You know those afternoons where you’re wandering around ikea, for days (ok, hours), and you don’t want to leave because the kids are in the ball pit and it’s just SO NICE having some quiet time, but you also can’t put one more thing in your cart or your husband will greet you at the door with divorce papers. What do you do: Swedish meatballs.
Those super tender, bitesize beef meatballs, dripping with a creamy gravy, then dunked into some cranberry sauce. I mean, COME ON.
Problem is, the closest ikea is almost an hour away… and if we’re being honest, ikea is also a bit of a mad house, because EVERYONE and their third cousin is trying to escape something with a couple hours of retail therapy. I decided it was a much better idea to make them at home for me this time…. and seeing as those three kids keep our nights BUSY, if they could be done in the crock pot, even better!
Now, I cheated. And you know what – it felt good. It felt SO GOOD to just pour a bag of frozen meatballs into the crock pot. Could I have made them from scratch? Sure, I COULD have, but I didn’t want to.
You know what – it’s OK to not want to.
There.
I gave you permission.
You. Yeah you. You DO NOT have to make your meatballs from scratch.
Literally, you take three minutes to make the gravy, which is an “all ingredients into the pot” deal. Then you add the meatballs, put the lid on, and WALK AWAY.
I KNOW!!!
You know what else I know? These are killer with cranberry sauce. Like, they should never, ever be eaten without it. Unless you’re like Bo, who hates cranberry sauce (if I had known these things before I saw how cute he was…).
Lucky for Bo, and everyone else who doesn’t like to enjoy life with cranberry sauce, they’re also amazing over mashed potatoes.
Or tossed with some egg pasta.
Yeah, you get the picture.
They’re amazing, no matter how you snack’em.
easy crock pot swedish meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 bag of frozen meatballs (Swedish if you can find it, but any style will work!)
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, continuing to whisk for about 30 seconds until a golden yellow.
- Slowly pour in the beef broth, whisking until combined and thickened. Whisk in the heavy cream, stirring until just thickened.
- Stir in the dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Put the frozen meatballs into your crock pot. Pour on the gravy, and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
- Cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 8-10 hours on low, stirring occasionally if you can.
- Serve with cranberry sauce. Also great with mashed potatoes!
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