Meatballs Make Many Meals!
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This past weekend I came across ground beef in five pound packages for $6.25. A few years back I would have considered that expensive but these days it is at least four dollars cheaper than what I normally pay. I did good, though, I only bought twenty pounds. I say that is good because last time I came home with about fifty. Of course, had I the money for more I would have surely gotten that much this go ’round, too! ~giggles~
Ground beef is a mainstay for the family on a budget and homemade meatballs bring you several new options for supper as well as a way to serve ground beef so those eating it don’t exactly think “ground beef again!”. Whats even better in my mind though is how this meatball recipe allows you to stretch your ground beef!
Homemade meatballs are easy to throw together and when made ahead of time and stored in the freezer, they provide a homemade convenience food with options that are only limited by your imagination.
At the end of this post, I have several recipes listed to use with these meatballs and more will be coming up on Southern Plate!
I start with five pounds of ground beef. This is going to make about a hundred meatballs but you can make many more by doubling my add ins or even adding more to your taste, I’ll put some ideas down at the bottom of this post.
Don’t worry about adding things into your meatballs, no one will ever be able to tell when they taste the finished product so your frugality will be our little secret!
To mix this up, you can use a spoon or potato masher if you like but when it comes to things like this, I use the greatest kitchen tool ever invented – my hands :).
When it’s all mixed up, shape into meatballs. I love this little cookie scooper that I picked up at the grocery store eons ago. I paid a pretty good bit for it (about six dollars) but if you’re going to make meatballs of any quantity, it really pays for itself.
I make my meatballs about one inch round.
I line all of my baking sheets with aluminum foil and only use baking sheets with a little bit of a lip on them because there will be some grease that we need to pour off once the meatballs are done. Bake at 350 for about thirty minutes. You want them to be browned and no longer pink in the center.
It’s always a good idea to take one and break it in half to check for doneness the first time you try this so that you can get a good time down pat depending on your oven.
I ended up with right at 100 meatballs. Allow them to cool and then package them in quart sized freezer bags, according to how many your family will eat during any given meal. Remember, if you have company drop by you can always get out another bag. I packaged mine in groups of twelve since Katy doesn’t eat meatballs (she is going through that chicken only phase so typical of kids her age these days). Feel free to be more generous with your servings, of course.
Now for the recipes! Weeeeee!
Ingredients
- 5 lbs ground beef
- 1-2 Cups Oats or cooked rice
- 2-5 eggs I use two but you can use more!
- 1 16 oz Can Tomato Sauce Can use up to 3 cups ketchup in its place
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix well with hands. Scoop out and form into meatballs approximately one inch thick. Place on foil lined baking sheets that have a lip on them. Bake in batches at 350 for about thirty minutes, storing raw meat covered in the refrigerator while you wait on each batch to bake. Test a meatball to make sure the center is no longer pink. Allow to cool and store in quart sized freezer bags. Use any of the following recipes or create your own!
- Place frozen meatballs in pot and add one of the following sauces. Cook over medium heat until heated through and serve with rice, egg noodles, or other cooked pasta or grain.
- Spaghetti: Store bought Marinara Sauce or my Super Easy Spaghetti Sauce
- Easy Stroganoff: 1 Can Cream Of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 C milk, salt and pepper (I love this over egg noodles)
- Salisbury Stroganoff: 1 Can Cream Of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 C Milk, 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (I swear only food bloggers can spell Worcestershire off the top of their heads!)
- Meatball Soup – This is one of my Mama’s favorites.
- Meatball Sub- Place heated meatballs in sub. Top with hot marinara sauce and sprinkle with Mozzarella (Great to make the day after Spaghetti and use leftover sauce)
I know you must have some great recipes to use frozen meatballs for, too. Tell me about them in the comments and please feel free to post your entire recipe if you like!
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How Many Servings In A Southern Plate Recipe?
Someone asked me this past week how many people my recipes feed so I thought I’d talk a little about that and then add that question to my Frequently Asked Questions Page (soon as I find a minute).
My recipes feed a typical family of 4-6 people unless otherwise stated.
Of course, it’s difficult to give you an exact number because that is going to depend on what types of eaters you have in your home. Katy eats like a bird but Brady and Ricky eat like horses so it all evens out. We generally have enough left over from most meals for a lunch the next day (which usually ends up being mine). If we have more, I simply freeze the leftovers in individual servings to use as quick convenience lunches later. Having extra food does not mean that you are wasting food, it just means that you have a “freebie” meal sometime in the future.
