A little slice of meatball heaven...

Late last week, Andrew and I tried out Trisha's oh-so-tasty chicken tacos she was nice enough to share on her blog. Seriously, they were outrageously good. We have never ventured into the chicken taco territory... chicken fajitas- now that's a walk in the park! But shredded chicken tacos... man, it was worth the two-fork fighting!!! I think we are done with chicken fajitas for a while now, tacos are so hot right now!

So I've spent the weekend trying to decide which recipe to share, knowing I wanted to do it this Monday night before the week got too hectic. But, when my day turned into... ugh... one of those days, I wanted nothing more than to be crowded around the dining room table at my Ma and Pa's house with a plate piled high with her famous spaghetti and meatballs. So then it hit me- I will share the most comforting recipe in the world! My Ma's Meatballs! Also known as, MMM! (Disclaimer: part of what makes My Ma's Meatballs so incredibly tender and delicious is her absolutely-perfect-cook-all-day-in-the-crockpot-and-torture-your-senses-until-you-finally-get-to-put-it-in-your-mouth spaghetti sauce, which I have not received the appropriate cooking skills for yet. I attempt it on rare occasions, and this was definitely not the time, especially since I thought of this at 3pm... at which point the sauce would have been cooking about 7 hours. But, I digress.)

The great thing about MMM! is that they really are quick and easy to make. You can double the batch and freeze half to pull out and toss in the oven on a rushed night!

Here is what you need:

• 1 lb. ground beef (or half beef, half pork; tonight I doubled the batch and tried out half lean beef and half ground turkey for Andrew's diet... they turned out just as tasty!)
• 1/4 c. bread crumbs (Italian seasoned ones are perfect!)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. parmesan cheese
• 1 tbs. parsley
• 1 tbs. garlic powder
• 1 tbs. pepper
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Plop all of the ingredients in a big bowl and start mixing! The best thing about this recipe is that you can change the spices to your preference. I always add in some oregano and a little bit of rosemary. I also prefer some garlic salt to take place of half the garlic powder.

(Another Disclaimer (or two): Sorry about the blurry pictures! I have had an incredibly awesome dream camera on my wish list for about 2 years now... maybe next Christmas. Also, I was so excited to make MMM! that I forgot to take a pre-mixing picture. I started whipping away at that bowl, and suddenly stopped and ran for the camera. Poor Andrew just shook his head when he realized- he's not quite as into this blog thing yet!)

Here is all the goodness getting mixed up!


Next you have to get in there with your hands... I promise it is the only way to get it mixed perfectly!

Next, start rolling the balls and place them on your PAM'd cookie sheet.

(These aren't monster meatballs, I was using a small cookie sheet, I swear!)

Now tell your Hubby to get that warm water running because your hands will be freezing!


Put those pups in your preheated-to-400-degrees oven and set the timer for 20 minutes!

(If you make very fat meatballs, you may need to cook them longer. I usually make mine a smidge bigger than golf balls... now do you see how small my cookie sheet really was?)

When they come out, there will be a layer of grease around the bottoms. I scrape this off with the spatula before plopping them in the sauce or on my plate!

(Please ignore the empty spot... we had to test them to make sure they were ready for a picture!)

Eat them up! I like a couple in the sauce and a couple naked.

So, there you have it! I just have to warn you... you will not be able to stop eating them and you WILL fight your husband for the last one. And you will wind up with your feet propped up next to the computer reaching over your food-baby belly to get to the keyboard. Just sayin'.

If you try them, let me know what you think! Will you add any of your own special spices?

ENJOY!!!!