Mama give me more meatballs

After watching my 11 month old son and his best friend devour two tennis-ball sizes meatballs last night at dinner, I decided that I should make some meatballs to have in the house for a quick-fix dinner. I love making meatballs because you can make so many in one batch and freeze them individually for an easy dinner.

In discussion with my friends, I know their are three schools of thought when it comes to meatballs: those who fry, those who bake and those who cook in sauce. I am from the "cook in sauce" school, possibly because I am a half-Swedish Jewish girl from Massachusetts with no ties to Italy and no official culinary training. However, cooking in sauce is easy, and it leaves you with an amazing tomato sauce that you can use for a variety of other dishes.

Sauce
2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 14oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes (crush the tomato pieces in your hand as you pour them into the pot)
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt/pepper

Dump all ingredients in a very large pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Remember you are going to cook your meatballs in this sauce, so make sure your pot is very big!

Meatballs
2.5 pounds 85% lean ground beef
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
salt/pepper

Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese. Stir in eggs and water. You should have a really mushy mixture. If it clumps together, add a little more water.
Add garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Add in the ground beef. Mix until just blended (you should not have any clumps of bread mixture, but you do not want to over-mix). This is best done with your hands.
Wet your hands and roll small balls of the meat into golf-ball sized meatballs. You should get between 30-35 meatballs, depending on how big you made them.
Drop meatballs into simmering sauce. DO NOT COVER. Make sure the heat is on low.
Stir every 10-15 minutes, scooping up from the bottom to make sure that the meatballs are not sticking.
Let meatballs cook for 1 hour.

To freeze meatballs, scoop them out of the sauce with a spoon and drain them on the side of the pot so they are pretty much sauce-free.
Lay them out on a cookie sheet sprayed with PAM.
Place entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 2 hours. Remove and transfer meatballs into a ziplock back. Return to freezer and use meatballs as needed for subs, spaghetti or, in my case, dinner for your hungry 11 month old :-) You can also freeze the sauce in ziplock freezer bags for delicious pasta sauce. Lay them flat in the freezer to save space.

Each meatball has 2 points.

Health meals to nourish your mind.