Game Day Goldfish cracker Meatball Recipe

This post for Game Day Goldfish cracker Meatballs has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone although I’m sure you’ll love this recipe! #GoldfishMix #CollectiveBias

Everyone loves a game day. When those big games come around every year and you’re hosting the game day party, you want to be prepared. As you’re getting prepared, don’t forget the kids! Create some delicious snacks to help them stay involved and cheer on their favorite team. Today I’m sharing my Goldfish cracker Meatball recipe! This is an amazing recipe and it’s been kid approved. Well, my kids approved it at least.

These meatballs are easy to make, and perfect to make in advance and reheat in the oven. That means it’s a score for game day prep! I’ll give you the full commentary along with a photo replay of exactly how I made these, then I’ll give you an easy to read recipe at the bottom of the post for quick reference. I’m all about making this easy for you.

First things first. Make sure you have all of the ingredients you’ll need. I had to run out to Walmart to grab Goldfish crackers. I prefer the big 30oz carton of them because they don’t last long around here, especially on game day! I need to reserve what I need for recipes, then let the rest of our family and friends team snack on the rest. It’s a family favorite and there are so many things you can do with them! Good thing they are currently on Rollback for only $5.98 at Walmart!

Let’s get these meatballs cooking! The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your burger is thawed out. We used a pound and a half of ground beef for this recipe. You can keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready for it.

Next, chop your onion and put a clove of garlic through a garlic press, the caramelize them on the stovetop. I prefer the garlic press as opposed to chopping because it’s just easier. Clean up isn’t so bad either, though my husband begs to differ. You do whichever works best for you.

I like to caramelize the garlic and onions first because it takes the bite out, makeing them a bit sweeter by bringing out the flavors of the natural sugars. On occasion I like the stronger flavor of onion and garlic, but with the kids in mind for this recipe, I’m going to give it a sweeter flavor.

While your onion and garlic are caramelizing you can prepare your Goldfish crackers for the recipe. This is pretty easy. We just need to turn them into bread crumbs. I add about two cups of Goldfish crackers to the blender to make one cup of crumbs.

They start out like this.

And end up like this.

 

Now it’s time to assemble all of the ingredients. Hamburger, caramelized onion and garlic, Goldfish cracker crumbs, a cup of parmesan cheese, two eggs, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, a fourth cup of parsley flakes, and a half teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

The part you’ve all been waiting for! Mush up that meatball mix! That’s right, get your hands in there and have at it. Mix it up good.

I use my hands to mix up meatball mix, some people us a wooden spoon, but I don’t think they do quite as good of a job at fully incorporating everything together evenly. If you don’t like the idea of your bare hands mixing everything up, try a pair of rubber gloves. I know a lot of people use these gloves when they chop up hot peppers. I guess I live on the wild side because I do it all bare handed! That makes me sound pretty tough, right?  Yeah, I didn’t think so.

We make about forty eight meatballs from this recipe. You may get more or less depending on how big you make them. Everyone seems to like a different size. We opt for a smaller, two bite meatball. I bake them in a mini muffin pan, awesome idea, I know, so each meatball fits nicely in it’s own individual spot.

I know, I’m not perfect, some are a little bigger than others. It works. Bake these little beauties for about fifteen minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until cooked through. What I love about these is they get a nice crispy edge on the bottom. I’ve never tried spinning them in their muffin tin homes during baking, but I wonder if you tried if you could get a better crust on them? Guess I’ll have to make more and find out!

While the Goldfish cracker Meatballs are baking you can pull out the marinara sauce and add a bit to some party cups. This is a great way to serve them so the kids can write their name on them and they have their own little cup of dip. No more lost cups and worrying about double dipping! This has been a sanity saver for me on game day due to all of the excitement already going on.

Alright, we’ve patiently waited for the meatball goodness in the oven to get done, and there’s the timer!

There they are in all their cheesy, meatbally goodness. At this point I pick out the biggest meatball and cut it in half to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. Don’t get too excited to eat these. We’re not done yet. Remember, we still need to get these set up for game day snacking!

I like to add on a decorative toothpick for each meatball for easy snacking. You can get creative with these using your favorite teams colors, or maybe creating some team flags to stick onto the end of the toothpick. Whatever you decide, have fun with it! The kids are going to love celebrating game day with you, especially while snacking on these kid friendly Goldfish cracker Meatballs.

Here’s another look, so you can see them in the sauce better.

In this game of kid friendly snacks, I think we’ve determined that the kids are the winners. Just look at this satisfied face.

Goldfish cracker Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1.5 pound ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup Goldfish cracker crumbs (approx. 2 cups whole Goldfish crackers)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup Parsley flakes
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• Marinara sauce for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Caramelize onion and garlic on the stove top. While onion and garlic are caramelizing, you can crumb the Goldfish crackers in the blender if you haven’t done so already.
3. In a large bowl mix ground beef, caramelized onion and garlic, Goldfish cracker crumbs, cheese, Italian seasoning, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix until fully combined.
4. Roll meatballs and place each meatball in a mini muffin tin. Number of meatballs will be determined by how big you make them.
5. Bake meatballs for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
6. Serve meatballs in a small cup with marinara sauce.

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What is your favorite recipe using Goldfish crackers? I shared mine, I’d love to hear yours in the comments!