I am one lucky mama.
On Sundays during football season, the Good Papa enjoys cooking for the family (Read his post on How to Make Sundays “Fun”days).
He’ll even run to the grocery store Sunday morning and pick up all of his ingredients. Now, as lucky as I am to have a husband that’ll grocery shop and cook, I have since learned that it is not the smartest idea to send Good Papa to the store.
Why?
Let’s just say I’m pretty convinced we’ll be having the local grocery store butcher over for dinner soon.
The Good Papa loves meat!
Once we had a dinner that consisted of hotdogs, grilled chicken, grilled steak, and an ear of corn. The red bell pepper he purchased was placed in the middle of the table as the “centerpiece.”
Since this week is all about football, I figured I’d better stick to meat. Meatballs were the first thing to come to my mind.
Meatballs are one of the Good Papa’s AND W’s favorites. They are the perfect size for a little hand (like W’s) and you can easily fill them with vegetables that might otherwise be discarded (I often add spinach).
Typical cocktail meatballs have quite a bit of sodium in them. Instead, I thought I could make healthier, Asian Inspired Cocktail Meatballs.
I made the meatballs the same way I usually do, but added in some asian flavor. For the sauce, I made my own hoisin sauce inspired by this recipe on ChineseFood.com.
What did the Good Family think of the Asian Inspired Meatballs?
Everyone absolutely loved them! Even Zig got a little taste when one meatball escaped out of the bowl.
The Recipe
Ingredients
- Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground beef/pork/veal mix
- 1/4 cup onions, minced
- 1/2 cup panko crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ginger powder
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp fresh cilantro
- Sauce:
- 4 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- crush red pepper flakes, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Combine ground meat, onions, panko crumbs, egg, water, garlic powder, ginger powder, black pepper and cilantro in a large bowl.
- Roll into small cocktail-sized balls and place onto an oiled baking sheet *I made 28
- Bake for about 25 minutes, turning meatballs halfway.
- While meatballs are baking, whisk together sauce ingredients.
- When meatballs are ready, brush the sauce onto the meatballs.
- Set aside some sauce for dipping.
- Enjoy!
Hope you like the recipe! What’s your favorite recipe for football Sundays? Does your husband/boyfriend/partner like to cook? Let me know in the comment section below!
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These look delicious! We love meatballs in spaghetti and hoagies, but I forget to make cocktail meatballs. Maybe we’ll try these this weekend!
The picture makes me hungry for some. We don’t watch much football but some bike race or tennis match must be coming up!! I can well imagine how much W liked them. can’t wait to give them a try!
Because we have a peanut allergy in the house, we’ll try these with sun butter. I am a dad who loves to cook on weekends. yes, we always go for meat – it makes up for the veggie spaghetti the women of the world make during the week!
Eli@coachdaddy recently posted…Guest Post: Julia of Diary of a Word Nerd, on Why Parenting Requires a Lollipop
These look so good!! My husband likes to cook, but has no clue what he’s doing. So, he’ll offer to cook something so I can hang out with the kids, and he’ll need me for a question…every 5 min or so. I love that he likes to do it though! One of our favorites on football sunday is my semi-homemade chili.
Tarynn Playle recently posted…The State Fair
I love crock pot meat balls for game day or cookouts! But this asian twist on them sounds amazing!! I will defiantly be trying these soon!!
Amanda – Life With Grace
Amanda- Thanks! I love crock pot meatballs too!
This looks so yummy! I am going to pin it and try it sometime. Hopefully it comes out as good as yours. Thanks for linking up #rattleandroll
Adanna recently posted…Mommies Rattle and Roll Link-up Party #6
Adanna- Thanks for the pin! I hope you enjoy them.
We are having a family over for dinner on Sunday. Excited to try this!
Lauren Tamm recently posted…Comment on How to Find a Baby Sleep Schedule that Works by Monika Sharma
Lauren- I hope they turned out well!
Delicious recipe! I need to try this, thanks!
Laura recently posted…Creative ABCs
Laura- Thank you! I hope you like it.
Sounds so yummy! Definitely going to have to try!
Thank you! I hope you like them.
Who doesn’t love a good meatball!?!? Thanks for the post!
Christine- I know I love meatballs! Thanks for the comment.
I love the red bell pepper centerpiece!
U.Joe likes to cook and sometimes shops too…..we go meatless most of the time during the week, and then catch up in weekends! These look delicious!
Uncle Joe is a good cook! We have been going meatless a lot more lately. It’s amazing how much good food you can make without meat.
this sounds good! I will have to try the sauce with some soy meat
Caitlin recently posted…gardening
Caitlin- Yes! That would probably be tasty. Thank you.
Hey Tricia,
These look great. I’ve already pinned them and plan on serving them at a family dinner we are having in two weeks. I love the Asian twist. Thanks.
Patti recently posted…Harvest Tomato Pie
Patti- Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy them.
I finally got around to making these tonight. Delicious!! I didn’t change your recipe at all, except I heated the sauce and dumped the meatballs right in so they were nice and saucy. So good! Good Papa is crazy for filling the fridge with condiments when you can whip up something this good from scratch with things already on hand… Yum!
Melissa- Oh! I’m so glad that they came out okay. Yes, I seriously don’t know when he even buys all of the condiments. Where do they come from?!
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