Mac & Cheese Stuffed Meatballs
I love making macaroni and cheese and I love making meatballs, so this is one of my favorite recipes. It was also a hit at one of my last Meatball Parties!
Mac & Cheese Stuffed Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb ground pork sausage
- 1 cup Italian Style breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs
- salt & pepper to taste
- 13 cubes frozen Velveeta cheese
- 13 frozen mac and cheese balls
Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
- 1 lb macaroni
- 3 cups whole milk
- 2 tbs Dijon mustard
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 lb Bongards White Cheddar Melting Cheese cubed
Instructions
- Cut your Velveeta cheese into cubes and set on a cutting board and put them in the freezer. I usually freeze them overnight.
- For the macaroni and cheese, boil the pasta as directed on the box. In a different pan add the whole milk, Bongards White Cheddar Melting Cheese cubes, and Dijon mustard and heat on low until the cheese is melted. Once it’s melted add the shredded cheddar cheese.
- Drain the macaroni once cooked and add this to the cheese mixture. You can fill the silicon molds with the mac and cheese and put the molds on the a cutting board and put in the freezer. I usually freeze them overnight.
- Once your ready to make the meatballs preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Combine the meat, breadcrumbs, eggs and salt and pepper. Take the frozen mac and cheese balls and frozen Velveeta cheese cubes out.
- Take a scoop of the meat mixture and flatten it into the palm of your hand. Place one of the mac and cheese balls in the middle of the meat. Top that with a frozen Velveeta cubes. Wrap the meat mixture around the frozen mac and cheese and frozen Velveeta cubes.
- Once you have used all of the meat and made all of your balls place them onto a greased baking sheet. Place them in the oven and bake for 25 mins.
- Once the meatballs are cooked you can drain them on paper towels to remove the excess grease and then serve them warm.
This recipe is a little more time consuming since there are a couple of different components in this recipe. Making and freezing the macaroni and cheese is time consuming and does force you to plan ahead on this one but I’ll tell you it’s completely worth it. This recipe is one of the ones that I’ve sent into work with my husband for him to share with his co-workers to get feedback and these were one of the ones that I got the most positive feedback on!
I added the additional frozen cubes of Velveeta cheese to this recipe to add some extra cheesiness to the meatball. When I was making the little frozen mac and cheese balls it didn’t seem creamy and cheesy enough to me. I wanted to make sure that when you cut into these meatballs there was a lot of cheese in the middle. One other thing I’ve noticed from stuffing meatballs is that you can lose some cheese in the cooking process so adding the extra frozen cheese helps keep it creamy and cheesy.
Making the meatballs is a little more fun to me when you incorporate frozen ingredients in the middle. I started freezing various things to stuff my meatballs with like mashed potatoes for my recipes like Cottage Pie Meatballs or chili for my Chili Cheese Stuffed Meatballs. I use my delicious 3rd Place Chili recipe that I include on this site as well. Why is it called 3rd Place Chili you ask? Well, we went to our local bar a few years ago so I could participate in a chili cookoff and I took third place in my first competition! It was also the only time I competed in a chili cookoff. Looking back at that memory it makes me wanna compete again. The challenge here in Minnesota with chili cookoffs is that for some reason Minnesotans make really watery chili. Mine is on the thicker side, my husband always says that it’s great chili for chili cheese dogs.
If you’d like to make the macaroni and cheese balls ahead of time to keep in the freezer you can totally do that. You can make the mac and cheese whenever you have time to make it. You can also make a different kind of macaroni and cheese to freeze to stuff the meatballs with too. If you have a favorite family recipe that you like to work with you can always use that. If you are a huge fan of a boxed mac & cheese or a premade mac & cheese you can always use that as well. If you are short on time this might be a great alternative to the macaroni and cheese recipe that I provide.
To make the macaroni and cheese easier to work with to stuff the meatballs I freeze it. I also think it helps keep everything where it should be in the cooking process. This is also why I freeze the Velveeta cheese cubes. If you would like to do either ahead of time – which I do a lot only because I like to have these things available in my freezer for when I’m in the mood to make these meatballs – you can follow the instructions on freezing the macaroni and cheese and the Velveeta cheese above. Once they are frozen I store them in a plastic zip bag with a little bit of flour to keep both the macaroni and cheese balls from sticking together and it helps keep the Velveeta cheese cubes separate in the freezer too.
I think about meatballs a lot – if you can’t tell from this website. I like to think of ways to make them more interesting or remind someone of an entire meal in a bite. My husband grew up in the Midwest and a lot of my meatball recipes that I come up with are inspired by some of the comfort food recipes that my husband suggests that I make for dinner. I like to eat healthy and I always like to make sure we have a balanced meal but there are those days where the comfort food cravings take over and I make a huge pot of mac and cheese.
This particular recipe uses Bongards White Cheddar Melting Cheese. I chose this particular cheese because they are a Minnesota company. We love all of the products that they make, they’re shredded cheese is amazing and I really love their White Cheddar Melting cheese. If you can’t find that particular cheese Velveeta is a great subtitute.
I have so much fun making these meatballs. I do love a good challenge and I really love to try new things in the kitchen. It’s always fun to serve these meatballs to folks because there is a great cheesy surprise in the middle.
The base of this meatballs is a great starting point for all of the other creative ideas you might have when making your own macaroni and cheese stuffed meatballs. The possibilities are endless with this meatball. I’ve made different kinds of macaroni and cheeses over the years with different cheeses. Once I have some of those recipes written I’ll add those to this site as well so I can have all of you mac & cheese meatball needs covered.
More Recipes By Category
Midwestern Meatballs
We live in the Midwest and there are so many classic recipes that the rest of the country is missing out on. I’m here to help share those recipes in meatball form.
Classic Meatballs
I have some classic meatballs that are the foundation of a lot of my meatball recipes. You’ll find some basic meatball recipes and recipes that we are grew up with and love.
Stuffed Meatballs
I love stuffing meatballs – and once you start browsing the site you’ll see that I’m pretty creative with what I can come up with to stuff my balls with – and every recipe is delicious.
