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I have this hugely long list of recipes to make to include in the cookbook I’m working on, and a barbeque meatball bake was one item on said list. This is what I came up with, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Perfectly seasoned meatballs are topped with a quick BBQ sauce, shredded cheese, and sliced mushrooms (but you could leave those off if you don’t like mushrooms, obviously). The family liked it, I fed our family of 6 twice on 2 pounds of hamburger (hooray for leftovers!), and I used ingredients I had on hand. Winner, winner, meatball dinner.
I’m kind of in love with this sauce. I didn’t have plain tomato sauce to use as my base, so I pulled some pizza sauce out. Make the sauce – own it – tweak it to what you like. Mine turned into a sort of sweet buffalo flavor. You could definitely make the sauce ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for convenience.
Don’t be afraid of the ingredients list. Both the meatballs and the sauce are easy to put together and take ingredients that you most likely already have on hand. You can even make the sauce ahead of time.
This meatball bake is a very filling entrée that I served with salad and cabbage sautéed in butter and garlic salt. Yum!
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You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 2 cups no sugar added pizza sauce (I used a tomato basil variety)
- 2 T apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp. liquid smoke (omit this if you can't find an allergy friendly product)
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. paprika
- 1 tsp. each chili powder, dried cilantro, and dried dill weed
- 2-3 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, to taste (a doonk is 1/32 tsp.)
- 2 tsp. Texas Pete hot sauce
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese (the kind from the green shake container)
- ¾ cup old fashioned oats (use gluten free if necessary)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or carton coconut milk for a nut free version)
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground sage
- 2 tsp. parsley flakes
- Sliced fresh mushrooms, optional
- Shredded cheese of choice
- Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
- Mix the meatball ingredients together with your hands until thoroughly combined. Form into golf-ball sized balls and placed into a greased baking pan. I use a 9x13 inch baking dish and a 7½ x 11 inch baking dish. I top the 9x13" with sliced fresh mushrooms and leave the smaller pan without for the children. Spoon the sauce over the meatballs and sprinkle with the desired amount of shredded cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.
- Feel free to make the sauce ahead of time and store in the refrigerator (or the freezer, for longer storage).
I bet the meatballs would be good on their own without the sauce!
Suggested products:
- Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder can be found in the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
I have Italian sausage I need to use. Could I substitute that for this recipe?
That should be fine. I’m not all that familiar with Italian sausage. I’m sure it’ll throw a lot more grease than ground beef will and depending on the seasoning level you may want to back down the seasoning in the rest of the recipe.
I meant to rate it.
I would like to make these. I make my own pizza sauce with a can tomato sauce, oregano, basil, marjoram, garlic powder, salt and liquid stevia. Would that work for this recipe? I wanted to make sure it would work since you add other spices to the sauce…
That should be fine, but you may want to decrease the added sweetener depending how sweet you make your sauce. 🙂
Thanks! I ended up buying a natural, no sugar added sauce at the store. I’m glad I did because ours is very spicy. It turned out perfect! We topped the meatballs with Smoked Gouda. It was delicious! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I love the idea of adding the smoked Gouda!
This is a hit with my family.
My family loved this dish. My pickiest child raved about it. Making it again this week. Thanks Briana! 🙂
I’m so glad!
I made these the other evening and loved them! Thanks for a great meatball recipe!
Do you think I could substitute 8 oz of plain tomato sauce instead of the almond milk with good results? I am trying to avoid almond milk.
If you don’t mind your meatballs tasting like tomatoes, that should be fine. 🙂 You could also try carton coconut milk in place of the almond milk.
This looks fantastic as usual! I love your recipes and always enjoy reading your posts! Hope your having a great week!