{Recipe Files}: Easiest, Most Tasty Crock Pot Meatballs

As promised, I'm here to share with you the yummiest crock pot meatball recipe there ever was. Strong statement, yes, but these are a winner in our house and have been eaten multiple times over the last few months since I discovered them!

What You Need:

~1 lb ground beef or turkey (I like it with ground turkey personally)

~1 C Italian bread crumbs

~1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

~1/2 tsp minced garlic (or 1 fresh clove minced)

~1/3 C milk*

~1 egg

~1/2 tsp pepper
~1 tsp dried parsley

~salt to taste (I add very little)

~40 ounces of pasta sauce--this part may be key to why I love these meatballs so much. We use the Victoria brand from Costco. The sauce is SO delicious and you get a two pack (80 oz total). MG and I are sodium nazi's and this pasta sauce has decent levels of sodium when compared to other pasta sauces, too. A win all around!

What You Do:

1. Either spray your crock pot with cooking spray OR use a crock pot liner. I recommend using the liner--it makes clean up SO much easier! (You can find these at Target in the baggy/saran wrap section).

2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients except for the pasta sauce. 

*If the meatballs feel too dry, you can add in more milk. The original recipe called for 1/2 C but I found those to be too mushy and the meatballs fell apart. 1/3 of a C worked perfectly for mine.

3. Roll out about 1-2" balls and either place them in a container to refrigerate overnight, or if you're making it right then, just place them in the bottom of the crock pot.

4. When you're ready to cook them, I add a bit of pasta sauce to the bottom to give a little layer between the meatballs and the crock pot. Put the meatballs in and then cover those suckers with all of that delicious pasta sauce.

5. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours (I usually do about 9) or HIGH for 4-6 hours.

P.S. Your house is going to smell amazing and it's going to torture you and make your tummy growl waiting until it's time to eat these :)

You can serve this up over pasta or by itself. I've been having mine lately with only a smidge of pasta (bc of the Gestational Diabetes) and am totally full afterwards, but have also eaten it over pasta (and then am REALLY full afterwards). 
You can also put these into subs and top with some mozzarella cheese! That was the original way we made these, but pasta was just a little less messy.

And you can obviously load it up with Parmesan cheese, because cheese makes everything better--heh heh :)

This makes about 28 meatballs, depending how big you make them, which is always enough for 4 servings for us.

Enjoy!!