Today I had a hankering for meatball subs. Saucy with my favorite marinara and lots of melty cheese. MMMMMMMM.....unfortunately when I went to the cupboard to get out the seasonings I realized I was totally out of dried Italian Seasoning. ARGH!!!! So I went to my handy dandy New Betty Crocker cookbook and looked for a recipe using the individual seasonings. I found a list...really....just a list of the herbs used for Italian cooking. Lucky for me I had 3 of those herbs growing in my planter garden outside the back door. So I've revamped one of my old meatball recipes using fresh instead of dried herbs. If you don't have the fresh herbs at hand feel free to substitute 2 TBSP of dried Italian Seasoning in it's place. Right now half of the meatballs are simmering in the sauce while the other half are cooling to prep for the freezer to be used later.
MEATBALLS
Makes approx 5 dozen meatballs
Prep: 30 mins
Baking: 30 mins
Additional baking in sauce: minimum 1 hour
3 lbs 80% lean ground beef
3 eggs
1-1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh Basil leaves, chopped4 sprigs fresh Oregano, chopped (about 1 TBSP)
2 sprigs fresh Rosemary, chopped (about 1 TBSP)
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1 TBSP Garlic powder1 TBSP Kosher Salt
1 Onion, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
Mix all ingredients by hand in large bowl until combined. Using a medium sized scoop, form meatballs and place evenly spaced on a baking pan. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until browned. Remove from oven and drain off fat. At this time you can either add them to your favorite marinara sauce and simmer for an hour. OR you can cool completely and place in freezer bags for later use.
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| portioned meatballs ready to go into the oven....I got 57!! |
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| Meatballs fresh from the oven |
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| Layering the meatballs in marinara to simmer. |
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Cooling the rest of the meatballs on a lined rack to get ready for the freezer |
6 comments:
Yummy!!! That looks so tasty. Wish we lived closer I'd come raid your freezer.
LOL Sis!!! I thought of you when I was cutting up the onion....it was diced very very tiny!! you are welcome to come to dinner any time you are here :D
Amy could you freeze these uncooked?
I'm sure you could freeze them raw. I just like the convenience of having them already baked and just be able to add them to my sauce frozen without making sure they are thawed and then cooked.
If you choose to freeze them raw you will need to flash freeze them on a cookie sheet before putting them into a freezer bag so they don't stick together. Either that or you could layer them with sheets of waxed paper between them into a freezer container. Let me know if you try this and how it works for you. Good luck!
Ok -- did u make your bread crumbs or buy them? Our cafeteria staff make home made croutons from homemade bread and have me spoiled(I'm sure this isn't a low cal snack). Lol.
I buy pre-seasoned bread crumbs from the store. Every once in a while I've dried out some day old bread and made crumbs from that...but usually I just buy them!
Love homemade croutons!! We just eat them so fast that it's easier to just buy them
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