What's in a meatball? When you make Nik's...a whole lot!
(Broken record in 5, 4, 3, 2...) Well first off, because I like my cooking better! Secondly, because meatballs are something we only eat when we're in the mood for them. And sometimes there's a stretch between when the mood hits us. And while the food industry has gotten really good at improving their packaging, somehow I can't seem to escape freezer fuzz with my meatballs!
Besides the fact that my recipe comes out cheaper than store bought meatballs (thanks Aldi!). Oh, yeah, and there's the magic part. Yes, they are magic meatballs. What makes them magical? Well, to me, good magic is very unassuming. It's a surprise where you never expected it to be. Something that looks like nothing but is really something.
Such is the case with my meatballs. They look like regular meatballs with regular meatball stats. But then you eat one and not only is there a surprise inside, but there's a surprise in the stats. So...without further adieu...I present...
Nik's Magic Meatballs
Ingredients
1 lb. lean meat (turkey, beef, whatever...)
1 package onion soup mix
1/2 c. Textured Vegetable Protein
(if you're going, "what's that?" click here)2 light mozzarella string cheese sticks, cut into 6 equal pieces
1 extra large egg, beaten
Ok...so that's not a lot of ingredients right? Let's make the magic happen. First off...string cheese? Yep, string cheese! Who wants to take a crack at what that means? It means my meatballs are STUFFED.
I saw on some Bobby Flay cooking show (he has a million of 'em) a recipe for stuffed hamburgers. Well me and hamburgers don't get along so I decided to try to stuff something else. For me, the choice was clear. I was stuffing my meatball. So here's how it goes down.
In a bowl you combine the meat and the TVP and let it sit for a minute or two. The TVP will soak up excess moisture in the meat. If you use super lean meat, add a litte milk to the mixture to keep some moisture. I usually go for a nice 85/15 ratio myself.
After that add the onion soup mix and the egg and mix it very thoroughly. Now...here comes the fun part. Scoop up a bit of meat in your hand and form into a little half moon shape and then stick a piece of the cheese in the middle and surround it with meat, like so:
Make sure there are no gaping holes or you will lose your cheese in the cooking process! So keep doing that until you've got about 12 meatballs. As you roll them, you're placing them on a sprayed baking sheet of course. Here's mine all lined up. Don't laugh at the ancient baking sheet. It belonged to my granpa!
I should also say that if your kids are old enough, this is a TOTALLY interactive meal prep. My 8 year old was a meatball rolling fool for this blog post.
S'anyway, you stick them in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. You see above how they come out. On the outside it looks like a regular meatball but on the inside...mmmm...warm cheesiness. Now...what to do with your meatballs. You can put them in any sauce you like. Back in the day, I liked the cream of mushroom type sauce. My kids, however, like to make mini-meatball subs by putting three of these in a hot dog bun. Check out the pic la petite diva took of her meal that night:
Awww...my little budding photog! As you can see I serve this with a side salad. It's on a dinner sized plate (somehow all my salad sized ones have gone missing) and the salad is devoid of the tomatoes I made her add five seconds later.
Ok, so let's talk stats here. My whole recipe comes out to 1040 calories (without sauce), 134g protein. If you make 12 meatballs that would come out to about 86 calories, 11g protein per meatball. So even if you only ate one...you are WAY ahead of the game!
So, try them. Let us know what you think. They are a favorite in my household and I'm sure you'll find a way to make them one in yours too!
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