What if we could make a family favorite dinner even easier?
Here at Between Carpools we get lots of emails. Some are seeking advice (we do our best, and at times, add those topics to future posts we want to explore), some are taking the time to thank us for a post that helped their day to day or a recipe that was a hit (we love those, and appreciate you taking the time!), and some, are you, our readers, giving us a valuable tip or hack that you realize “oh this is so BCP style!” And we love that too.
Like when Estee Farrell emailed, telling us how she’s been making 9×13 meatballs for forever, she wrote, “It’s so easy. There’s no pot to clean and the meatballs never get burnt – they are always moist. There’s no mess to clean up – because you can throw out the first pan. And you can make multiple trays in your oven at the same time for a meal with lots of people or to freeze for a later time. Great for Pesach too!”
We printed her instructions and at our next meeting we got our thinking caps on. We decided that her version was a bit too similar to our beloved 9×13 Meat Sauce Pasta in our cookbook Dinner Done. But still, we loved the idea. So we kept thinking.
“What if we did a glazed meatball? Less saucy, something more tangy?” said Leah. And so, we got to work.
We loved the results because this was a meatball that was tasty enough that the pickiest eater gave a thumbs up and at the same time, it’s not a kiddie-only food only. The adults in our homes liked them too.
In her original recipe, Estee used a mix of ground chicken and beef (keeps the meatballs moist) and she likes to add pureed vegetables to the mix (sneaky!) which she promises the kids don’t even notice. The vegetables that work well are spinach, onions, peppers, garlic for flavor, cauliflower, squash… Estee recommends pureeing them in a food processor first. When using the puree, remember to add a bit more breadcrumbs to the mix, to help it bind.
And yes, you can make the mixture
and form the balls all in the 9×13 pan!
After forming the meatballs,
just pour the sauce over
(yeah, we used a separate bowl to mix the sauce…couldn’t figure out a way around that),
cover and bake!
They’re great over either rice or pasta.
Now, for the recipe:
Recipe adapted from Victoria and Leah’s Passover Made Easy cookbook.
Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried minced onion
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3 tbsp breadcrumbs (plain or seasoned)
- ½ tsp coarse black pepper
Sauce:
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup apricot jam
- ½ cup water
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine all meatballs ingredients. You can do this all directly in the 9×13 pan. With damp hands form into 30 small meatballs.
- Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl. Pour over the raw meatballs. Cover and bake for 1 hour.
Try our guilt-free spaghetti squash meatball recipe!
looks amazing! Will definitely be tring this!
Cook??? For 1 hr, like on the flame?
I think they mean bake in the oven
I see they fixed the directions, thx!!
BAKE IN THE OVEN OR COOK ON FLAME?? AND IF BAKED THEN ON WHAT TEMP?
Bake in oven on 350 for 1 hour
on what temperature?
Why don’t you mix in a ziplock bag to avoid washing out the bowl??
Excellent idea! Totally skips the mess and washing the bowl. You can even cut a corner off the bag and skip the ladle 🙂 Better to use a heavy duty/freezer ziploc though, esp if you are pouring from the bag.
I just mixed the sauce in a 9×13, mixed the meat mixture separately in the package it came in, and added the meatballs to the 9×13 and spooned some sauce over the top, and baked it covered.
ni dishes or bags whatsoever!!
I make this. It’s at 350 for an hour.
I love this idea! I’d love to see Estee Farrell’s original recipe as well.
Will this work with just ground turkey or chicken?
Can you post the original recipe from Estee Farrell? Or a way to reach her? Pretty please?
Hi! It is a mixture of 1.5lb ground meat, .5 cup breadcrumbs and a 26 oz jar of marinara sauce.
excellent recipe!! my whole family loved it yesterday- and its clean! (best part!) It was so typical between carpools, because I had just taken out a package of ground to defrost when I found this recipe!
I did mine with dark ground chicken, and it was yum!
Thank you!!!
I’ve been making meatballs in a 9×13 for years. I make 4-5 pounds of chopped meat/chicken at a time and freeze the balls raw in the pan. For a really quick supper, i take out a pan, pour on the sauce and bake.
What can one replace the breadcrumbs with for pesach?
Would love to know too…did you get a response?
matza meal
for non-gebrokts – Either mashed potatoes or instant mashed potato flakes.
Did you try w mashed potatoes?
I made this and it was so easy and they came out great texture.
I made the sauce in a freezer ziploc bag and snipped a hole in the corner to pour over everything.
Only thing is that the sauce was WAAAYYY too sweet for me and I didnt even use all of the apricot jam. When the recipe said it would be a bit tangy I didn’t realize what they meant…
I’ll definitely be making this again just with a dif sauce. Thanks Esti F and BCP!!!
The rice looks absolutely perfect. Fresh crushed garlic is amazing in the meat mixture as well as the sauce.
I would definitely make it more sweet and sour, this is too sweet but looks delicious and easy.
Any suggestions on how I can balance the sweetness to give it more of a sweet and sour taste?
how/can i make this in a crockpot?
Been making meatballs too for years in a 9×13, and first mix the sauce in the pan (I use equal amounts of Sweet and Sour Duck sauce and canned crushed tomatoes- only two ingredients and not too sweet) the line up the meatballs in the sauce in rows and using a gloved hand, submerge the meatball into the sauce. I also bake it on lower temp -275 for 2 hours, comes out fabuloue every time…
My kids don’t like tomato sauce so they absolutely loved this! Not to mention how easy it was to make…!
Could I do this with marinara sauce?
definitely
hi,
i noticed your 9×13 pasta and meat sauce recipe mentioned here, can that be done in a slow cooker??
many thanks
How would you recommend making this to freeze ahead of time? A few commenter said she freezes without the sauce. What do you recommend?
How many does this serve?
This recipe is sooo good and so easy to make.
Ty BCP! This is delicious! Alsp, super forgiving recipe. I made it yesterday with diced onion in the meat mixture, less apricot jam and a bit of bbq sauce and tomato sauce as well. Definitely will be making again!
I want to cook it instead of baking. how long should i cook for ? (Fleishig oven not working)
Just put this in the oven for the 4th week in a row!! It’s been a huge hit. I do about half a cup of apricot jam and still has perfect sweet x salty combo. Thank you BCP for another awesome recipe that tastes gourmet yet takes minutes!
Thank you BCP! I needed a oven recipe because my pots were in use for a meal train for another family. My daughter says yum ma, they taste much better than last time
This is definitely going to be our new meatball recipe, so simple and kid friendly!!
I tried these but the meatballs came out very hard. Did this happen to anyone? I like them soft and moist, do you think an hour is too much cooking time?
Love this recipe. Super easy and freezable. And my whole family loves it