Grinch Meatball Pops

 

I had such a blast in the kitchen yesterday! While I wasn’t guarding our Christmas tree from the holy terror serial tree killer, a.k.a. “Gilbert” – – our beloved but ornery Snowshoe Siamese – – I got to actually play in the kitchen with some pretty awesome new products from the kind folks at Johnsonville Sausage!

They let us in on some new products to sneak taste, and we got to try their new 3-Cheese Italian Meatballs as well as their Italian Sausage Slices! Both were excellent!

I knew the sausage slices would be good, that was pretty much a gimme, but I wondered just a bit about how well the pre-made meatballs would be. I bought frozen meatballs ONCE about 25 years ago and swore I’d never touch another one. They were horrific. Bad tasting and mushy-weird-rubbery-like-a-superball from the 70’s when I was a kid. Pretty gross actually. But these weren’t like that at all!

They had great flavor, very nice texture, juicy, were well seasoned, and the hubs and I were very pleased with them! We both commented over and over about how good they were! 🙂

Though I do love my homemade meatballs, these would be fantastic for a busy evening when time is a factor, or for when you’re exhausted after work, or in need of a quick lunch, supper or appetizer, or just plain love them!

My gosh, you could literally have dinner on the table in like – – 15 minutes! Thaw them in the fridge overnight, then simply heat them in some sauce while you cook up some pasta and WAHLAH – – dinner is done!

Toss a salad together and some garlic bread in the oven while everything is cooking, and this could be a HUGE time-saver! Let’s face it, meatballs do take a bit of time to make. Mixing everything up, rolling them all into balls, and then there’s the baking time. Aaaand the baking sheets to clean….so,  not always fun nor an option.  

They’d be wonderful with either a spaghetti, pizza, marinara, pesto or white alfredo sauce on top of about any pasta including filled tortellini, as well as things like an awesome pizza topping (whole or halved), meatball subs, soups and stews, casseroles, or simmered meatball appetizers and sliders for the upcoming holidays including Christmas, New Year’s, and of course, the Super Bowl!!  

And the slices? ENDLESS possibilities as well! 

But I’m in the Christmas spirit at the moment, and wanted to have a little extra fun creating a simple and easy recipe for an exciting little appetizer to enjoy on Christmas Eve that just makes you smile as soon as you see them!

The inspiration came from one of my favorite holiday characters, the Grinch! Who doesn’t love the Grinch, right? 🙂

Though you can barely make out the base do to my overuse of cream cheese, (gosh I love cream cheese!), I used Johnsonville’s new Italian Sausage Slices for the bases which worked beautifully, and topped each with a 3-Cheese Italian Meatball that I had simmered in pizza sauce, and topped with a green olive for his head! (*I used what I had on hand, but I would recommend larger, better ones as mine were kinda wimpy and very small).

 

 

 

Everything was then held together with a skewer, some garlic cream cheese for finishing decorations, and topped off with a pepperoni hat and, of course, a very large heart! 😉 One of the most important parts! 😉 

Not only were these so, so cute! But they were quite tasty, too! The only disappointment was that I didn’t make enough!! Lesson learned! 😉

But most importantly, thank you so very much to all of the kind, thoughtful, generous and giving folks at Johnsonville. You have brightened many dark days throughout the year for so many people, and my husband and I are so very grateful for your generosity that you have shown us as well, along with all of your fans.

It’s so nice to know that there are still companies out there that truly care about people and always lend a helping hand when disasters happen. Your kindness is so much more appreciated than you can possibly know! Personally wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a most wonderful and adventurous New Year!!

I really hope you give these fun new products a try! Their uses are literally endless! And I’d be super thrilled if you tried out my cute little Grinch Meatball Pops! They were very, very good!!

Take your time on yours, though, and make them prettier than I did! I was in a rush because our cat has decided that climbing up inside the tree, pulling off decorations with his two paws and running off with them is the best new fun thing ever. Oh, boy. Oh, yay. 

 

 

 

 

GRINCH MEATBALL POPS

Makes 12 meatball appetizers

 

12 frozen Johnsonville Meatballs, thawed, *I used their 3-Cheese Italian

12 frozen Johnsonville Sausage Slices, thawed, *I used their Mild Italian

1/3 – 1/2 cup pizza sauce as desired, can sub spaghetti or marinara sauce if preferred (anything red for his coat)

12 large green olives, with or without pimientos

2 (3 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened, (or 6 oz. of an 8 oz. package if cheaper), can sub mascarpone

1/4 tsp garlic powder, or to taste (*don’t use fresh as it could get stuck in the decorating tip)

18 slices pepperoni, (one slice for each hat, half a slice for each heart)

12 baboo skewers

12 ribbon bows, optional but festive and fun

and lots of hungry friends to share with!

 

DIRECTIONS:

In medium bowl, mix softened cream cheese and garlic powder. Snip the corner of a sturdy freezer baggie and drop in a small star tip and tape to secure. (Or use a decorator bag and coupling.) Fold down top edge part way to easily fill baggie with cream cheese mixture, fold edge back up, twist top and set aside.

With kitchen scissors, cut out 12 hats and 12 hearts from pepperoni slices. Set aside.

In small saucepan, place thawed meatballs and red sauce of choice. Warm over med-low heat, stirring ocaisionally until heated through. Cover and set aside.

While meatballs are warming, in medium frying pan, brown thawed sausage slices on both sides over med-high heat. Remove from pan to paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.

Drain 12 olives on paper towel plate.

To assemble:

On a flat serving tray, place browned sausage slices, top each with a meatball, then a green olive, and skewer to secure. Decorate bottom and top of meatball with cream cheese mixture to resemble the fur on the Grinch’s coat. Then dot down front to make the balls of fur “buttons”. 

Dot back of hearts and press onto meatballs. Decorate bottom of hat and make a tassel on end with cream cheese, then dot back of hat and stick to skewer over olive. 

Serve hot, warm or room temperature. *I had to take photos so ours were almost cold but were absolutely delicious! So no worries if they’re room temp! They’re good either way and taste like little mini pizza pops!