I’m all about canning things to make meal prepping quick and easy.   Oftentimes, we have last minute guests for dinner and I need to be able to throw something together quickly.   Unexpected guests used to throw me into a tail spin hunting for something to cook; not anymore, now I simply go into the basement and grab a jar.

Thanks to my husband who loves change we’re adding Swedish meatballs to that menu…

For 7 quart jars, here’s the ingredients you will need.

• Ground Beef or Venison – 5 lbs
• Garlic cloves (to taste) we like Garlic so we minced 4 cloves
• Onion – 2 medium, diced and caramelized
• Italian Bread Crumbs – 2 cups
• Cream of Mushroom Soup – 6 of the small cans mixed with water. We prefer to use water instead of milk when canning it.

Some recipes call for plain bread crumbs and lots of Italian spices, to us it made more sense to use the Italian bread crumbs and add additional spices if you’d like.  Keep in mind, when you’re canning with spices, they do tend to get stronger in flavor over time.

Cook the onions until they’re caramelized.

Mix the ground meat, garlic, onions, bread crumbs and any spices by hand. Roll out golf ball size meat balls. Precook the meatballs for 30-45 mins on 350 degrees, until they’re done.

Once all of the meatballs are cooked. Place the sterile jars in the oven to get them hot.  Start the canner with water and start the pot of boiling water for the lids.

Mix the cream of mushroom soup up per the directions.  I like to keep a few extra cans of soup on hand just in case you run out of soup.  If needed, it takes just a minute to get more going to add to extra jars.

Pack the jars full of meatballs and pour the hot soup over the meatballs.  Leave 1 inch of head space.

Wipe the rims with a sterile cloth, place the lids/rings and hand tighten.   Pressure can for 90 minutes on 10 pounds of pressure. *NOTE, based on your elevation,  your pounds of pressure may be different.  Adjust accordingly.

Enjoy!