Freeze Ahead Meatballs

With two teenagers and a growing girl in our house, we decided to make ahead about 10 pounds worth of freezer meatballs. Of course, if your family doesn't need that much you can scale back. Or, if your family needs more, you can scale forward! 

This recipe is written at 1 pound so its easy to scale however you need.

The recipe is also simply seasoned so your meatballs will pair beautifully with BBQ sauce, marinara sauce, gravy....whatever you and your family like best!

Making it Your Own

If you prefer, you can switch up the seasonings for your own take. Prefer Italian? Add some italian seasoning! Like some spice? Add some paprika, chili, and/or cayenne. Make them however you like. :)

This recipe is written with ground beef, but if you're scaling up, you might consider using a ratio of ground beef and ground pork to cut down on costs and add some extra moisture to the meatballs.

Breaking Down the Costs

Putting in the few hours that evening has already been well worth it to save the headache of needing to feed the family when things are busy, busy, busy!

As of June 2023, a 52 count of name brand meatballs costs about $7.29. This is about $0.14 per 0.5 oz meatball.

By making it yourself with a pound of ground beef (at $9.50/lb) is $0.29 per 0.5 oz meatball...just $0.15 more than the grocery store brand! 

For having premium 100% grass-fed beef and not having to deal with mystery ingredients, preservatives, soy additives, odd mixes of meats, we think that's pretty well worth the difference...and you get to season and size them however you like!

Plus, it's a great way to involve the kids in helping prepare some convenient freezer meals for later.

Get Cooking

Make sure you allow a few days for the meat to thaw in the fridge. Decide how many meatballs you'd like in the end and choose your quantity of meat from there. One pound yields about 15-20 meatballs depending on how big you make them.

1.To start, clear a large work space for yourself. 

2. Do the math on how much seasoning you'll need for the amount you've scaled the recipe and have them measured out ahead of time and set aside. This way, you don't have to worry about cross contamination once you start working with the raw meat.

3. With clean hands, combine ground pork and ground beef with seasonings and Parmesan cheese in large mixing bowl.

4. Roll the mixture into small 1-1.5" balls and spread them across a lined baking sheet.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the internal temperature reached 165 degrees.

6. Allow to cool, then divide into appropriate serving sizes in freezer safe bags. Date and label, then you're set to go! It really is that simple.

If you'd like to have some variety, feel free to mix up different batches of meatballs seasoned as you prefer, then mark them in their freezer bags accordingly (Italian meatballs, simple meatballs, spicy meatballs, etc.).

The ball shape of the meatballs keeps them from freezing together in a solid block in the freezer containers, so once they're cooled, go ahead and freeze them in their final container. No need to account for anticipated portions, because the balls should separate pretty easily when you decide to reheat some later.