Mom and wife living the ulitmate crazy life.: Meatball subs with homemade meatballs

So I've been wanting meatballs lately and I came up with a recipe for homemade meatballs a few years ago that I experimented with a few times until I thought it was right. I sometimes don't like all the spaghetti to take the attention away from the meatballs so I thought I would attempt a meatball sub and they were soo dang good!! Plus its a great way to sneak veggies into a dish without anyone being able to pick around them, lol. Here we go...

This is what you will need for the sub and homemade meatballs

2lbs of ground meat (I used beef)
1 diced green bell pepper
1/2 onion minced
5-6 button mushrooms diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
3-4 tbspns worcestershire sauce
2 cups of shredded cheese, divided 1-1 (I used mozzarella but parmesan would be good too)
garlic powder
dried oregano (optional)
dried parsley (optional)
salt & pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 cups marinara sauce
6-8 sandwich rolls (mine were 6 inch)

This makes 6-8 subs depending on the size of the meatballs and length of the buns
and 22-26 meatballs depending on how big or small you roll them.

Here's a trick I'm going to tell you beforehand, if you have the time to make the meatballs a little ahead of time, refrigerate your meatballs for 30 minutes or so before cooking they will keep their shape better but if not preheat your oven to 375 degrees. So I start by dicing my veggies, the green bell pepper, onion and mushrooms, and toss them in a large bowl. To the bowl I add the garlic, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried parsley, 1 cup of cheese, salt and pepper mix that all together really well.

Once all that is nicely mixed add your eggs and breadcrumbs you really want to save your meat until last so you don't over work it.

With the egg and breadcrumbs in there you want it to be a little over wet just so that gives you extra room to stir in your meat.

Do not be afraid to get your hands in there while mixing the meatballs you don't want anything left in the bottom. Once it's mixed and sticky start rolling them into balls. You can put them on a rack in the pan, on parchment paper or plain in the pan (the only thing about not putting anything under them is they will be a little soggy).

You can be the judge on how big or little you make them, I like mine really big but think about the size of your bread too. So now unless you're putting them in your fridge to set up for 30 minutes or so go ahead and put them in the oven, 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes. In the last 10-15 minutes of cook time go ahead and start heating up your marinara sauce in a pot.

(This is what happens with nothing underneath them but they still taste good)

So once the meatballs are finished cooking pull them out and let them sit a minute or two but keep your oven on. There's two ways to do this next part and either is fine you can line your sandwich buns in a pan and lay the meatballs in them or you can do what I do and drop a few meatballs at a time into your marinara sauce and let them get nicely coated before dropping them into your bread. Either way once your meatballs are all cozy in your bread pour a little extra marinara sauce over the top of them.