First of all… get your minds out of the gutter! I’m talking about fun with food balls! Ok, I meant for that to be a suggestive title in the hopes it would grab your attention and make you want to check out this post! So now that you’re here, please continue reading!
Anyway, I love to make food that you can pick up with your fingers and toss into your mouth, like sausage balls, mini-meatloaf balls, and Oreo Cookie balls.
First up – sausage balls… super simple recipe!
Ingredients:
1 1-lb roll of sausage, uncooked
1 to 1-1/2 cups of Bisquick
1 to 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Directions: Mix all of the ingredients together until it forms a cohesive ball. Then pull a small bit of mixture out and roll it into a small 2-inch ball. Place it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350-degrees for 15-18 minutes.
Next up is my meatloaf balls… another super simple recipe and because they are balls, they don’t take nearly as long as a full-size meatloaf. A quick and easy meal for sure! (Sorry, I don’t have pictures of the meatloaf balls.)
Ingredients:
1 to 2 lb of hamburger meat
½ cup of shredded carrots (0ptional)
¼ cup of finely diced onions (optional)
½ of finely diced green bell pepper (optional)
½ package of crushed crackers
-or ½ to 1 cup of cooked white rice
½ to ¾ cup of ketchup
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp of salt
½ tsp of pepper
[If you don’t like onions, then you can use about ½ to 1 tsp of onion powder.]
Directions: Mix all of the ingredients together. Then pull a small bit of the mixture out and roll into a ball, slightly larger than a golf ball. Place it on a cookie sheet or in a large muffin tin. Bake at 375-degrees for 20-22 minutes. I usually check them after 17 minutes. I stick a fork in one and twist one apart to check the inside. If it’s still pink, I continue cooking them for another five minutes or so. You don’t want to over cook them because they’ll end up too dry.
And finally, the most fun and tasty treat of them all… OREO COOKIE BALLS! My nieces – Kyra, Kalista, and Kami – love these tasty bite-size treats. When my husband and I are down visiting my parents and my nieces are around, usually it’s Kalista who will stick by my side and beg me to make Oreo Cookie balls. If we don’t have the ingredients, she and I will run to the store and pick up the ingredients to make this sweet treat.
Ingredients:
1 pkg of Oreo Cookies
1 pkg of cream cheese
1 pkg of baking chocolate
(either chocolate- or vanilla- flavored will work)
Directions: Put the Oreo Cookies into either a food processor or a blender (I use my Kitchen Ninja) and pulse until the cookies start to break down, and then I hold down the button until the cookie is finely chopped like dust.
You don’t want any chunky cookie bits in your balls! Then pour the cookie dust into a large bowl and begin to combine with the cream cheese.
This is where it gets messy because you will need to mush the ingredients by hand in order to fully combine the cookie dust and the cream cheese. Once the cookie mixture is combined, then pull a small piece of the mixture and roll it into a small 1-in ball. Then place it on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. After your cookie sheet is full, then place it in the fridge to firm those bad boys up!
Now, cut up the chocolate squares and place in a bowl.
Heat it in the microwave for 90 seconds. Stir the chocolate up, and then microwave it again for another 15-20 seconds. If you try to heat the entire package of chocolate, then after the initial 90-seconds, stir it and heat again for 15-20 seconds at a time until all the chocolate is melted. You can also do it over a double-boiler, but it take a lot longer… but either way should be fine.
Now pull the Oreo cookie balls from the fridge and drop one cookie ball at a time into the chocolate.
I use a toothpick to push the ball around the chocolate, and then I use the toothpick to pick the ball up out of the chocolate and place it back on to the cookie sheet lined with wax paper. After all the Oreo Cookies are covered in either chocolate or white chocolate, I place the cookie sheet back in the fridge so the chocolate covering can harden.
These cookie balls can be made a day or two in advance. After the chocolate covering hardens, you can either store the balls in a Ziploc bag or a container until you’re ready to eat them! This also applies to the sausage balls and meatloaf balls, which in my opinion, is always better the next day!
What are some of your favorite finger-foods and/or ball-shaped snacks or foods? I would love to hear from you!
Have a great day!