Ballers

This family loves balls. Basketballs, baseballs, footballs, [insert your own thought here], and especially meatballs.

I am not a big fan of getting my hands dirty with raw meat when I cook - mostly because I have a teeny tiny problem with germ issues - but I do suck it up occasionally to make homemade meatballs.

Tonight's meal is a slight variation on what one might expect in their meatballs. When I selected this recipe, I was pleasantly surprised to learn I actually had every single ingredient already on hand (with the exception of the ground sirloin). That's what I call a meatball touchdown (ha ha ha - long week, peeps).

Sesame-Soy Meatballs
Source: Cooking Light, November 2010

Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. minced green onions (skipped - didn't feel like dealing with onions tonight)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark sesame oil
• 1 tbsp chile paste
• 1/4 tsp salt (skip)
• 6 garlic cloves, finely minced (used refrigerated minced garlic)
• 1 lbs ground sirloin
• Cooking spray

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Combine the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Add beef; mix gently to combine. With moist hands, shape beef mixture into 20 (1.5-inch) meatballs.
• Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs to the pan, cook 4 minutes, turning to brown meatballs on all sides. Arrange browned meatballs in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining meatballs.
• Bake at 400 degrees F for seven minutes or until done.

Yield: 4 servings (5 meatballs per serving)
Per serving: Calories: 241; Fat: 11.3g (2.7g sat, 4.8g mono, 3g poly); Protein: 23.5g; Carb: 10.3g; Fiber: 0.3g; Chol: 42mg; Iron: 19mg; Sodium: 491mg; Calc: 36mg

We also had asparagus and brown rice.

Reviews:
Very easy to prepare - even with the nastiness of hand-rolling the meatballs. Kid: "Better than turkey tacos." In fact - the kid had a recipe idea - combining turkey tacos (8/2/11) and these meatballs. Um, yeah, no. The hubs also really enjoyed - he might have hoarded the meatballs, not allowing the kid to have seconds. And THAT, my dear blog readers, is what you call good parenting.

I think this pic is upside down