Pioneer Woman's Comfort Meatballs

I love Pioneer Woman!!!! I have been a huge fan for a couple of years now and I LOVE her food. I love anyone who isn't ashamed to use butter...lots of butter! There is no butter in this recipe but it is still awesome. This is the first recipe of hers that I ever made and it is a favorite. This recipe makes about 60-70 meatballs, depending on how big you make them. I use a cookie scoop that is about 1 1/2 inches across and I get about 70 meatballs.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 Lbs. Ground Beef (I used venison)
3/4 C. Quick Oats (I was out so I used regular oats-worked just fine)
1 C. Milk
3 Tbsp. Finely Minced Onion
1 1/2 Tsp. Salt
Pepper

A couple of glugs of olive oil
1/2 C. Flour

SAUCE
1 1/2 C. Ketchup
2 Tbsp. Sugar
3 Tbsp. White Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worchestershire Sauce
4-6 Tbsp. Minced Onions

Combine ground beef and oats in a bowl. Pour in the milk, onion, salt and pepper. Mix it all up until all ingredients are mixed together. Roll the meat into small balls, about 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp. each, and place on a cookie sheet. Put them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm up. At this point I usually divide the meatballs in half and freeze half for later. Just set 1/2 of the meatballs on a 2nd cookie sheet and put in the freezer until they are frozen (about an hour) and then put in a ziplock for a future dinner (or lunch the next day :)) Once the refrigerated meatballs are firm, heat a skillet and the olive oil over medium heat. Dredge the meatballs in the flour and brown in the skillet in batches. You don't want to cook them through, just brown both sides. Raw centers are just fine at this point. As you brown them, place them in a 13x9 glass dish. You definitely want to either spray dish with cooking spray or grease it so the cooked sauce doesn't need to be chiseled out.

While they are browning , mix the ingredients for the sauce. Once they are all browned, pour the sauce over them all. Make sure you cover each and every one of them.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 for about 40-45 minutes, until they are hot and bubbly. I usually serve them over rice but they would be awesome with some mashed taters, too!

Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering just remembering how good these were last night!

Sharing this recipe at The Prairie Homestead Blog Hop and The Way Grandmama Does It