BBQ Meatballs

It has been a very busy week at my house and as usual it has something to do with sickness. I think we have a black cloud over our house preventing everyone from being well at the same time.

Anyway, Lennon had his tail amputation Tuesday March 24th and everything seemed to have gone well. What we didn't know was that it was going to go down hill and fast. My poor little boy underwent emergency surgery this past Wednesday afternoon to remove more tail. I will spare everyone the gruesome details but we actually had to get a second opinion from another vet because the original didn't seem to think what was going on with his tail required another surgery. It did require another surgery and it required it immediately. After shelling out $1000 for this second surgery alone, Daniel and I are now on the Ramon noodle and cheap frozen pizza diet...lol. Of course had the first Vet done the amputation properly we wouldn't be in this mess but my little guy is doing really good and his tail looks 100% better than what it did after the first surgery. This Vet is having us bring him in every three days so she can make sure he stays on the path to a full recovery. I will be glad when it is all healed and he is back to normal. He is currently wearing one of those big plastic collars that they have to wear to prevent them from licking at their wounds and he is enjoying chasing Bandit around the house because of it. Bandit doesn't quite realize what it is and he is afraid of it.

On to more important matters...FOOD. I had been meaning to make this meal for a couple of weeks now. I am sure many of you are sick of seeing it as soon after the Pioneer Woman posted it to her blog, it seems that everyone jumped on the BBQ meatball band wagon. I still thought I would be nice and share with you, some of my followers may not have seen them so here you go!!

BBQ Meatballs

Meatballs:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

3/4 cup oats

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons very finely minced onion

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

plenty of ground black pepper

Sauce:

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

4 to 6 tablespoons onion

Dash of Tabasco

1.)Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.)Combine all meatball ingredients. Roll into medium-small balls and place on a cookie sheet. 3.)Place sheet in freezer for five minutes.
4.)Remove from freezer and immediately dredge in unseasoned flour.
5.)Brown meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place into a baking dish.
6.)Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over meatballs and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Serve with egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or crusty french bread.

* Recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

Now, as you are all already aware, I can't follow directions worth a hill of beans. This is why Katie+Baking=Trouble. The above recipe is straight from the Pioneer Woman herself, but because I have issues I made a few adjustments. First of all the oats we had in our pantry expired in 2007 so obviously they got pitched and in their place I used a sleeve of saltine crackers smashed up. Second, instead of using straight salt, I used garlic salt instead, it's what I do. Third, I added two eggs, I don't know why, I just felt compelled to use two eggs. Also, I didn't do the whole put them in the freezer and then roll them in flour deal. I just rolled them and fried them, didn't have time to mess around with that step, I had a Husband who said he had been hungry all day when I asked him if he was ready for me to start dinner, it was an emergency situation people! Now when it came to the sauce I pretty much stuck to the original with the exception of the Tabasco, I added a dash of red paper flakes instead.

These were definitely winners although Daniel said it tasted just like meatloaf which is understandable because I pretty much use the same ingredients when I do make meatloaf. I served mine along with mashed potatoes, tator tots for Daniel, and fried zucchini chips which I will share with you later.