This twist on a classic meatball sandwich is perfectly kid-sized and fun for everyone. Plus, it comes together SUPER fast for a great weeknight dinner.

It was Monday, and it was getting dangerously close to the time I needed to make dinner or face the wrath of hungry, cranky kids. I’m usually pretty good about planning our meals ahead of time, but I hadn’t gotten around to planning that week yet. So I started wracking my brain. We had leftover Costco rolls from a family dinner the night before and some extra marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese from our homemade pizza party the week before.

What’s a mom to do? Improvise, of course.

That’s how this recipe was born. I whipped up some simple meatballs and turned them into these easy-peasy meatball sliders. They’re not strictly “from-scratch” (since I used store-bought rolls and sauce), but they’re too good and easy to keep to myself. As I was making them, I thought they would make a great addition to the “kid-sized food” series I’ve been doing on the blog. So, here they are! I hope you enjoy them.

Meatball Sliders

yield: 18 meatballs, which translates to 6-8 sliders depending on how many meatballs you put on each (we did 2 for kids and 3 for adults).

Ingredients

Meatballs:

• 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Sandwiches

• rolls
• marinara sauce
• mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients, except the 1 tablespoon oil, and mix until well-combined. Form the mixture into meatballs about an inch in size (you want them small-ish or they won’t fit in the rolls well).
2. In a nonstick skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the meatballs in a single layer to the hot skillet and brown on all sides, turning with a pair of tongs. The meatballs don’t need to be completely cooked through, just equally browned on all sides.
3. Pour the marinara sauce over the meatballs and gently turn the meatballs to coat them in the sauce. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook about 10-15 minutes, stirring every once in a while to carefully turn the meatballs and coat them in the sauce, until the meatballs are cooked through. If the sauce becomes overly thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time to thin.
4. Serve the meatballs and sauce on rolls sprinkled with mozzarella cheese.

   Enjoy! I regularly link up here.

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