Stocking your freezer - part one

To me, the key to stress free work night dinners is to have a well stocked freezer and pantry. I like to stock our freezer with tons of "meal starters", which makes cooking dinner after work much quicker. I won't lie, this takes time and planning, but the reward is worth it. I've prepared a few of our freezer stables in the past weeks, and one of them is Freezer Meatballs! This meatball recipe is slightly different than the spicy meatball recipe I've previously posted, this one is just as good and with a surprise in the middle!


Freezer Meatballs
Adapted from Martha Stewart

1/2 lb of ground pork
1/2 lb of ground beef
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Italian seasoned dried breadcrumbs
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, diced
1 tbsp dried parsley
1/4 cup of milk

Mix all of the ingredients (except for the cheese) together until well blended.

Roll a scoopful (similar size to an ice cream scoop) of meat mixture into a ball, stick a piece of cheese in the middle, and roll it back into a ball to make sure the cheese is not expose.

Freeze the meatballs individually on a cookie sheet, once frozen, the meatballs can transferred to a freezer bag for storage.


This is such a time saver, all I have to do when I get home is to preheat the oven to 375F, place the frozen meatballs (right from the freezer) on an oiled oven proof dish. Bake for 25 minutes, and served with any homemade or store bought pasta sauce! Viola! This is a definite 30 minutes meal, move over Rachel Ray!! =P

And the beauty of having these meatballs handy is, they are good with pasta and also as a meatball sub. You can even make smaller versions for soups and little pastas for the kiddies.

The Meatball Shop Spicy Pork Meatballs

Hubby and I went to NYC without our dear son back in February, we have been there a few times before, so we were able to skipped all the touristy areas, and made it into a culinary adventure. We woke up early in the morning to eat, ran around the city to look for the best food and also hit a few places that were highly recommended by others. And one of those places was The Meatball Shop (recommend by my sista sista) it's a tiny little restaurant tucked in a quiet street, but the experience was amazing! The lineup is insane, the concept is very simple, the restaurant serves up a variety of meatballs, by itself (naked), as a slider and on top of pasta/salad/risotto. After the first taste of the incredibly moist and flavorful meatballs, we totally understood why this place is sooo packed!

I have been using the Martha Stewart meatball recipe for years, I usually spent a Sunday afternoon making these meatballs and freezing them for later use. They are still great and I will still keep making these, but they are not nearly as good as the ones from The Meatball Shop. I was so excited when the owners of The Meatball Shop went on the Today show, and they even shared all their recipes!!!

My favorite meatball combo is their Spicy Pork Meatball with the Parmesan Cream, so after getting a copy of the recipes, I gave it a try....

Spicy Pork Meatball Adapted from The Meatball Shop from Today Show

• 2 pounds ground pork
• 1 plus 1/3 tablespoons salt
• 1/3 cup pickled banana pepper
• 1/4 cup pepper pickling liquid
• 4 slices white bread, minced (about 3 1/2 cups)
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.
Drizzle the olive oil into a large baking dish (such as a 9 x 13), making sure to evenly coat the entire surface (use your hand to help spread the oil). Roll the mixture into round, golf ball-size meatballs, making sure to pack the meat firmly.
Place the balls into the oiled baking dish so that all of the meatballs are lined up evenly in rows and are touching each other.

Roast until firm and cooked through (about 14 minutes). Allow the meatballs to cool for five minutes before removing from the tray.

Makes about 24 golf ball-size meatballs

The recipe calls for pickled cherry pepper, but I read the recipe wrong and picked up banana peppers (the ones you get with your subs/hot dog) instead, it tasted just fine! The finished product tasted almost the same as the ones we had at the shop, and totally brought us back to that night in NYC! These meatballs are less greasy, since they are baked and not fried. They are super moist and freeze very well. Overall, I highly recommend this meatball recipe and they paired perfectly with the Parmesan cream sauce (I didn't take a picture!), but would be just as great with a store bought pasta sauce!