My maternal grandmother immigrated to the United States when she was 15 years old. Shortly thereafter, she got married at 18 and started having children…7 children to be exact! While raising kids she manged to complete nursing school and in her spare time she spent a lot of time cooking. Frankly, she should of been a chef as she was darn good at preparing delicious food!
Anyway, a few years before she passed she finally shared her recipe with all of us for homemade meatballs. We love to make her meatballs and toss them into our homemade Italian spaghetti sauce. Here is my grandmother’s meatballs recipe.
- 2 lbs. lean ground beef
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 1 tablespoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 medium eggs
- 8 saltine crackers, crushed
- 4 tablespoons catsup
- In a large mixing bowl toss together all of the above ingredients. It is best to use clean hands! Once everything is mixed together, form 1 1/2″ diameter meatballs using your hands.
- Grease up a skillet (you can use nonstick vegetable spray) and bring it up to medium heat. Toss in the meatballs and brown them on all sides, stirring often so they don’t burn. Once done, place them on a paper towel lined plate to drain away any excess grease.
- You can now toss them into your spaghetti sauce and simmer the meatballs and sauce on low for about 10 minutes. Yummy!
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These look so yummy. I love a good meatball recipe!
I love homemade meatballs. I remember my grandma using saltines in the meatballs too. For some reason I haven’t used crackers, but now I am going to try this recipe.
This sounds amazing! Pinned it! I’m curious, have you ever tried cooking them in the slow-cooker? I wonder how long they would need to cook there?
When I make meatballs, I make them in big batches! I then fully cook them, cool them. I separate them into freezer bags and freeze for later use. Great to use in spaghetti & meatballs, heat them up for meatball subs, place them onto kebobs on the grill and so forth.
Family recipes are usually the best…tried and true! I love meatballs but have never made them myself. I don’t know why, I’ve never even thought to. But if these were good enough for grandma, they’re good enough for me.
It’s so nice to have a recipe passed down from a loved one! Each time it’s made all the special memories are remembered again 🙂 One of my favorite meals is spaghetti and meatballs. I have never made it like this before so I am going to have to try it 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
If I had to choose a last meal, it would be spaghetti and meatballs! This recipe is very similar to the meatball recipe I use when I don’t get lazy and buy the frozen ones!
This recipe looks super good and one that I must try soon. I got hungry just looking at the picture. Just last week I bought some frozen meat balls and thought to myself I have got to make some homemade meatballs there is a world of difference. Thank you for sharing and have a great day.
Of all the dishes my Grandma prepared, my favorite was her spaghetti and meatballs.
I love the name of the recipe. My grandma also made a homemade meatballs. Too funny.