The Best Meatballs Ever

These meatballs are more like meatloaf — they wouldn’t taste right with spaghetti but on their own, as a main dish, they are sooooo good. I got the recipe from my Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook that Sharon gave me for Christmas. We’ve already had it twice and it’s a testament to how good they are that I keep forgetting to take a picture of them before they’re all gone. I could only get this admittedly awful photo when the pan was half empty.

Feeds 4-5 hungry people.

Ingredients:

for the meatballs

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

3/4 cup quick oats

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Plenty of ground black pepper

for browning

4 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 cup flour

for the sauce

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

A few shakes of onion powder

Dash of Tabasco sauce

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the ground beef and oats. Pour in the milk, then add salt, black pepper and onion powder. Stir to combine. Roll the mixture into tablespoon-size balls and refrigerate, not touching each other, on a cookie sheet for 30 to 45 minutes to firm. (We’ve made them on Sunday morning and let them refrigerate for a couple of hours while at church.)

Preheat the oven to 350. Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dredge the meatballs in flour and brown in batches until light brown. As they brown, place them in a rectangular baking dish.

Stir together the sauce ingredients and drizzle the sauce evenly over the meatballs.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until bubbly and hot.

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