Recipe Fun Friday- Make-ahead Meatballs

This week I started my pursuit of the perfect freezer meals. Since meatballs are so versatile, I thought they would be a good starting point. Most of the recipes I found used bread crumbs or crackers as a filler, so it was a little bit more work to find one that used my favorite secret ingredient: oatmeal. Gotta get those whole grains in somehow;)

Anyway, this recipe has evaporated milk in it, which I had never used in meatballs. They turned out quite moist, my hubby said they were some of the best he has ever had. I used ground turkey instead of hamburger (my family is used to that) and I doubled the recipe. I should warn you that after it was mixed, the mixture was a bit runny; I couldn't form them like I usually do. So I dropped the mix by tablespoons in a pan and baked them. They turned out quite nice that way. And after a day in the fridge, the uncooked extra mixture had thickened a bit. I used the meatballs in several meals, then I put enough for about 2 more meals in the freezer. It really was a small amount of work for something that will be an easy (and convenient) addition to future meals.

Meatball Subs with sweet corn on the cob and fruit salad (yummy, yummy:)

Meatball soup

I had to include this recipe for Cream of Mushroom and Rice Soup. I tried to wait another week to make this (I really did), but I had baby bella mushrooms that needed used up. Don't ask me why I made soup twice during such a hot week. And don't let this picture deceive you; the truth is, mushroom soup isn't very photogenic;) This was SO good. But I did need to add a pack of onion soup mix to it because it was a little bland. I also used a different mixture of wild and long grain rice. And if you're calorie conscious like I am, you can used fat-free half and half and only a third of the butter. It still had a creamy mushroom taste.

I'm afraid that Nikki's starting this weekly recipe post has unleashed the inner experimenter in me; my family is starting to feel like guinea pigs.

Very well-fed guinea pigs;)

If you'd like to join us in Recipe Fun Friday, stop by Nikki's blog and link up. And while you're there, make sure to enter her first Giveaway. I think I get extra points for mentioning that, which means Angela has an even better chance of getting that blanket, LoL:)