Bavarian Meatball Sandwiches

It’s been a pleasant weekend of hanging out with friends, getting few things accomplished, and enjoying cookouts.

A lot of napping was had yesterday, too. Needless to say, although my weekend was productive in the capacity that I didn’t lounge around at home for two days—it was also completely unproductive. I’m just now getting around to my piles of laundry. Just now cleaning up dishes from last week. Just now deciding to postpone sweeping the floor for another few days.

And you know what? That’s okay. When your work week is always as stressful as mine, you deserve to have fun weekends and lay off on a few chores. Granted, there’s nothing worse than doing those skipped weekend chores on the weekday, but it’s much better to have a fun, clear weekend.

Rob and I rented a movie (er, Redboxed a movie. They really need to make that into a new verb) last night and had dinner together. I had found this recipe in a magazine and really wanted to make it, and Saturday was the perfect day to do that. Slow cooker meal, movie, couch. Three perfect ingredients.

Meatballs are life. I love meatballs. We don’t eat a lot of red meat anymore so our meatball obsession has been put on the backburner. Rob makes this amazing Swedish meatball dish. I always eat plates full of party meatballs during the holiday. And spaghetti with meatballs are the apex of Italian dinner dishes.

When I saw this different take on meatballs, I knew we had to try it. You take some already made Italian meatballs, give them a quick browning in a skillet, then slow cook them with beer, brown sugar, and onion soup mix. Easy as pie and just as delicious, too.

We ate these bad boys on some hoagie buns with shredded Swiss (for me) and shredded mozzarella (for him). These meatballs were a hit! Savory, meaty, with a hint of beer. Everything my German self loves about a meal.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add meatballs, a dozen at a time, and brown on all sides, about 3-4 minutes all together.

Transfer browned meatballs to a large slow cooker. Pour beer, brown sugar and soup mix over the meatballs and stir until well combined.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours or until meatballs are cooked through.

Heat oven broiler. Place 3-4 meatballs on each hoagie bun. Sprinkle cheese over meatballs. Broil 2-3 minutes until cheese is melty and browned.

Toast tops of hoagie buns by brushing with melted butter and broiling with meatball buns.