Home made meatballs

Yesterday I had the day off for MLK day so I figured why not spend a little extra time on a dinner for me and my sweetie.

This is a super easy recipe, especially if you have a crock pot. It was so easy I really just made it from memory from when my mom used to make it.

I used:

• 1 lb 93% lean ground beef (you can use fattier I suppose but I'm always looking for ways to be cardio-conscious)
• 1 cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (if you are using plain bread crumbs make sure to add oregano and other seasonings you like. Maybe some chili powder for a SPEECY SPICEY meat-a-ball)
• 1 egg (probably should use two though, it holds them together better)
• 1/4 cup of asiago cheese shredded
• 1 small onion finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic also finely diced
• I didn't have this but some finely chopped cilantro or basil would be great to mix in

Combine all these ingredients in a bowl WITH YOUR HANDS. Making sure to make it all very consistent. You don't want a big chunk of breadcrumbs with no meat! Roll these into about 2 inch balls. You can make them bigger or smaller, but keep in mind that will either add or subtract to time it's going to take to cook.

Brown the meatballs in a saucepan in hot olive oil. Make sure all surfaces are cooked and you can see no pink. They are going to be still raw/pink in the middle. I salted them at this point.

You should have probably done this step first, but put your crockpot on. Personally I emptied a can of diced tomatoes and some left over marinara sauce into the pot. (Hey I'm only a quarter Italian give me a break, I have only made my own sauce a couple times however when you're making meatballs that's a great time to whip out grandma's SAUCE recipe.) You need to fill it with at least enough sauce so that the meatballs will be submerged. I threw in a couple peel pearl onions because I heart them. Other tasty additions would be green bell peppers or cloves of garlic.

Plop (yes plop) your cooked meatballs into the sauce filled crockpot. You now have the choice to leave it cooking on low for the day (say you cooked them over night and set them up in the pot in the morning before work) or cook them on high over an hour and a half-2 hours depending on what size you made or how thoroughly you fried them. Regardless you are going to want them to be cooked all the way through and brown in the middle.

If you don't have a crockpot I suggest filling a pot on the stove with sauce and simmering.

Serve over the pasta of your choice or in a sub roll.