Ready to make these Easy Meatballs with Sweet Sauce?
This is a favorite recipe from our newlywed days. I’d given up on making them for a couple of reasons:
- Meatballs aren’t Matt’s favorite.
- I don’t have time to scoop out cute balls of meat anymore.
So I’ve been cheating and buying frozen meatballs at Costco. The kids LOVE those. But Matt (who doesn’t love meatballs anyway) and I (one who does love meatballs but NOT the frozen packaged kind) couldn’t stand it anymore. We would either go meatball-less, or I’d find a few extra minutes to make them myself.
Ah, and I suppose there is a third reason I haven’t been making meatballs as of late:
3. Ground beef has gotten pretty expensive.
We’ve been opting for more chicken and pork and less beef these days. Meatballs weren’t making the cut when it came to inexpensive meals we could make for our large family.
But doggonit, I was hungry for meatballs. The real kind. The good kind. And after the packaged variety, even Matt welcomed the homemade variety.
I’d “splurged” on some of the good ground beef one day at Costco, and I decided to use all six pounds of it to make these meatballs. This gave us three wonderful meals!! I baked two pounds the night I made them, then I froze the remaining 4 pounds of pre-made (unbaked) meatballs to thaw and bake another day. Wonderful!
This meal is a huge hit with our family, and having these meatballs premade in the freezer is a huge time saver!
Easy Meatballs with Sweet Sauce
- 2-pounds ground beef
- 3 Tablespoons minced onion
- ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 4 Tablespoons rolled oats
- Sauce for Meatballs
- ¾ cup ketchup
- 2 Tablespoons minced onion
- ¼ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, molasses or honey
- Mix first seven ingredients together thoroughly.
- Form into 1½ inch balls and place side by side in a 9x13 inch glass casserole dish.
- Stir sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, then spread over each meatball.
- Bake uncovered in at 350 degrees for one hour.
NOTE: I estimated our meal cost a total of around $22.00, which fed 4 adults and 7 kids that night, plus we had some leftovers. So a little over $2.00/person, even with “expensive” ground beef. Not bad! :)
