Meatballs

This is one of my favorite things to eat. Especially on my low carb diet. I love this recipe. Normally I use 3 pounds of ground meat (your choice) . I have done 1/2 and 1/2 with beef and turkey or chicken. You will cut down on the fat obviously which is always a good thing.
This time I made 6.25 pounds so that I could freeze some and send some with DH in the semi. He has a microwave so this is a nice treat to be able to have something homemade.
Now granted, crackers have carbs and you could use pork rinds (0 carbs) in place of them, or even do 1/2 and 1/2 to them down, but to me it just isn't the same. Your normal saltine cracker (Nabisco Premium) has 11 carbs per 5 crackers. You could say I have done my homework with what I had to work with but I could probably do some asking to see if I could substitue anything in place of the crackers, but for now I just cut down on them. I only used 1/2 of what I normally would so that I can have 2-3 meatballs in a meal and still be within my limits for carbs.

Ingredients
3 pounds ground beef (may substitute with ground turkey or chicken or combine with beef)
1 package dry onion soup mix ( I also like the beefy onion for these)
1 egg
1/4 package of saltines crushed
1/8 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients and mush away until well blended.
You can either bake in a 9x13 cake pan (glass or metal-both work well) or you can make hamburger patties or meatballs with the mixture. I like to make the meatballs. Not sure why really.....just do. I make them just a little smaller than a tennis ball size. They will shrink up especially if you are using only beef. I only use the beef I buy from my uncle because they are not force fed and the beef has a lot less fat than the beef you get at the supermarket. After you are done mixing well bake for about 35-45 minutes. You may need to adjust baking times of course depending on your oven and such. Bust a couple open to check. Meatloaf in a cake pan will probably take longer but I haven't done it that way for quite some time so I am not sure about the timing on that.

I do not have a fat and Calorie count for the beef because of where I purchase it from but you can check your packaging to get that and add it to the nutritional info.

Fat/Calorie unknown
Carbs 1.5 per meatball

You can adjust to your liking of course. When I did the big batch (6.25 pounds) I should have used 2 packages of the onion soup mix. I used 2 eggs, but I think 3 would have been a better choice especially if I would have had that second package of onion soup mix in there. I don't mind them being oniony (is that a word?) In any case, I also used a 1/4 c. of milk in the recipe but if you decide you would like a little more zip and add that extra packet of onion soup you may need a tad more milk. Not much. If you use a second package of the soup mix the carbs would be 1.7 grams. I have mixed it 1/2 and 1/2 (hamburger/turkey) and they turned out just as good.

After all of that....WHEW!....I like to vacuum seal mine. I have a Reynolds. It's the kind you use with the baggies. It has proven to be challenging at times. Especially when I wore out my first one and it didn't dawn on me that it was broken. (it still made the sound just didn't vacuum. Then I just throw them in the freezer.

I hope you like! :)