Venison Meatballs

One of my family’s favorite meals is Venison Meatballs with our homemade meatball sauce or as my son’s call this recipe–“deer balls.” Yeah, we are a weird bunch.

Venison Meatballs

Prep Time: 5 Minutes	Yield: 32 Meatballs
Cook Time: 31 Minutes	Serving Size:
Total Time: 36 Minutes	Calories Per Serving:

Ingredients:

Meatball Ingredients:

2 lbs of ground deer burger
2 egg
4 Tbsp. ketchup
1 1/2 cup of dry instant oatmeal
1/2 tsp. of black pepper
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
3 tsp. of soy sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped onions (or 1 tsp. of onion powder).

Sauce Ingredients:

1 14 oz can of jellied cranberry sauce
12 oz. of chili sauce
1 Tbsp. of lemon juice
2 Tbsp. of brown sugar

Instructions:

Let’s make the sauce first. Put all ingredients in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Heat slowly and simmer for one minute.
Now let’s make the meatballs. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and take a tablespoon full of the mixture and roll it into a ball and place it in a baking dish. I like to put my balls in a 9″ x 13″ casserole dish.
Continue making meatballs until the bowl is empty, trying to make them all the same size.
Pour meatball sauce over the meatballs. Bake at 350ºF for about 30 minutes or until done.

Please keep in mind, the bigger the balls, the longer you will need to keep them in the oven, so if your balls are big it’s going to take longer than 30 minutes 😉

This is great with fried taters (potatoes), corn on the cob, and big old cat-head biscuits. These meatballs are also great to make for party appetizers. Just make them small since they are appetizers and not the main course.

Watch and Follow…

I normally provide nutrition facts, but because it is truly time-consuming I am going to leave that to you if you desire. MyFitnessPal.com is a great tool to use for calculating the facts. You just simply enter in all of the ingredients and how many are being served and they calculate it for you. It’s really easy. However, I will still give you some tips to make this recipe more diet-friendly. Maybe late on when I have more time I will come back and calculate it for you.

The good, the bad, and the delicious…

Venison Meatballs are low in saturated fat and high in vitamin C and protein.
They are also very high in sodium and sugar and might be a little too high in cholesterol and fat for those of you on special diets.

To make this recipe more diet-friendly…

To help lower the cholesterol and fat use less fat in your ground venison burger. You could also omit the two eggs, but the meatballs might not hold together as well.
To lower the sodium, try using a salt substitute like “No Salt” or “Nu-Salt” or lessen the amount of added salt and use low sodium soy sauce and chili sauce or you could replace all of the chili sauce with plain tomato sauce, and completely omit the soy sauce, which would drop the sodium drastically. This will also change the taste quite a bit so be cautious.
To help lower the sugar content, you can omit the brown sugar in the meatballs and use less oatmeal. You could also skip adding the sauce to the meatballs or opt for a healthier sauce.
Whatever changes you make to your Venison Meatballs, you can calculate the nutrition facts at myfitnesspal.com

Venison Meatballs hold up well if frozen as well. So if you have any leftovers, who am I kidding–you are NOT going to have leftovers, but if for some odd reason you do, pop them in the freezer for a quick meal later. Just be sure to use a FoodSaver or a good quality brand of freezer bags so they don’t become freezer burned. Enjoy!

Bon Appétit

More Meatball Recipes…

Sweet and Sour Venison Meatballs

Sweet and Sour Venison Meatballs are deliciously baked meatballs drizzled with a delightful homemade sauce and ready in 25 minutes.

Venison Meatballs

Watch and Follow…

The good, the bad, and the delicious…

To make this recipe more diet-friendly…

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