a wonderful cook.  She's totally the perfect woman!

I made these meatballs as one of my freezer meals and they were GREAT!  Everyone highly approved.

Here's what you'll need:

3 lbs. ground beef

1 1/2 C. milk OR 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 C. oatmeal

1 C. cracker crumbs (I used Ritz crackers that I smashed)

2 eggs

1/2 C. chopped onion OR 2 Tbsp. dried chopped onion

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. chili powder

Sauce:

2 C. catsup

1 C. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. liquid smoke

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 C. chopped onion OR 2 Tbsp. dried, chopped onion

Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the meatball ingredients, except for the ground beef.

Crumble the ground beef on top.

Mush everything together until all of the ingredients are evenly combined. 

Using a small scoop (or about 2 teaspoons), form meatballs and place on two large, greased baking pans.

 I ended up with about 100 meatballs.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs in ONE pan.  If you want to cover all of the meatballs (in both pans), DOUBLE THE SAUCE.

I loved that I had one pan of BBQ meatballs and another pan of plain meatballs that I can just throw into some marinara sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.

Two great dinner options from this one recipe.  Love that!

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

At this point, you can either serve the meatballs from the oven or you can let them cool and dump the meatballs and sauce into a freezer ziplock bag and freeze them.

If you freeze these, just let them thaw, then heat them up and you're ready to eat!

I also froze the plain meatballs after they finished baking (at 350 degrees for 1 hour) and cooled.

I love having delicious food I can just pull out of the freezer, warm up, and eat.  It makes my life so much easier!

I hope I'm making your life easier too!!  Enjoy!