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03/06/2011 National Frozen Food Day Make Ahead Frozen Meatballs

Source of Recipe

Food Renegade


Recipe Introduction

It’s time for me to admit another dirty little secret about myself. I love Lean Cuisine’s Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Panini. There. I’ve said it. I think the next step is to find a higher power? They’re really quite good, once you get over the weird mushroom smell the bread has (I’ve noticed that Subway bread smells the same way. Odd). Anyway. Yesterday was one of those hell days at work where everything goes absolutely knackers. At one point I even swore. At a real live person (I never do this unless I’m in my car. And then they – usually – can’t hear me). I had exactly 3.2 seconds to cram lunch into myself. Did you know you can eat a Lean Cuisine Panini without guilt? Just ask them, they’ll tell you! Except for the huge amount of packaging that is. Oh, and the huge amount of chemicals. And the fact that it’s microwaved on a weird little gray paper plate that really does toast it. Hmmm.

List of Ingredients

HOME COOKIN’ 03/06/2011 National Frozen Food Day Make Ahead Frozen Meatballs


Make Ahead Frozen Meatballs


3 eggs from pastured hens
1 small onion, chopped (or half a large one)
1 1/3 C. bread crumbs (or cooked brown rice)
2 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. Italian herb blend
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 lbs. grass-fed ground beef



Recipe


Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the next six ingredients and mix well.

Finally, add the beef and mix well.

Shape the meatballs into one inch balls (should make approximate 100 meatballs).

Place in single layers on ungreased 1-inch deep baking pans and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, until done.

Drain the fats and store for later use or (heaven forbid!) discard.
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Once the meatballs and pans have cooled to the touch, place the meatballs (tray and all) into your freezer to “flash freeze” them.

After they’ve frozen, remove the meatballs from the trays and transfer to plastic freezer storage bags or other freezer storage.

Keep stored in freezer and remove only as many meatballs as you need at a time.

You can thank the flash freezing for that. It helps each meatball hold its individual shape and not stick to the other meatballs around it.

This way, you can remove as few or as many meatballs as ou need for whatever you’re serving up.

Reheat make ahead frozen meatballs on the stove, in sauces, or in the oven (350F for 20 minutes).