If you are short on freezer space, it is definitely worth your effort to save up a little and keep your eyes peeled for a good scratch and dent deep freezer. I got my large chest deep freezer for right at $100 because the corner is banged up. It has been a great investment for our family and has saved us what we spent on it a hundred times over.
This is just a good starting point for ya. If you are cooking for two, it’s safe to always cut my recipes in half unless you like to cook extra and freeze, which I do very often.
I’d love to include exact servings and nutritional information on my recipes and posts but that would require an extra “me” and surplus money to make everything on here and measure it out ~laughs~. I’m just showing you Mama and Grandmama’s cooking and seasoning it with a little of my own to bring to you. Folks didn’t think about servings or carbs back in the day. If anyone were to ask one of my grandmothers how many servings a recipe made she’s likely answer, “Enough to feed everyone!”.
So short answer is, whenever I cook I am generally making enough to feed 4-6 people, unless otherwise stated.
On another note, I feel like I say this all the time but I also feel like I could never say it enough : Thank you. Y’all give me so much and each day is even brighter because I have such wonderful people who take time out of their lives to read my ramblings and share a few memories with me. I love how so many of y’all also take the time to comment, turning this into a real conversation and helping to make us more of a family than just some woman’s blog. I love to read your comments and cherish each and every one of them – as well as the folks who write them! Please feel free to chat with each other in comments as well. I know that I’ll often read a comment that really touches me and that must happen to you as well but sometimes folks worry that “conversing” in the comments on Southern Plate might be stepping on my toes. Well let me tell ya, I may have big feet but I keep my toes tucked in really well so y’all go on ahead and make yourself comfortable here! We’re all family and family is family is family. ~thinks that made sense to her~
One more thing, please know that when I sign off “gratefully”, I mean it with all of my heart.
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
P.S. Going on very little sleep this week. I’ve worked on this post late into the night and then early morning. I hope (and think) there aren’t any errors but please forgive me if there are and I’ll correct them as soon as possible!
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BOUNTIFUL BASKETS ARE HERE!
For all of those who ordered Bountiful Baskets, we’ll be shipping them out by the end of this week (or as soon as the boxes come in to ship them out in!). I’ll be announcing the winner of the first Bountiful Basket shortly. Thank you!
These are just some of the Bountiful Baskets!
They all come with liners but they are not pictured.
Between Birth and Death there is a small interval called Life.
Take time to ENJOY it.
Submitted by Donna in SC. To submit your quote, please click here.
Lots of inspiration is shared and found on this quote page thanks to all of you!
Christy I have a question for you. My husband says he thinks if I freeze cooked meat that it tastes ‘old’ to him and he doesn’t like it when I take it out to use it. How do you get around that? Is partially cooking it the answer? I’d love to buy large quantities of meat – not 20 pounds at a time since there are only 2 of us – and cook ahead of time but he doesn’t like ground beef that has been frozen. What is a girl to do???
Hey Carol!
I feel for you and your dilemma! When we got married, my husband insisted that he didn’t like onions. ~gasp~ Now you know what a wondrous flavor onions lend to dishes and some of them would be just plum naked without them!
I solved this problem the exact way my Mama told me to – I made sure to add the onions when he wasn’t around to see me do it.
~shrugs~ I’ve slowly acclimated him to admitting he even likes the smell of onions now!
There are a few things you can do to ensure your meat retains the freshest taste.
1. Cool your meat completely before freezing it. This will get rid of all of that steam which could later become ice crystals on the meat.
2. Place in freezer grade bags and remove as much air as possible, making sure to seal them well. I’m not saying you need one of those little vacuum deal thingies, just smoosh the bag to get some air out of it, as much as you can. The vacuum things are great, but I don’t have one myself. Maybe one of these days.
3. (and this is where we are getting sneaky here…) Tell your husband that you read an article on how to freeze meat without altering the taste OR, do what I would do and just don’t tell him you froze the meat. Okay, yeah so this isn’t exactly forthright but we do what we gotta do!
The only time I’ve noticed a change in taste in my meat though is when I don’t use freezer grade bags. You might want to try experimenting with different brands to see if one works better than the other. Let me know if any of my suggestions are something you haven’t tried. I’m really hoping for you here! I know our time is precious but we still want so badly to put home cooked meals on the table.
