Home Cooking with Jess – Meatballs

As much as I love taking appetizers and turning them into dips, I think I equally love taking meaty sandwiches and turning them into meatballs. 

Before I started working for the United Way, I worked in TV. One of my very important duties was to have a TV on in my office to make sure close captioning was working. Every once in a while, something would catch my eye and usually that something was good.

I became a fan of Rachel Ray, to be honest. She made Philly Steak bites in a muffin pan and because I fight with mini muffin pans, I ended up turning the recipe into meatballs. A staple in my freezer used to be the onion and tri-peppers bag of frozen vegetables. Now I almost always have fresh bell peppers and onions on hand. But both work in this case.

I used Bisquick in the original recipe and switching to keto means I sub that out with almond flour, coconut flour, or even crushed pork rinds. All variations are yummy. I’ve even made these with ground turkey before although it can be a little dry, and that is why I always put steak seasoning into the mix.  

The cheese goes right into the meatball mixture but cheese stuffed meatballs really aren’t that difficult. Provolone stuffed Philly cheesesteak meatballs sounds awesome, right?

Yeah … I’m absolutely doing that next time. Apparently writing recipes down is beneficial to me, too! Who knew? 

As much as I talk about saving money while grocery shopping being a minimalist when it comes to ingredients and instructions, I think the next biggest topic in my food columns so far has been Reubens.   

This is something that I looked up on Pinterest, but I’ve found that it can be made with either ground pork or ground beef. Ground pork tends to be dry, so I add a little bit more of Thousand Island to the mix when I make those. Either way, I always have extra dressing for dip them. 

In other recipes sometimes I will sub-out cheeses for what I have because I almost always have shredded mozzarella on hand. But for these, don’t veer away from Swiss.  

Philly Cheesesteak Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 cup of diced bell peppers of your choice 
• 1cup of yellow onion diced
• 1 cup of shredded or chopped provolone cheese 
• One egg
• 2 tablespoons of either Bisquick or almond flour
• Teaspoon of steak seasoning
• Teaspoon of garlic powder 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl
3. Mix together using stand mixer or by hand
4. Scoop out a 1-2 inch size meatball
5. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
6. Space meatballs 1 inch apart and bake for 20 minutes.  
7. Serve as is or with your favorite beer cheese dip.  

Reuben Meatballs

Ingredients:

• Pound of ground pork or beef 
• Half a pound of corn beef chopped.
• 1 cup of sauerkraut drained and chopped. 
• 1cup of shredded Swiss cheese
• One egg 
• ½ cup of thousand Island dressing
• ½ cup of breadcrumbs or almond flour. 
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl
3. Mix together using stand mixer or by hand
4. Scoop out a 1-2 inch size meatball
5. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
6. Space meatballs 1 inch apart and bake for 20 minutes.  
7. Serve with extra dressing on the side.