My Amazing Covid Meatballs

Don't be alarmed! Covid is NOT one of the ingredients. But, with everything that's going on it seems to be harder to get certain staples we used to think of as in abundance or taken for granted like, flour, sugar, salt and even ground black pepper being as scarce as toilet paper, hand soap and hand sanitizer.

This versatile little recipe is my go to because you can serve them alone or on any pasta you like as with a lot of sauces and other meatball recipes out there. But, this one is a little different, a little simpler than most. There's not a lot of ingredients and most of the spices you need are already in the sauce that you don't even have to make. Providing you can find the kind of sauce you like. After all, there are a lot of different pasta sauces out there.

RECIPE for the Meatballs

1 lb ground meat, you can also use ground turkey

1 cup finely diced yellow onion

1 egg

1 or 2 tbsp of desired pasta sauce. I usually use Ragu'

You are going to want to make your meatballs first and foremost before cooking any pasta because this will take about 20 minutes or so for mixing and rolling the meatballs.

**This recipe is for simplicity rather than quickness.

PREPARATION for the Meatballs

Have your meat properly thawed before hand. Ina a large mixing bowl add your ground meat, crumbled up. Add the finely diced yellow onion, egg and pasta sauce. Mix this mixture really well.

Roll meatballs with your hands by first grabbing the meat with your fingertips to have enough meat mixture to fit in the middle of the palm of your hand, about 2 inches in diameter for each meatball.

How to roll meatballs, with ease.

In a shallow roasting or baking pan, dark metal is best but, glass works too, place the meat balls from one side working your way down to the other side of the pan across in rows. Please do not be tempted to pour the rest of the sauce over the meatballs to cook them. You will wind up with a burnt mess.

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Place the meatballs in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Use the extra sauce now to heat on the stove and when your meatballs are done you can either add them to your sauce or serve them with the sauce on the side. You can also mix everything together,sauce, meatballs, pasta for a simple hardy meal.

Be sure you drain your cooked meatballs or place them on paper towels, if you have any, before mixing them into your sauce.

**I used to make my own pasta sauce until ingredients and certain staples I had come to rely on started disappearing from the shelves so I improvised

You can also serve this with a simple lettuce and tomato salad and maybe some garlic bread providing you can find some.

This video talks about burgers but, it's the same meat for meatballs, as well.

Why use yellow onions instead of white onions?

I have actually found yellow onions to be sweeter and less abrasive on the eyes. There is nothing wrong with white onions if you are going to use them as a garnish like, with street Tacos, for instance. They are often served with raw white onions, cilantro and lime wedges. These garnishes are not only good for you but, they provide a certain compliment and balance to the cuisine when they are incorporated with the meat and tortillas for an exceptional well rounded taste. It just depends on what you are cooking. That's why for cooking I prefer the yellow and garnishing I use the white.

Best Pasta and Sauce to buy, what is in them, what to avoid and why!

Cooking meatballs in a toaster oven. Is it the same as a conventional oven? Well, it depends. For most things that need to be baked like cupcakes or cookies maybe, yes. But, I usually have to use mine now since my conventional oven doesn't work as well as it used to. So, I have had to make some major and minor adjustments to my cooking and sometimes what I cook. Just about any meatball recipe works very well in a toaster oven but, sometimes I have to turn my grid upside down to keep things from burning like cookies that I had mentioned before. Sometimes it depends on the brand of toaster oven. Believe it or not, they do have different sizes and watt capacities so, if you're thinking about using one for this recipe or any other it's something you need to think about before hand. They are easy little helpers, though, if you've got a lot going on in the kitchen at once.

How a Chef makes Beef and Turkey Meatballs in a Toaster Oven!

This is just another example of how to line up the meatballs especially if your not using a conventional oven and another twist on making them if you can find the ingredients. Enjoy!

Now, I know for a lot of us in the world this is the norm now when you go to just about any grocery store at any given time of the day. The best time, it seems, to go is early in the morning because the later you wait the more scarce everything becomes especially, staple items. But, keep in mind that it is not only the Covid-19 stock up survival syndrome. Largely, part of the problem is the way the industry has tipped over into the pick up and delivery services that are offered by, what seems to be a blossoming demand to make more money. Tried by just a few at first but, now has become a part of survival to keep from going out of business.

The sad part of the matter is that because of the extra business in the grocery stores it takes more workers and they can't afford more workers so, the extra work gets added to the job descriptions of the already exhausted workers even if they do hire other people. They already started to have a stocking problem before Covid-19 started. This just makes it more difficult for everyone. I am just worried about all of those extra people that the news said that everybody hired because when this is over and there's no more help from the government how are they going to keep paying all of those people? When people that lost their jobs because of it and then those people go back to work and then the people on welfare suddenly booms and goes up. I'm just saying, It may be worse at the end of this thing than the beginning.