Monday, September 19, 2011

Auntie LaLa's Meatball Recipe




Auntie LaLa stopped in not long ago and helped entertain the kids and make dinner! What a treat for me :) I asked her if she would mind sharing the recipe because it turned out to be such a fun activity for the kids! They also were so proud of their cooking, they gobbled up their dinner without any fuss. As she mentions below, they also freeze well - so make extra.

Ideas for Serving Meatballs:
For the classic dish, add cooked meatballs to a heaping pile of spaghetti with your favorite sauce.
For the leftovers, put meatballs on french bread with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese.
For a New York style pizza, use mini meatballs as a topping.
Or, for a low-carb option, use a large meatball as your entree with sauteed spinach!

Ingredients:
1lb of ground beef, turkey, or chicken
1 package of Italian sausage
pepper (to taste)
one egg
1 cup of bread crumbs (Italian or plain flavor)
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt, or more to taste.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. If using low fat meats, spray the parchment paper with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix both all ingredients together with your clean hands - remove all jewelry first!
3. Once ingredients are mixed together well, begin shaping meatballs to your desired size. The size will only impact the cooking time. Ensure that the entire tray is of similar-sized meatballs for even cooking.
4. Cook the meatballs for approximately 15 minutes, then turn them over with tongs before cooking them another 15 minutes (*time is estimated for golf ball size meatballs).


*Freezing: cover the meatballs on the cookie sheet with Saran wrap and put the entire sheet in the freezer for several hours, or overnight. Once the meatballs are thoroughly frozen, place them in a freezer bag. By freezing them individually, you will be able to take one or two, or ten, meatballs from the bag to cook, rather than the entire bag.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Hot Off The Press!






Yesterday I watched the first pages of Texarkana Parent run on the press. Here are a few pictures from the run, it is an amazing process!

And more exciting...it won't be long now before the Premier Issue of Texarkana Parent arrives!