Homemade Meatballs Without Eggs

Homemade meatballs are high up on my family's favorite dinner lists. They are pretty simple to make and you can freeze you extra meatballs for your crock pot later in the week. Two dinners done in one.

While I was prepping for dinner the other night with my original meatball recipe HERE....I realized I was out of eggs. The cook in me a year ago would have said, " well I don't have my egg I can't make my meatballs." But not the cook in me today. The cook in me today searched through my cupboards and pondered what would work like an egg.

Viola! Then it clicked. I am always researching about how Paleo diets; or should I say a healthy lifestyle; and what they use to substitute certain foods. Therefore today I am letting you in on the yet so simple secret next time you run out of egg for your meatballs. Or if you want to choose not to use an egg in your meatball. Now on I am no longer using an egg.

No egg= Use grounded flax seed and a little bit of water in your meatball mix.  I used 1 Tablespoon of grounded flax seed and about 2 Tablespoons of water. 

My meatballs turned out perfect. They did not crack or fall apart. Not even when I took them off the cooking sheet.

TIP: If your meat mixture is not yet meeting that sticky consistency yet just add a tiny bit off milk.

Homemade Meatballs

Wednesdays are kind of busy in our household. Dinners are hard for me to plan on Wednesdays with our oldest in ice-skating. Therefore I am always looking for simple meals to prepare. Or meals I can prepare ahead of time and freeze. I try to take in consideration of our daughters favorite dinners. One of those are Homemade meatballs. I'm sure they don't have to be homemade, but I think everything taste better when it's homemade. I'll be completely honest, I do not use measuring cups when I make my meatballs. Therefore I am unable to give you exact measurements. I use to measure everything when I was first learning to cook, now I wing it. I almost think you know your becoming a good cook when you don't have to measure anymore and everything turns out great. here are my ingredients and how I make homemade meatballs. I'll try to give you somewhat of measurements.

Ingredients

• Hamburger (How many pounds you want to use is up to you, you can freeze extra meatballs!)
• Eggs (I use one egg per pound of hamburger.)
• Milk ( I guess to how much hamburger I have in the bowl.)
• Bread crumbs (You can also use crushed boxed turkey stuffing crumbs) (I use 1.5-2 pieces of bread per pound.)
• Salt (1 tablespoon.)
• Black pepper (1 teaspoon.)
• Parmesan cheese grated( Again I just throw this in, my guess is a half cup.)
• Garlic clove grated( I always use 2 because I love garlic.)

Homemade sauce(sweet and sour)

• 1 jar of chili sauce
• 1 jar of grape jelly

I put it in the crock pot and let them jelly melt with the chili sauce while I am making the meatballs. It always seems to take a while for the jelly to melt.

Directions
This is how I make my meatballs, I'm sure there are many other ways.

• I preheat my oven to 400
• I lay wax paper over my cooking sheets so the meatballs don't stick.
• I let them cook till they are nicely brown. usually about 20 minutes. I check occasionally to be safe.
• Once they are done cooking in the oven, I lay them on paper towel to drain the grease off. 
• I then throw them in the crock pot with my sweet and sour sauce and let them sit for a little while.

Enjoy!!