My children have weird eating habits. They aren’t picky in a normally refuse to eat “adult” food way. 3 of the four love raw fish and would each sushi on the regular if they could. The fourth may not like raw fish, but he loves a good tofu miso soup, lobster eggroll, and would die for a bowl of quinoa.

Case in point. The meatball. Two of my kids won’t eat meat sauce, bolognese, or meatloaf. However, if I put the same ingredients all together, and scoop them out in ball form, and call them meatballs… they’ll eat them. It doesn’t matter if it’s swedish meatballs, lamb meatballs, or even turkey meatballs. Call it a meatball, and they’ll eat it. Even the one who doesn’t eat poultry, or the one who doesn’t eat red meat… it’s a serious eyeroll situation.

Therefore, it stands that I have a ton of meatball recipes in my back pocket. This particular recipe is my standard, go-to, italian meatball. Perfect for spaghetti and meatballs, a meatball sub, or meatball sliders. It’s a winner.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground veal

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground beef

1 bunch green onions, sliced

1 bunch italian parsley, leaves removed and chopped

20 leaves of fresh basil, copped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp trader joe’s onion salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp yellow mustard

1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup

3/4 cup pork panko

2 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.

Line a large tray with tin foil. (I find that helps the balls brown on both sides in the oven).

Add ground meats to a large bowl. Sprinkle all additional ingredients over the meats. Using your hands, combine all ingredients without over mixing.

Using a large cookie/ice cream scoop, scoop out equal sized amounts and use hands to roll into balls. Spacing evenly, without touching on the oven safe cookie tray. This recipe should make 24 fairly large meatballs - about 2 inch diameter.

Place in the oven on the middle rack for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes move to the top shelf, and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Flip meatballs over and cook for a final 10 minutes.

Serve by themselves, with pasta, over sauce, in a sandwich, or even in a soup.