Meatball Sliders

Super quick dinner/appetizer alert!  Honestly!  This took me about 30 minutes from start to finish aaaaannnnddd I made my own meatballs!  We’re not talking short cuts here with frozen lumps of meat…these were lean and delicious and made from scratch!

So the next time you’re in the mood for meatball sammies or you’ve got friends over for the game, whip these up – you’ll be patting yourself on the back for how good they are and your friends will put you in a whole different category…like the Wonder Woman category…okay, maybe not Wonder Woman, but there’s some serious R-E-S-P-E-C-T for a hottie that can whip up yummy balls of meat with sauce and bread and cheese and oh, lookie there, they’re CUTE, too!  I’m telling you:  a whole ‘nother category.

Ingredients:

1lb - 96% lean ground beef

½ cup Panko bread crumbs

2 garlic clove, minced

½ cup low fat or fat free milk

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 – 24oz jar marinara sauce

1 ½ cups reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese

18 party rolls (little dinner rolls)

Preparation:

1.    In a small bowl, mix together ground beef, panko, 1 garlic clove, milk & herbs. 

2.    Roll out your meatballs; you will probably get about 24-30 depending on their size.  Don’t make them too big or they’ll take forever and this is supposed to be quick, quick, quick!

3.    Place oil in a large skillet and throw in your onions and the other clove of garlic.  Stir it around and let them sauté for a few minutes.

4.    Now, make some room for the meatballs in that skillet.  Place them one by one into the pan and cook them, turning every few minutes, to brown all sides.

5.    When they are brown on all sides, pour in your sauce and bring it to simmer.  Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes.  I uncovered it every few minutes to give everything a little stir with a wooden spoon.

6.    While the meatballs are a’ cookin’, slice your rolls in half.  I found these great “Party Rolls” and they were the perfect size for each little meatball!  Use whatever you can find.

7.    Then throw some cheese on them.

8.    When your meatballs and sauce are ready, remove from heat and spoon a meatball onto each roll…and now a little sauce…and now close that puppy up and eat it!

Wow, these were yummy...Hubby thanked me 3x for dinner.  He always thanks me, but I think he was really happy with this recipe…probably because I didn’t try to slip ground turkey or soy crumbles under his nose…nope, just good ol’ real, honest-to-goodness ground beef.

Nutrition:

Serves 6, approximately 3 sliders each

Calories 445 / Carbs 46g / Fat 18g / Protein 29g / Fiber 6g / Sodium 915mg