Plan ahead convenience food: Meatballs!

There's nothing I dread more than planning out a meal plan for the week. I inevitably end up short by the end of the week. Or I forget to defrost what I had planned and then I'm left scrambling at the last minute to figure something out. We're trying to cut back on our eating out budget, and there's never enough time to do another grocery run before the kids start getting hangry. So I like to be prepared for the days I'm unprepared. One of my go-to's is frozen meatballs and spaghetti. It's easy to boil some noodles and throw on a jar of spaghetti sauce, but I really like having some sort of protein with our dinner too.

My favorite recipe for make-ahead meatballs is from Pioneer Woman. But I like to tweak it a little for convenience. Here's my adaptation:

3 pounds Ground Beef
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1.5 cups Bread Crumbs
4 whole Eggs
1.5 cups Grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Splash Of Milk

Preheat over to 400F Degrees. Combine meat, garlic, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, eggs, salt, pepper, and a splash of milk in a mixing bowl. Mix together well with hands. Spray cookie sheet with oil. Roll into 25 1 1/2-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until no longer pink in the center. Cooking time varies based on how big you made your meatballs.



Once the meatballs have cooled, I separate them into gallon freezer bags with about 15 meatballs per bag. That's usually enough for a meal for my family of 4. Since these are pre-cooked, all you have to do is throw them on the stove in the spaghetti sauce while you cook your noodles to heat them through.