meatballs

When ground turkey and pork are marked down at the grocery store for under $2/lb, I usually snatch it up.  I can make so many useful and tasty things out of them, lasagna, tacos, baked ziti, meatballs for spaghetti, sloppy joes, etc.  Well, this week I look over that list of old favorites and didn't feel compeled to make any of them. So, I pulled out one of my favorite old cookbooks to find new recipes (Betty Crocker is for old favorites, my Southern Cookbook is for biscuits and chicken recipes), Taste of Home 2009 Annual Recipes is the best for inspiration.  I almost made southwest burgers, but instead of I decided to make meatballs.  I was slightly compelled in this direction by the fact that I had just worked out at the gym and I was having to fast for 12 hours to get my blood work done in the morning.  Thus, I needed something before my 12 hour fast that would fill me up.

There are very few junk food/party food that I am especially drawn towards eating.  I usually don't like to waste calories unless I know that it has been made with loving tender care and usually has to include heavy whipping cream, butter, dark chocolate, of homemade yeast breads. Plus, I am under the impression that I can make almost any store bought treat with better ingredients and fewer calories (for ex. cream puffs, cinnamon buns, whipped cream, any kind of cookie) ... That being said, meatballs in that disgusting ketchup and grape jelly sauce are something that I can't seem to stop stuffing in my face at parties... that along with Tacitos (why why why do I like these?  They are so gross) and mozzarella sticks.  Those are mainly my big three weakness.  Since starting to make my own salsa and learning Mrs. Render's mexican layered dip recipe, I have even given up most store bought salsas. 

Anyhow, knowing that I couldn't eat for 12 hours and craving protein after I worked out at the gym is what compelled this recipe to be tried out.  Because I know that I love that jelly and ketchup combination, I tweaked this recipe to include some jelly (also because Jared refuses to eat my homemade strawberry jelly because it is not bright red like store bought jelly and I can't eat it all by myself).  I also tripled the sauce because there was not nearly enough if it.  I added extra mustard, less sugar, and refused to sprinkle the tops of the meatballs with crispy rice cereal (that is just weird - even the picture looks as if someone accidentally spilled their cereal on it right before the picture was taken). 

Barbecued Meatballs
Makes 24

1 egg
3/4 cup crisp rice cereal
2 T chopped onions
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 pound ground meat (chicken, pork, beef)

Sauce:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 - 3 tsp mustard
1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberry jelly (I am not sure how much I added, I just kept tasting the sauce until I liked it... I also added more ketchup and mustard to taste... so these are all guesses)

1. Mix the meatball ingredients together, also add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the barbecue sauce to the mixture and mix in. 
2. Roll the meat into 1 to 1-1/2" balls and place on a cookie sheet or in a 13 x 9 pan.  I use my fancy Pampered Chef kitchen scoop that my wonderful little mother-in-law bought for me.  :)  I wash it by hand and then run it through my dishwasher to sanitize it afterwards because it is also very useful for scooping cookie dough out in the right size.
3. Put a teaspoon or so of sauce on eat meatball and maybe some in the bottom of the dish.  Reserve some to put the meatballs in after they come out of the oven. 
4. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes at 400 F.  Can be baked at the same time as pizza if you want to maximize the use of the oven. Sorry, my brain just tries to jump to the most efficient way of doing things. 

Speaking of efficiency, I have a cell at work that has doubled its efficiency.  I am pretty proud of them, but that is not what I really wanted to mention.  I have been reading the Cheaper by the Dozen books (and Belles on their toes).  If anyone wants to buy those for my birthday (hint hint hint, Mom) I would love to own them!!!!  If you have not read the books, you need to and if you have not watched the old movies, you need to do that too.  I would also take the movies for my birthday, as well. 

Anyway, this women is my new hero.  I am looking to see if I can find any of her or her husband's books or articles in any of the libraries around here.  If you have not read about Lillian Gilbreth, you should because she is brilliant.  I may write a post about her in the future.  Her husband is pretty interesting too.  He painted morse code in the bathroom so the children would learn it and then he would leave them secret messages around the house so that they would have to keep using the knowledge they learned.  He also made them listen to foreign language records in the bathroom while they took showers so that they would learn French and German.  Pretty cool.