Sriracha Honey Slow Cooker Meatballs

 

Ingredients

1 C sriracha hot chili sauce

1 C honey

1/4 C fresh lime juice (approximately 2 limes)

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 C panko bread crumbs

1/4 C milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 large eggs

Directions

1) Combine sriracha , honey, and lime juice in a slow cooker on high heat. 

2) In a large bowl add remaining ingredients , except eggs. Stir sriracha sauce in slow cooker until combined. Taste and add additional honey or sriracha as necessary to suit your heat preference. Add 1/4 c of sauce into meatball mixture, fold mixture together 2 times, then add eggs. 

3) Mix well, do not over mix or you will have tough meatballs. Place a sheet of wax paper (approximately 9" x 9" ) on your countertop. Using a 2 tbsp scoop, portion out meat and place on wax paper. After all meatballs have been scooped, roll into balls and place them into the slow cooker. Once about half of the meatballs are in the slow cooker, spoon sauce over the tops of them. Continue adding meatballs until they are all in the slow cooker. You may have to layer them, just be sure the bottom layer is thoroughly coated in sauce before you add the next layer. 

4) Reduce heat to low, cover slow cooker and cook for 4-8 hours. 

5) Serve and enjoy. 

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 8 hours

Total: 8 hours 20 minutes

Makes: 24 meatballs

If you lightly wet your hands the meatballs will form better and crack less. You can take the lid off after 2 hours to allow the sauce to thicken or you can transfer the sauce to a saucepan on the stove top and cook until reduced by half, or to desired consistency. The meatballs are perfect either way, this is more of a personal choice. Sriracha is a hot chili sauce. The recipe is a medium heat level. If you prefer it to be hot than decrease the amount of honey and increase sriracha or if you prefer milder heat than increase honey and decrease sriracha sauce. 

Italian Sausage Bake

 

Ingredients 

1 pint grape tomatoes (red, yellow, orange variety) 

1 lb. honey gold potatoes , quartered

1 red bell pepper , chopped length-wise 1 inch

1 orange bell pepper , chopped length-wise 1 inch

1 red onion, quartered

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 tbsp. olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

6 Italian Sausage links (sweet or hot ) 

5 sprigs of fresh thyme

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2) In a large 9 x 11 glass baking dish, toss grape tomatoes, quartered baby potatoes, bell peppers, and red onion with one tablespoon olive oil and chopped garlic. 

3) Mix well until incorporated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. 

4) Place the sausage links on top of the vegetables. Place sprigs of thyme throughout the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes. 

5) Remove foil from baking dish, mix vegetables around, and bake for an additional 30 minutes until sausage is golden brown. (You may need to turn sausage to prevent from burning). Serve immediately. 

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total: 1 hour 45 minutes

Serves: 6 

You can cut the sausage links into smaller links if you like and this gives you a little bit more sausage. 

Cinnamon Roll Wrapped Sausage with Maple Dipping Sauce

 

Ingredients

1 can (17.5 oz) refrigerated cinnamon rolls with Icing (Grands- but can use two of the smaller size ones in place of that if desired) 

10 fully cooked pork or turkey sausage links (from 9.6 oz pkg) (more if needed)

10 toothpicks 

1/3 C maple flavored syrup

Directions

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Separate dough into 5 rolls. (if using the grands rolls). Spray thin, serrated knife with cooking spray. On a work surface, slice each roll horizontally in half, making 10 rolls (respray knife and reshape dough if necessary). 

2) Wrap 1 roll around each sausage link. Secure with toothpick (if needed). Bake, toothpick side down, 12-15 minutes or until sausage links are hot and roll is light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. 

3) Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix icing and syrup until blended. Microwave on medium (50%) 20 seconds or until warm. Serve with warm cinnamon roll wrapped sausages. 

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 15 minutes

Total: 35 minutes

Serves: 5 

With this I used regular cinnamon rolls (not grands) so I got a lot more out of it. Two cans of 8 cinnamon rolls each gave me 32 sausage wrapped cinnamon rolls. Because of this I also doubled the dipping amount since I was using two icing packs instead of one. I also drizzled the dip over the rolls once they were done cooking and they came out great. You can save any left over dip in a sealed container for later use (if you have any sausage rolls left over as well) This was definitely a family favorite.