This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included yet more zucchini with a tomato, onion, and bacon sauce — mom was pleased to yet again eat a tasty dish and have some leftover sauce — and the subject of this post, my meatballs.
I normally keep cooked meatballs in the freezer for use with pasta dishes such as spaghetti, or eat them on their own along with other foods.
I have no recollection of why I chose to add peas, corn, or rice to the mix when I began making these meatballs many years ago, other than presumably at the time I thought that their addition was a good idea, and that incidentally doing so helped make more meatballs with the same amount of ground beef; as for the onions and egg, I have always liked onions with ground beef, and the egg acts as a binding agent to help keep the meatballs together, especially while cooking.
Making the meatballs:
A mixing bowl was placed on a kitchen scale, and the kitchen scale was set to zero:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/01mixingbowlonakitchenscalecropped.resized.jpg)
Two pounds of ground beef were measured out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/02twopoundsofgroundbeefmeasuredoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The bowl of ground beef was put aside for a moment.
An onion was taken out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/03oniontakenoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The onion was cleaned and trimmed:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04onioncleanedandtrimmedcropped.resized.jpg)
The onion was sliced thinly:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/05onionslicedthinlycropped.resized.jpg)
The onion was then chopped somewhat finely:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/06onionschoppedfinelycropped.resized.jpg)
The chopped onion was transferred to the mixing bowl with the ground beef:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/07choppedonionstransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/08choppedonionstransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
An egg was taken out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/09eggstakenoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The egg was cracked into the mixing bowl:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/10eggcrackedintomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/11eggcrackedintomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
Frozen peas were measured out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/12frozenpeasmeasuredoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The frozen peas were added to the mixing bowl:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/13frozenpeastransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
Since I didn’t have any frozen corn kernels on hand, I separated out some corn kernels from a bag of frozen mixed vegetables:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/14frozencornmeasuredoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The frozen kernel corn was added to the mixing bowl:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15frozencorntransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/16frozencorntransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
Rice was measured out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/17ricemeasuredoutcropped.resized.jpg)
The rice was added to the mixing bowl:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/18ricetransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/19ricetransferredtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
Salt was measured out:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20saltmeasuredoutcropped.resized.jpg)
…. and the salt was added to the mixing bowl:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/21saltaddedtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/22saltaddedtomixingbowlcropped.resized.jpg)
The ingredients were thoroughly mixed together by hand:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/23ingredientsmixedbyhandcropped.resized.jpg)
An electric skillet was turned on (as well as a stove burner for my cast iron skillet for the meatballs that wouldn’t fit in the electric skillet):
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/24electricskilletturnedoncropped.resized.jpg)
The meat mix was formed into balls from 1-1/2″ to 2″ in diameter, which were placed in the electric skillet (as well as a cast iron skillet off camera), with enough spacing between them to allow for easier manipulation later when turning them over:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/26meatmixformedintoballsandplacedinskilletscropped.resized.jpg)
As each side of the meatballs were cooked, the meatballs were turned over to cook on another side …
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/27meatballsturnedovercropped.resized.jpg)
… and the meatballs were turned over again to cook yet on another side:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/28meatballsturnedagainshotofbothskilletscropped.resized.jpg)
When the meatballs were fully cooked …
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/29meatballsfinishedcookingcropped.resized.jpg)
… the meatballs were transferred to a cookie baking sheet, somewhat spread apart from each other to allow for quicker cooling in the freezer …
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/30meatballstransferredtobakingtraycropped.resized.jpg)
… and the cookie baking sheet with the meatballs was placed in the freezer to cool the meatballs and begin to freeze the meatballs:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/31trayofmeatballsplacedinfreezercropped.resized.jpg)
A clean, resealable freezer bag was re-labeled to reflect the new contents, meatballs of course:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/32cleanreusedfreezerbagrelabeledcropped.resized.jpg)
Once partly frozen, the meatballs were placed in the freezer bag:
![](https://www.malak.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/33frozenmeatballsplacedinfreezerbagandplacedinfreezercropped.resized.jpg)
… and the bag of yummy meatballs was placed in the freezer for future eating.