Cheesy Garlic Meatball Bombs — When the News Is Too Big for the Kitchen

I took a pregnancy test on Thursday. I'm going to let that sentence sit there for a second because it's been sitting in my brain for four days and it hasn't gotten any less surreal. I've been nauseous for a week. I thought it was stress — the deployment announcement, the anxiety, the way my stomach clenches when I think about seven months alone. But Jen came over for coffee Wednesday and I made toast and the smell of the bread toasting made me gag, and Jen looked at me and said, very calmly, very kindly: 'Rachel. When was your last period?' I stared at her. She stared at me. Dylan threw a crayon. 'I'm going to need you to go to the PX and buy a pregnancy test,' she said. I bought two. Both positive. Two little lines on a stick in the bathroom of my base housing apartment in Jacksonville, North Carolina, six weeks before my husband deploys to the other side of the world. I sat on the bathroom floor for forty-five minutes. Not crying. Not panicking. Just... sitting. Being in the moment before everything changes. Because everything is about to change. Everything is ALREADY changing, inside me, right now, without my permission or my schedule or my readiness. I told Ryan that night. He came home, I was sitting at the kitchen table with the tests in front of me, and he looked at them and his face did something I've never seen — it went soft and hard at the same time, like joy and terror had a baby (unfortunate metaphor) on his face. 'We're —' 'Yeah.' 'When?' 'November. Maybe late November.' 'I'll be in Okinawa.' 'I know.' He sat down. He held my hands across the table. He said, 'I'll be there. I'll get back for the birth. I promise.' Military promises. They mean everything and guarantee nothing. But he said it, and I held it, and that's what you do. I haven't told Mom yet. I'll tell her this weekend. She's going to cry. Donna Abernathy is going to cry and then immediately start planning and then make me a list of foods I should eat during pregnancy and another list of foods I shouldn't and probably a sub-list of recipes that are good for morning sickness. I didn't cook tonight. We ordered pizza. Because sometimes the news is too big for the kitchen to hold and you just need cheese and carbs and the person you love sitting across from you saying 'I promise.' Two lines. One test. Everything changes. Here we go.

We ordered pizza that night because I couldn’t stand in my kitchen and pretend everything was normal. But the next evening, after the shock had softened into something I could almost hold, I needed to cook. I needed my hands busy and my house smelling like garlic and melted cheese. These meatball bombs are everything pizza night promises—warm dough, ridiculous amounts of cheese, the kind of carbs that feel like a hug—but making them yourself gives you twenty minutes of not thinking about deployment dates or due dates or two little lines on a stick.

Cheesy Garlic Meatball Bombs

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/3 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 mozzarella cheese sticks, each cut into 4 pieces
• 1 can (16.3 oz) refrigerated biscuit dough (8 biscuits)
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup marinara sauce, warmed, for dipping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Make the meatballs. In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, minced garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix until just combined. Divide into 8 equal portions.
3. Stuff with cheese. Press a piece of mozzarella into the center of each meat portion and roll into a ball, making sure the cheese is fully enclosed. Place on a plate.
4. Wrap in dough. Flatten each biscuit into a circle about 4 inches wide. Place a meatball in the center, then wrap the dough around it, pinching the seams closed. Place seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Make the garlic butter. Stir together melted butter and garlic powder. Brush generously over each dough-wrapped meatball.
6. Bake. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the dough is deep golden brown and the meatballs are cooked through (internal temperature of 160°F).
7. Finish and serve. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with Parmesan and chopped parsley. Serve warm with marinara sauce for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 370 | Protein: 19g | Fat: 20g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 820mg