What does it mean when:  nachos are considered an excellent dinner?  dinner consists of finger foods (or at the most, foods that can be eaten using only a toothpick)?  the dining room for Sunday dinner is actually the living room?  It must be football season.

Yes, the NFL season has returned.  As we live in New England, we are hearty fans of the Patriots, with or without Tom Brady.  So, the other Sunday, we made a dinner of munchies.  As it was only my husband and I, we didn’t need to have a large menu.  However, as we are foodies, heating a prepackaged, frozen appetizer doesn’t work for our menu.  So, we decided to make a queso dip, stuffed mushrooms, and meatballs.

When we were deciding on our menu for our trip to the grocery store, I knew that I didn’t want regular meatballs.  Actually, I had been contemplating buffalos fingers but didn’t feel like eating fried food.  So, to feed that craving without adding oil, I decided to create Buffalo Chicken Meatballs.  The meatballs were a hit!  I know there were only two of us dining, however, my husband ate most of the batch, so they must have been fairly decent!

Having made homemade chicken tenders, I can assure you that the meatballs were much easier to make (and much easier to clean up from) than tenders.  Stuffed with blue cheese and served with buffalo wing sauce as a dip, these meatballs were the perfect accompaniment for a Patriots game (or whatever team you follow).  Ready in about 25 minutes from start to finish, these make a fairly quick and very tasty addition to any gathering.

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

1 lb. ground chicken

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg white

1/4 bread crumbs

1 Tb. dried parsley

salt and pepper

blue cheese

Buffalo sauce, preferably Original Anchor Bar Buffalo Wing Sauce

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine chicken, onion, garlic, egg white, bread crumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper.  Mix well, using your hands.  Divide mixture into 16 portion.  Take 1 portion, and form into a ball.  Take a small piece of blue cheese, press it into the center of the meatball, and firmly reshape meatball.  Place on cookie sheet.  Repeat with 15 remaining meatballs.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Serve immediately with bowls of buffalo sauce for dipping.