Porcupine Balls

For my birthday the year I got married my mom gave me the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Over the past 16 years I think I have made just about everything in it, but there are some recipes that I come back to over and over again. Porcupine Balls is one of those recipes. It was also one of the first dishes I could make right each time. I've been baking since I was 10, but cooking was another story. When I was first married (poor hubby) I couldn't cook at all. Bubba still brings up the time I tried to make my mom's Italian breaded chicken, but couldn't remember what liquid she used (white wine) so I used water. We literally could not cut through the poor chicken when I was done with it. But I persisted, and eventually became a good cook (if I do say so myself). Now Bubba is a lucky hubby. :)

The original recipe calls for uncooked white rice, but I substituted leftover cooked brown rice.

You will need:

1 egg
1 can tomato soup
1/4 cup uncooked white rice (or 1/2 cup cooked brown rice)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pound ground beef
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dried oregano (optional--I don't use it)
1/2 cup water



Combine the egg, 1/4 cup of the soup (I just eyeball it), rice, onion powder, and pepper. Add the ground beef and mix well.





Shape mixture into 12 meatballs and place in a large greased skillet. I used my electric skillet and gave it a quick shot of cooking spray.



In a small bowl, mix together the rest of the soup, Worcestershire sauce, oregano (if you use it), and 1/2 cup water. Whisk.



Pour the soup mixture over the top of your meatballs.



Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes. Give the meatballs a stir every once in a while. After ten minutes I turn the meatballs over.





Porcupine Balls are super filling and are great paired with green beans and some type of potato. The sauce is yummy over mashed potatoes. Serve them immediately and spoon a little sauce over each one. Whenever we have these we sing the Porcupine Balls song that Tink used to sing when she was 3. She would go around the yard picking up the porcupine balls that fall from trees...



she would cock her head to one side and say, "porcupine balls," and then cock her head to the other side and say it again. It was sooooooo cute. Crazy, adorable cute. I miss the girls as toddlers. :)

Anyway...this recipe is quick, easy, tasty, filling, and cheap.




Enjoy!!

my recipe card: