Now that winter is upon us and the days are getting shorter and shorter, I find myself choosing crock pot meals more and more often. After all, I don’t want to waste the dwindling daylight hours cooking, chopping and mixing all evening long. I just want to be able to throw something in in the morning and have a warm dinner already to go as soon as everyone gets home. Crock pot meals are perfect for this.
Just lately, I was looking through some old beef crock pot recipes when I found one I need to start making more often: Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs. These meatballs are really quick and easy to make, and they are delicious too!
While I often love eating lighter meats like chicken and fish, sometimes you just want a hearty meal that really sticks to your ribs and fills you up. These Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs do just that. They are full of flavor, very filling, and the recipe makes plenty so no one has to return to the kitchen looking for something else to eat.
These Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs are good on top of spaghetti, in a sandwich with mozzarella cheese, or even on their own. We like to serve them with a big salad and a loaf of Italian bread on the side as well, just to round out the meal.
Even if you have a meatball recipe already, I really urge you to give these Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs a try. They are so quick and easy to make and so full of flavor–I just know you’ll love them!
- 3 lb Ground Beef
- 8 slices White Bread
- 1/3 cup Milk
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 medium Onion Finely Diced
- 1 tbsp minced Garlic
- 1/3 cup Grated Parmesan
- 2 tsp Oregano
- 4 tsp Basil
- 1 Egg
- 48 oz Spaghetti Sauce (homemade or jar)
- Tear bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Add milk and toss to absorb milk, let soak for 5 minutes.
- Drain any excess milk.
- Whisk egg and add to bread.
- Add onion, garlic, oregano, basil and parmesan and mix well.
- Crumble ground beef into mixture.
- Mix with your hands to endure everything is well blended and form into 2″ meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet and brown meatballs on all sides 5 at a time.
- Transfer browned meatballs to slow cooker.
- Add sauce and cook on High for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
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