Meatball subs, yum!

Well, I have six weeks of my undergrad left, after that I'll be able to keep up with posting pretty regularly (I hope).  I also hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day and drank lots of green beer!  I got to explain to my mom what an Irish Car Bomb was, she said she'd have to put that on the drink list for next year.  I sported my green and frolicked around some of the local bars with my friends, it was an eventful day to say the least.

Anywho, last week I made Italian style meatballs and sauce.  They turned out quite delicious, if I do say so myself.  I combined a couple of different recipes I found online.  My biggest fear was that since I didn't pre-cook the meatballs (like one recipe called for) I would open the crockpot at the end to a meat sauce and none of my meatballs would have stayed together.  Thankfully this did not happen.  Also, as I mentioned earlier Nick and I try hard to make the healthiest choices at the grocery store.  Instead of ground beef we usually use ground turkey, but we discovered something new: ground chicken breast.  It's not only cheaper than ground turkey but it's less fat and calories.  That's what I used in this recipe, but it can be replaced with ground beef, ground turkey, or a combination depending on personal preference.

Here's the breakdown.

What you need:

For the meatballs

1lb. ground chicken

1 egg

1/2 tea. salt

1/2 tea. Italian seasoning

1/4 tea. red pepper flakes

1/4 c. seasoned bread crumbs

1/8 c. parmesan cheese

1/4 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

For the sauce

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tea. Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 garlic gloves, minced 

Salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

In a medium bowl combine egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Add the remaining ingredients for the meatballs and mix well with your hands.

Shape into 1 inch-1 1/2 inch balls and place in bottom of crock pot, leaving some space in-between and staggering on top if you need to stack them (like I did).

Next pour the cans of sauce on top and add the remaining spices and garlic.

Stir gently, making sure not to disturb the meatballs on the bottom.

Cover and cook on high 3-4 hours (low 6-8).

Stir, separate the meatballs, and serve.

It's a pretty easy recipe.  1 pound of meat makes about 14 meatballs.  We made meatball sandwiches first and used the leftovers the next day on spaghetti, because it yields a lot of sauce (the can of crushed tomatoes was huge).  I was really happy with this recipe and would definitely make it again. 

Here are some pics, enjoy!

Ingredients

Subs!

Sub

Left overs for spaghetti