Merry Meals:Festive Meatball Dinner For Christmas

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Juicy, sweet, moist and tangy orange cranberry meatballs are simmered in an Asian flavored orange juice sauce. Pure deliciousness! Serve with orange cauliflower rice.
If you don’t like cauliflower, white or brown rice is perfect too! However, I think you’ll love it in this recipe!

Who doesn’t love meatballs? I mean they are so good! I’ve been holding off posting this recipe for a while now.  I am glad I did because today is the perfect day to talk about it. Usually, when I make meatballs, I use what I have. For instance, I usually have either bread or breadcrumbs. If I don’t have bread I use breadcrumbs. If I don’t have breadcrumbs then I use bread.  The day I made this recipe I ended up not having either.  I was about to run back out to the store, but I quickly realized I had Ritz crackers.

Now, normally, I would only use Ritz crackers as a snack or in my salmon patties. Can you believe it never occurred to me to use them in meatballs!! I thought, “hey why not try it.” What I love about these meatballs is that you don’t need to add a lot of salt, since the crackers have enough of it, and the crackers buttery smooth flavor made these meatballs taste pretty special.

I love to mix things up for the holidays. I especially love turning nontraditional Christmas dinners into something a bit more festive for the holidays by adding a more appropriate traditional ingredients to it, so when I went shopping at Giant Eagle, cranberry sauce was the first traditional food I picked up.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the cranberry sauce for the life of me.  After a couple of minutes of looking, I figured it was probably smack dead in my face ( I hate when that happens)!  One of Giant Eagle’s employee happily showed it to me.

I was right! The sauce was right in front of me. Embarrassing! Anyway, life goes on. Next, I had to get Tropicana orange juice, Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt drinks, vegetables, Giant Paper towels, fruits, Ritz, Wheat Thins and Triscuit crackers. Some other items for the holidays as well. Luckily I was able to get everything I needed. Gotta love one stop shopping.

Place the beef into a mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper garlic, ginger, red peppers, fish sauce, orange zest, Ritz cracker crumbs, eggs and Add the orange juice . Mix until evenly blended.

Divide the meatballs up into 35-40 portions. Make each portion into a meatball. Over medium high heat add 2 tablespoons of oil to a large high sided pan. Once the oil starts to sizzle add the meatballs leaving space in between them to prevent them from steaming.  Sear the meatballs all over  for about 2 minutes or until brown then set to the side. Repeat until all the meatballs are done. Discard the oil from the pan.

Add all the orange sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix. Set to the side.

In the same high sided pan over medium high heat, add the orange juice sauce then add the meatballs. Once boiling set to simmer for 30 minutes. Add the whole cranberry sauce and mix well. Adjust seasonings to your preference.  Remove all but a couple tablespoons of the sauce and remove all the meatballs and set to the side. Add the cauliflower rice to the pan with the 3 tablespoons of sauce then cook per the package instructions.  Pour the meat and sauce over the cauliflower rice and. If you prefer you can use regular white or brown rice instead. 

I know from experience that holiday meal planning can be very stressful. If you need help looking for that perfect recipe or a little inspiration, you’ll find some other bloggers cool recipes here.  This holiday, make sure you head over to Giant Eagle (or to your computer to shop online) to let their friendly staff help you shop for everything you need to make your delicious Christmas recipes!

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Merry Meals: Festive Meatball Dinner For Christmas

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Juicy, sweet, moist and tangy orange cranberry meatballs are simmered in an Asian flavored orange juice sauce. Pure deliciousness! Serve with cauliflower rice. If you don't like cauliflower, white or brown rice is perfect too! By April Boller

Author: April Wright

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1.5 lb ground beef
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1-2 red chili peppers optional
• 1 tbs minced ginger
• 2 tbs orange juice
• 1/4 tsp fish sauce
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 cup Ritz crackers crumbs one packet

Orange Cranberry Glaze

• 2 cups Tropicana orange juice
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp ginger minced
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 3 tsp honey
• 1 cup canned whole cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• salt for taste optional
• 1/4 tsp red pepper optional
• 1 package of Birds Eye frozen cauliflower rice

Instructions

1. Place the beef into a mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper garlic, ginger, red peppers, fish sauce, orange grind, Ritz cracker crumbs, eggs and Add the orange juice . Mix until evenly blended.
2. Divide the meatballs up into 35-40 portions. Make each portion into a meatball. Over medium high heat add 2 tablespoons of oil to a large high sided pan. Once the oil starts to sizzle add the meatballs leaving space in between them to prevent them from steaming. Sear the meatballs all over for about 2 minutes or until brown then set to the side. Repeat until all the meatballs are done. Discard the oil from the pan.
3. Add all the orange sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix. Set to the side.
4. In the same high sided pan over medium high heat, add the orange juice sauce then add the meatballs. Once boiling set to simmer for 30 minutes. Add the whole cranberry sauce and mix well. Adjust seasonings to your preference. Remove all but a couple tablespoons of the sauce and remove all the meatballs and set to the side. Add the cauliflower rice to the pan with the 3 tablespoons of sauce then cook per the package instructions. Pour the meat and sauce over the cauliflower rice and. If you prefer you can use regular white or brown rice instead.

Recipe Notes

If the sauce isn't thick enough. Add two tablespoons to a small bowl. Add two tablespoons of water whisk until the clumps disappear. Reheat the sauce until it starts to boil then add the cornstarch slurry. Stir consistently until the sauce starts to thicken up.