Italian Meatball Sliders

This is a recipe that I originally tried through a home delivery service.  I ordered it, made it, liked it, but I saw a lot of opportunity to alter it and make it more calorie friendly, so that’s exactly what I did.  This is one we’ve eaten about 3 time in my house now, and the kids love the little surprise of melted cheese in the middle.  The husband loves that he can have a “meatball sub” basically for much lower calorie count. Either way, this one is a winner, and I hope you guys enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of lean beef (i used 92%)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese (shreds, not powder)
• 2 low calorie mozzarella string cheese sticks*
• 1 cup of prepared pizza sauce
• 8 mini slider buns*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450. Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with foil.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together: Ground beef, garlic powder, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix thoroughly using a spoon or clean, bare hands.
3. Place the mozzarella sticks on a cutting board and cut them each into 4 even segments.
4. Form 8 meatballs from the ground beef mixture you’ve made and spread them evenly over the foil lined baking sheet.
5. Use your thumb to press a deep well in the center of each meatball, large enough to insert one of the pieces of mozzarella.
6. Shape the top of the meatball to cover the mozzarella, sealing the cheese in tightly so it reduces the amount of overflow that occurs during cooking/melting.
7. Bake the meatballs for 25-30 minutes in the oven.
8. Once meatballs are done, remove meatballs and foil from the pan and place the buns on the baking sheet, tops and bottoms separated from one another so the center of the bun is facing up.
9. Place the buns into the oven and broil breifly until they are lightly browned.  Don’t take your eye off of them… it doesnt take long to go from lightly brown to “somebody call the fire department!”
10. In a small skillet, heat the pizza sauce to warm, and place meatballs, cheese side up into the sauce.  Use tongs to move meatballs around just enough to pick up some sauce on the outsides.
11. Remove buns from oven, and place 1 meatball on each bottom bun.  Spoon a little sauce over the top.  Sprinkle with extra parm if you’ve got it, and place the top bun over the meatball.  Enjoy.

*Editors note:  I used premade slider buns that were 80 calories each. My cheese sticks were 50 calories each.  You can freeze the cheese sticks ahead of time if you feel yours melted too much during cooking.

Serving size= 2 Sliders   446 calories

Serving 1 slider= 223 calories

**NOTE: I am no longer following weight watchers and am no longer comfortable calculating weight watchers points values with any accuracy.  Please feel free to use your ww recipe builder to calculate points if necessary.

Tags: italian low cal, low cal meatball sandwich, low cal meatball sub, Low calorie meatball, meatball sub, mozzarella stuffed meatballs, weight watchers meaball sandwich, weight watchers meatballs