Crock Pot Meatballs

Some of my best crock pot recipes come about without any planning. One night I decided I was going to make some Crock Pot Meatballs. I planned to serve them along with Spaghetti for one of my granddaughters who is in love with my Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Happy New Year! We are starting off 2016 with a bang with this Crock Pot Meatballs recipe. It is the first crock pot recipe of the new year.

What I didn’t know was that her father, (my son) had gone to the grocery store to pick up some chicken for dinner. Seems I wasn’t paying attention to my cell phone (oopsy) when he called to ask me if I had anything planned for dinner that night.

Since I didn’t answer the phone to tell him I was making Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner, he went ahead and bought some chicken to cook.

I knew my Crock Pot Meatballs would keep until the next day so I told him to go ahead and cook the chicken.

Once the Crock Pot Meatballs were cooked and cooled I tucked them into the refrigerator for the next day.

I was all set to make Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner the next day when lunch time rolled around and my stomach was growling. I thought to myself I’ll just heat up a few of those Crock Pot Meatballs and eat them for lunch.

Right about then I remembered I had picked up some King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls the day before. It was then that the light bulb went off. I’ve made easy Crock Pot Meatball Subs before but never made a homemade Meatballs Slider.

By some miracle, my meatballs were the perfect size for a slider bun. Since I was only making a few Meatball Sliders for myself, I didn’t even turn the oven on to toast the slider buns. I have a toaster oven so I used it instead.

If you don’t own a toaster oven you should run out and buy one. Especially if you have kids who love to eat Bagel Bites and Pizza Rolls like I do. A toaster oven comes in handy when the kids are cooking and you don’t have to heat up the entire house from using the oven.

How to make Crock Pot Meatballs and Meatball Sliders

Ingredients

3 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
45 oz jar spaghetti sauce
slider buns
mozzarella cheese

Directions

Mix the first seven ingredients in a large bowl until combined well.
Form about 45 golf ball size meatballs.
In a skillet brown the meatballs on all sides.
Remove the meatballs from the skillet and drain on a paper towel.
Repeat with all the meatballs.
Pour the jar of sauce into a 6 quart crock pot.
Add any seasonings you normally add to your sauce.
Put all the meatballs into the crock pot, pushing them down under the sauce.
Cook for 3-4 hours on high.
Meatballs are done when the center is no longer pink.

To prepare Meatball Sliders

Cut the slider buns open and lightly toast in the oven.
Place one meatball with 1 tablespoon of sauce on a slider bun.
Top with mozzarella cheese and toast in the oven to melt the cheese before serving.