My family lives off of elk meat. My husband kills us an elk every summer on our land and we butcher it up and have a freezer full of meat for the next year. I didn’t love it at first, even though I grew up on game meat (my dad was a big hunter). I have had to go through a process of figuring out how to cook it so that it doesn’t dry out immediately (elk is EXTREMELY lean and has basically zero fat on it). My biggest challenge came with steaks (which I have now mastered), and I still haven’t perfected a roast because my first one was so dismal that I’ve been afraid to attempt it again! However, I use ground elk meat all the time. My family gobbles it up and my girls don’t even know the difference between that and ground beef, because they never eat beef! With that being said, whenever I post a recipe calling for elk meat, it can be substituted for ground beef. Elk just happens to be what I use, but all of these recipes started out using beef and both are delicious.

Thoughts:

This is an old family recipe from my aunt. I have always loved it, and have shared it with many people over the years. I don’t like huge meatballs so I like to make my own so that I can keep them small. If you like a lot of sauce you can easily double the sauce recipe as well. This makes plenty for my little family with leftovers for another meal. My girls were hesitant to try these at first, even though they love meatloaf and ground beef in anything else and devour pineapple at any chance. Once I convinced my three year old (the “picky” one, but not super picky) to try a meatball, she was hooked. She kept telling my five year old to “Just try it, you’ll like it, I promise it’s good!” It IS good. This is one of my tried and true family favorite recipes that I will make for years to come. I serve them over wild rice with lots of veggies on the side. If you haven’t made the switch from regular soy sauce to liquid aminos yet, you SHOULD. It’s so delicious. I found mine at wal-mart.

For a Whole30 Version, see here.