Tamale Balls {Slow Cooker}

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It seems as if slow cooker meals have become the new “it” thing.  (Who would have known that a random Facebook page with some interesting slow cooker recipes could get over 1 million likes in 2 weeks.  I’ll reserve my opinion…)  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve had mixed opinions on slow cooker recipes/meals.  But last month’s Cookbook of the Month really inspired me to use my slow cooker more.  In fact, there was a week last month when I was making recipes from that book that I developed 4 more slow cooker recipes as well.  I had 1 or 2 slow cookers going every day for that whole week!!  Luckily, only 2 recipes that I made didn’t turn out like I wanted them to, but everything else turned out fantastic.

Among those recipes was this recipe for Tamale Balls.  Well, I can’t take all the credit.  A few weeks back, I was talking to my mother-in-law about recipes.  We were actually discussing stuffed peppers, and different twists you could make on them.  My mother-in-law then told me about a recipe she used to make for her kids when they were growing up – these tamale balls.  She said that a pepper stuffed with the tamale ball mix would probably be fantastic!!  That evening, she sent me home with a copy of an old family cookbook with the recipe.

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A couple of days later, I decided to try it out.  But instead of just baking them off, I thought I’d try them in the slow cooker.  And while the end result was edible, it wasn’t really what I was going for.  I’m not sure a pepper can really hold up to the slow cooker, because they were falling apart, and the filling was just a little bit too much.  Luckily, I had made the whole recipe for the tamale filling, and only used half for the peppers, so the next day I turned the remaining mix into balls.  I still wanted to make them in the slow cooker, so into the slow cooker they went, covered by the tomato sauce.  When they were done, I served them over rice, and I found out that I had found my new favorite meatball recipe!!

These meatballs are so good.  They have the flavors of tamales, all rolled up into a little ball.  I can see why my husband and his siblings loved these meatballs growing up.  And I love that they were so easily made in the slow cooker!!

You can also check out more of my Slow Cooker Favorites!!

This post is sponsored by Tablespoon. All opinions are my own.

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