Meatballs Bringing Comfort

This weekend was one big moment of indecisiveness.  Normally I make a decision and go with it.  Some times that works out better than other times.  I feel like even if I have a wrong decision, I know what I am dealing with and can work towards a solution. Not having a direction/answer/progress is incredibly frustrating.

For meal options I was torn for several reasons:

1. I wanted to clean out the fridge.
2. We had nights with very limited time for preparations.
3. I was trying to cut costs.
4. I wanted something light in preparation for more holiday goodies sure to come.

By Sunday, I was at my second grocery store.  Normally the grocery store soothes me but the jingle belling outside of every door and the massive amounts of crowds that seemingly never go into a store till this time of year were starting to get to me.

I was in the meat department trying to find some ground beef for a new burger recipe I want to try out and couldn't find a package sized less than 1.33LBs.  The prices was also $5.99/LB.  Where was TJ's when I need them?  Then my eyes hit the meal ball mixture.  A little pork, veal, and beef later I had our dinner plans.

Meatballs

Ingredients:
1lb meat (I used pre-made mixture of ground pork, veal, and beef)
1/2 small onion, diced in Cuisinart
3 garlic cloves, diced in Cuisinart
2 tsp Italian seasonings
1/4 cup ketchup
1 egg
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare a baking dish with a bit of spray oil on the bottom.

2. Mix all ingredients together except the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a medium bowl.  You don't want to over work the mixture so once all the ingredients are just starting to come together add the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

3.  Once incorporated, roll into individual balls about 1 inch in diameter.

4. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.  The balls will just start to brown.

5. Serve with pasta of your choice and sauce. Our sauce was a mix of crushed tomatoes and diced fire-roasted tomatoes.

I might not have hit the "light" factor I was going for but these hit the spot. We had plenty of leftovers and enjoyed this dish for lunch several times over. Meatballs can be frozen once baked for later use.