Farmhouse Meatballs

At the farm here we eat a lot of simple, rustic but wholesome foods.  We try to use what we have available on our farm in season and whats available to us in our area and cook a lot from scratch.  I guess I am just saying we don't really eat fancy or a lot of processed pre-made foods.  Today, I am going to share with you our meat ball recipe.  We make huge meatballs from ground deer meat.  It is my families favorite way to have them but you could make them from ground beef as well.  To me ground beef is just a lot more greasy when you make them. 

I initially came up with this recipe as my son Zeke is on a casin free/gluten free diet for his autism.  When I first started making them for him I used cooked quiona or cooked millet and they turned out well.  But over time  we found he does not react to oats.  So this is the way we make them now.  With rolled oats.  Again, I make huge amounts of food here for my large family.  So you can half this recipe if you wish.  Oh, by the way, Zeke is the reason why I only have shredded cheese on half of the meatballs in the above photo.  He can't have dairy. :)                       

2 - pounds of ground deer  (or ground beef)

1 - 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes

¾ - teaspoon salt

Pepper -  hum..I never measured this.  Quite a few good shakes.  :)

¼ - teaspoons cumin

1/8 - teaspoon ginger

5 - cups uncooked rolled oats

6 - eggs

Take a large baking dish and rub the inside down with some olive oil.  (or you can use olive oil spray) and set it aside next to where you are working. (your hands will be to messy to do this later :) )

In a large mixing bowl combine the diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, ginger, and eggs.  Next add the raw ground deer meat and (I use my hands to blend in the rest)…. The tomato mixture, deer meat, and uncooked rolled oats.  Add the oats a little at a time till it is all incorporated well. 

Then take some and make a ball out of it.  It will be a bit loose but will make a very nice moist meat ball when done.  As they bake the oats will absorb a lot too.  I make them all uniform in size so they all bake evenly but I make them pretty large.

The reason why we make them so large is that my family eats them on huge toasted and buttered rolls as a meat ball sandwich. (basically huge garlic bread with huge meat balls in the middle, yum!) 

Anyways, put them in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees and bake them for 1 hour. (Every oven is a bit different, but this is what it takes for mine :) )    After the hour take them out and pour your favorite spaghetti sauce all over them and then sprinkle shredded mozzarella over them and put them back in the oven for 5 or 10 more minutes.  

Now you can do all kinds of things with them.  Eat them on pasta, on toasted subway type rolls, on home made rolls, as a meat with a side salad in the summer.  Actually in the summer this is a really good way to use up those extra big juicy tomatoes. 

Now if you have a child that cannot eat rolled oats and needs a gluten free diet, this is how I used to make them for Zeke...........  You can cook Millet and add that in instead of the uncooked rolled oats.  I never measured how much but just keep adding the cooked millet as you mix it all in together.  When it is stiff enough to form a loose meatball then pan them up to bake them as you would do above.  If your child can not have dairy then either hold off on the cheese or I use my sons special cheese made from rice that is casin and gluten free.

Psalm 3:8  Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

 

Many blessings on your day and life, 

susan