Baked Italian Meatballs

Baked Italian Meatballs

Makes 100 meatballs (1 Tbs. in size)

These meatballs are fabulous! They freeze well and can be added to a number of dishes including: meatball sub, marinara and pasta, pizza, Italian Wedding Soup, or as an appetizer with a side of sauce. The possibilities are endless. Make a batch on the weekend and place baked, cooled, frozen meatballs in freezer bags.  This will save you time during the week and still allows for a tasty home cooked meal. 

Tip: If using frozen meat thaw it overnight in the refrigerator so you don’t have to defrost in the microwave where you might get browned hard spots making it difficult to blend with the other ingredients.

2 lbs. ground lean beef

1 lb. ground sausage

2 eggs

3 Tbs. Italian blend seasonings (I prefer Penzeys, however use what you have on hand)

1 box blend quinoa (flavor of your choice) or using your food processor or blender, grind oatmeal to a powder

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs. Soy sauce

1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Using a 1 Tbs. scoop (I use the smallest Pampered Chef scoop) or fingers roll meat in your hands.  Place on a lined cookie sheet on a grease sprayed cooling rack (so the grease can drip down when you bake the meatballs.  The meatballs should be all about the same size. You can put the meatballs close together because they will shrink, not expand like cookies.  Bake meatballs for 20 minutes and then remove from the oven to cool. When cool you can freeze them on a cookie sheet (for about 30 minutes) and then package into plastic freezer bags. This allows you to take out as many as you need for a recipe without the meatballs sticking together in a big clump.