Honey Balsamic Meatball Sheet Pan Dinner

I haven’t been branching out and trying many new recipes lately because I simply haven’t had the time. I really miss doing this, so I’ve made a point of experimenting with a few new recipes over the last couple of weeks. This is one that my whole family enjoyed.

Ingredients

For the meatballs and veggies

(Adapted from this recipe.)

• 1-1 ½ lbs. small red potatoes, washed and cut into chunks
• 1 lb. fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used avocado oil), divided
• Several dashes of granulated garlic, salt, and pepper
• 1 lb. lean ground meat (I used ground beef)
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion
• ¼ cup bread crumbs, old-fashioned oats, or other binder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk

For the honey balsamic sauce

(Adapted from this recipe.)

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• ½ cup honey
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used avocado oil)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
• A couples of dashes of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the potatoes on a large baking sheet and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Sprinkle with granulated garlic, salt, and pepper; toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the potatoes are baking, place the green beans in a medium bowl. Toss with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and a few dashes of the granulated garlic, salt, and pepper. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the ground meat, onion, oats or breadcrumbs, garlic, egg, and milk.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and add the green beans to it, mixing the potatoes and green beans together. Form meatballs (1 ½-2 inches in diameter) out of the meat mixture and place these on the baking sheet with the veggies. Bake for 30 minutes or until the meatballs are thoroughly cooked.

While the meatballs cook, prepare the sauce. Place all of the sauce ingredients into a small saucepan; whisk together. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Once the sauce begins to bubble, stir constantly until it thickens. Remove from the heat. Top each meatball with a spoonful of the sauce during the last five minutes of cooking. Yield: 5 servings.

Notes

One of the things I love about sheet pan dinners is that they typically don’t take much work to prepare. You usually just toss a bunch of veggies and some meat on a sheet pan and bake them. Unfortunately, this one isn’t so simple. It’s certainly not difficult to prepare, but it takes time to form the meatballs so you might not want to prepare it at the end of a long day! If you happen to have frozen meatballs available, it would be different. These would simplify the process and make it convenient.

My husband and I really like the honey balsamic flavor of the sauce, but it isn’t for everyone. A lot of folks don’t like the flavor of balsamic vinegar and the red pepper flakes make the sauce a tad bit spicy. My kids don’t like it, so I set aside a few plain meatballs for them (they enjoyed these and the veggies). If the sauce doesn’t sound good to you, then you can consider using your favorite BBQ sauce instead. This would work just as well!

Do you make any sheet pan dinners? Which have you been enjoying recently?

Shared at the following:

Farm Fresh Tuesdays, Busy Monday, Over the Moon, and Encouraging Hearts and Home.