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These Make Ahead Meatballs are a life saver! Make a big batch and freeze them. Then at dinner time you just need to reheat and eat! Even better, they are Paleo, Gluten Free and Whole 30 compliant!
I am not lying when I tell you that these Make Ahead Meatballs are life savers. We all have those days where we don’t even think about dinner until dinnertime – and maybe we are tired or lazy or just don’t feel like cooking. And that is when the takeout usually happens. But if I have these Make Ahead Meatballs stashed in my freezer, dinner is saved! I usually make a batch of my Easy 20 Minute Marinara and throw a spaghetti squash in the microwave and then I have a low carb, homemade meal in 20 minutes. Of course if you are not going the low carb route you could make some pasta in the same amount of time, or serve the meatballs on crusty bread and make a meatball sandwich.
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I had been wanting to make a grain free meatball, and had played around with different binders – I even tried oats once! I really wanted to have a meatball that was gluten free, paleo and Whole 30 compliant. Then I found this recipe from Noshtastic, and it worked so well! I just made a few small changes and these became my go-to meatball. I don’t miss the breadcrumbs at all, and the egg does a good job binding them together.
Discovering that they freeze well was a game changer. After baking them, allow to cool completely. We use our foodsaver (affiliate link) to seal them into portions of 4 or 8 so that we can only thaw as many as we need per meal. If you don’t have a foodsaver, I would recommend freezing them individually on a baking sheet and then sealing in a freezer bag in smaller portions. We find that 2-3 meatballs per person is a good serving, but that may vary depending on the size of the meatballs and how hungry everyone is.
To reheat, I just throw the frozen meatballs into the marinara sauce and let them thaw and warm up as the sauce cooks. No need to remember to thaw them out in the morning!
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Make Ahead Meatballs (Paleo, Gluten Free, Whole 30)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with foil, set aside.
- Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Shape mixture into equal sized balls, about 2 tablespoons each (I used an ice cream scoop for easy portioning). When shaping balls, don't pack them too tightly or they may become tough.
- Arrange on the lined baking sheets, about 12 per sheet. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Can serve right away or freeze for later. Allow to cool completely before freezing. After cooling, separate into desired portions and seal in freezer bags or food saver bags and freeze.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Adapted from Noshtastic
Hi – love your recipes but could they also be given in metric measurements. Just a small icon to tick on the side. Would just really help me.
Hi Maree – thank you, I will look into my recipe card and see if that is an option. I do worry since I haven’t tested the recipes with the metric weights and I don’t want to give people incorrect information. I know some recipe cards to have a feature to automatically convert the measurements so I will see if I can do that.
Wonderful! So easy and tasty. Thanks Meghan!
How long do you cook them for frozen if hey have already been cooked once?
Hi Amanda – just enough to warm them up. I usually put them in with the marinara sauce when it is cooking and they thaw and warm up in there.
These were easy to make. I made them as instructed. I personally like more flavor in mine so I may try to add sautéed onions, mushrooms, and some more seasonings. Super quick and a great base for what we like.
So glad you liked them Jill!
Easy, flavourful and flourless; thank you!
So glad you loved them!
Seasonings tasted really good, but the meatballs turned out too dry., not sure what all the diets are, but for me next time I would add in a splash of almond milk, an extra egg (for 2 lbs) & some parm. or Italian cheese.
Hi Keech – Yes I love adding Parmesan to the meatballs! I didn’t add it to this recipe because it isn’t paleo. Great idea on the almond milk!
These meatballs were great! Easy and fast enough to make for a weeknight and super convenient to store in the freezer for a last-minute dinner. Nice flavor too! I paired them with some tzatziki and zucchini noodles.
SO happy you liked them Gwen!
I just made these with a slight variation- added diced mushrooms (about 1 cup) and a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast. They came out so yummy and tender! These are a staple in my whole 30!
That sounds like such a great addition! Thanks Molly, I’m so glad you love them!
Do you have the nutrient info?
Hi Denise – I don’t at this time, I’m working on updating old posts. In the meantime, there are lots of free nutrition calculators out there to figure it out. Lots of people use my fitness pal or lose it.
Thank you for this recipe. I have ground bison. Do you think that would work or would it be too dry seeing as it isn’t as fatty???
Hi Amber – I think they would be pretty dry since it is such a lean meat. Maybe if you mixed it half bison with half pork? You just want some fat in there keep them moist. Especially since these don’t have any breadcrumbs in them, which usually helps them from being too tough.
I was wondering if anyone has used sweet Italian pork sausage for this recipe?
Hi Joanie – I haven’t tried it, but it sounds like it would taste amazing!
I have! It’s very good. Two drawbacks: it ups the calorie content and they’re weird to use for a Swedish meatball (I like to split the batch and use half for Italian and half for Swedish).
This recipe is a go-to for me now, I double the spices and add the red peppers too. Also, I do 1lb of each ground italian sausage (pork), beef and turkey and turns out moist and delicious 🙂
Adding sausage sounds so good! I’m so happy you love them!