I actually have a weird thing about bread that has been stored in zipper seal bags, I swear it tastes plastic to me – blah. I prefer to store bread in aluminum foil if I have to seal it in something, even dinner rolls. But honestly, I bet this one is in my head, lol!
Your husband has likely had a bad experience with frozen meat in the past so we just gotta bring him round to the wonderful things you can have time to put on the table if you take this shortcut – and then take every measure we can to make sure he is pleased with the outcome – or takes you out to eat if he isn’t! hehehe
Always an angle ~winks~
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Thanks for the great suggestions. I’ll give them a try and see what happens!
Hi Carol, I have one of those husbands focused on quality of food too. For example, he only likes his breakfast quiche freshly made etc. Thanks for your question about the freezing……you helped me get some great tips today. ~waves~
There were many times when I “disguised” my freezer leftovers so my finicky husband wouldn’t know. The deciet even went so far as my freezing leftovers in whipped topping containers so that if he looked in the freezer he wouldn’t be able to see what was inside each of the bowls. There were times when I’d leave one in the freezer for so long that when I pulled it out to thaw, I couldn’t remember what was frozen inside. But it didn’t matter to me, as the “surpirse disguised” dinner still saved me preparation time in the kitchen.
Christy, do you add salt and pepper or any other spice when you are mixing this up? I know that whatever sauce etc. you would pour over or cook it in would probably have some salt and pepper but I would think the meat should have some too. Just wondering.
Hey Dixie!
Hope you’re having a great week.
I’m bad about not salting and peppering things. I tend to do it when following a recipe from a grandmother or from my mother but when I wing it (like I do when I make meatballs), I just let it be and salt and pepper the sauce, like you said.
If you are a salter and a pepperer though, you can definitely go to town and customize this to your taste. I’ve seen a lot of folks add garlic powder, too! I think I might play with adding Italian Seasoning now that I think of it!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Here is our family favorite meatball recipe which can be poured over meatballs and cooked on low in the crock pot or in the oven. I have made mini meatballs using this sweet and sour recipe and stuck a toothpick in each one and served it as an appetizer, it is usually the first empty plate at a party.
Here it is:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup vinegar (sometimes I dump in a small can of diced pineapple in place of vinegar)
1 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 drops tabasco sauce (optional)
Stir everything up in a bowl and pour over meatballs in a casserole dish and bake for about 30 minutes at 350. Delicious served over rice. (I usually have to double the sauce since my husband and kids would probably drink it if they could!)
Enjoy!!!
WOW That sounds AMAZING! I’m gonna try to make it in the next few days. thank you!
Christy 🙂
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Thanks for sharing!
I am so glad to hear that you liked it!!
Adorable Minnie “Mice”! Thank you for another great recipe and serving ideas! My husband has to have a gluten free diet so the oatmeal(which he can tolerate) in the meatballs is convenient and I don’t have to use or make the pricey gluten free breadcrumbs!
About serving size…I came across a recipe from my Great Aunt Dootsie, (a sweet Southern lady for sure!!)and she had written in the serving size space on the card…”depending on how much you eat”!!! Well said I think and just makes me smile!
Bountiful Blessings!
Well you two are cuter than the original mouse if I do say so. I love baking meatballs, I just never thought of freezing them afterwards, will have to try that now.
Sounds pretty good! I haven’t thought to freeze leftovers to make my own freezer meals… you’ll have to give me more info on that later.
My first time to post. I have done these for 40 years. I do a German meatballs with 1 cup pineapple juice, 2 bouillon cubes, 1/2 cup gingersnap crumbs 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 Thsp lemon juice. Add meatballs and serve over rice.
Also a Mexican Bake. Blend 5oz jar cheese spread with 1/4 cup milk. Add 1 10oz can enchilada sauce. Mix in meatballs, 1 can yellow hominy and 2 Tbsp green chilies. Serve with coarsely crushed corn chips.
I have others after all these years but these two were my family favorites after stroganoff and spaghetti.
I so enjoy reading your comments. Thank you.
Oh both of those sound good and a bit different.
Welcome, Maedyne, you are among friends here! I, for one, am so glad that you left a comment. I am drooling over the Mexican Bake, jotting it down too. Thanks for sharing. See ya soon.