Easy mozarrella stuffed meatballs

By Katherine Compton    I’ve got so many fun things to share with you in the coming weeks! The rest of my jaunt to Nashville, my vacation in Cabo San Lucas and moving into my new house! So much in fact that I haven’t had a chance to get it all down in writing, but I will as soon as life slows down just a bit With all the drama surrounding social media lately I thought I’d take a quick detour and here it is!     

Like many of you, I enjoy social media. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest are among my favorites. I know there are many negatives floating around about social media, but for me it is a great way to share and enjoy happy moments with friends and acquaintances. Each year I look forward to seeing the first day of school pictures of children and grandchildren, Christmas and Easter mornings, vacations, prom, engagement and wedding pictures.     

In addition to those, I also love posts about food and cooking. There are a myriad of pages that share recipes but my absolute favorites are the overhead videos by Tasty. If you are on Facebook or Pinterest at all you have likely seen their engaging videos shot from a unique overhead prospective. They are usually no longer than a minute and a half or so and break each creation down into quick, enticing step-by-step snippets that end with fabulous looking food.     

If only it were as easy as they make it look! So I’m sharing one of their most popular recipes to let you know that it can be as easy as the magic of the internet makes it appear,         

But while I was doing that research I stumbled on to some lesser known videos. They are the ones that didn’t make the Tasty social media posts, the ones where the recipes failed, and that is where I found my true inspiration! I discovered that these quick videos sometimes take three days and numerous attempts, that just like us these professionals sometimes have major kitchen fails! I’ve had cakes that refused to come out of greased pans, pots boil over and egg shells that went where they were never meant to go. My inspiration from watching these chef’s miserable fails came from the fact that they didn’t quit, day after day they kept working until they got it right.     

Cooking can be intimidating but the moral of the Tasty story is to just keep coming back! Because I keep coming back to the videos posted by Tasty I wanted to find out a little more about them. It turns out that Tasty is a division of the wildly popular internet media company BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, which was founded in 2006 and is now valued at a whopping $1.5 billion, focuses on online news and entertainment content. Tasty is considered entertainment content, and with 90 million Facebook followers it is safe to say its captivating style resonates with lots of aspiring home cooks. Easy Mozzarella-Stuffed Slow Cooker Meatballs is one of their most watched videos so that is what I decided to try.  If you get the chance check it out online, it is a memorizing. I made it and, while it was easy and fun, it did take me a scooch longer than the 57 seconds the video lasts.

That being said, I promise you it will be totally worth your time and effort!

Tasty’s Mozzarella-Stuffed Slow-Cooker Meatballs Sauce  

7 cups crushed tomato

1/3 cup onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2  teaspoon pepper

1/2  teaspoon salt Meatballs

1 lb beef 1 lb mild sausage

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 eggs

4 sticks mozzarella cheese, cut into 4-5 even pieces each     

Combine all sauce ingredients in slow cooker and stir. Set to high and cover while making meatballs, or for 30 minutes. (Or use pre-made/canned sauce.)     

Combine all meatball ingredients except the mozzarella in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix until fully combined.     

Take a golf ball sized piece of the ground beef mixture and place a piece of mozzarella in the middle. Press meat around the piece of cheese, fully enclosing it. Repeat until all meat is used.     

Place meatballs in slow cooker and submerge in sauce.     

Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until meat is fully cooked.     

Serve by itself or over pasta. Enjoy! Katherine Compton is a mother of two and a Realtor. She loves cooking almost as much as she loves living in Jackson County. To contact Katherine, email whatscookingkatherine@ gmail.com.