Halloween Recipe- Bloody Eyeballs {Meatballs}

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to cook for. There are just so many fun and yummy Halloween foods out there. When the California Olive Committee contacted me asking if I’d be interested in coming up with a Halloween food idea using black olives, of course I said yes! At first I thought of making the olives into spiders to use as a garnish. But the more I looked at the olives, the more they looked like eyeballs to me. So I came up with a main dish recipe that I think would be perfect for Halloween night. . .

My boys loved them!! I used one of our favorite meatball recipes, but you can use any meatball recipe that you like. I thought it looked best to put the whole olive in the meatball before it baked, but you can also just add sliced olives at the end. I put a little sauce on the meatball so they would stay in place. With this method you can even use frozen meatballs. Super easy!

Meatball Recipe:
1 1/2# lean ground beef
3/4 cup oats
1 egg
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp dried parsley

Additional ingredients:
1 can of Black California Olives
2 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce, heated
Hot cooked pasta

Combine all ingredients except olives. Mix really well and roll into balls. (I use a cookie dough scoop.) Take an olive and press it into the middle of the meatball, forming the sides around it. Repeat with remaining meatballs and olives. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 400° for 18-20 minutes, or till meat is no longer pink inside. Serve over hot noodles and sauce.

To find even more Halloween foods using California Olives, check out their Facebook Page.
To learn more about California Olives, visit http://calolive.org/

Disclosure: A big thanks to California Black Ripe Olives for sending me a box of goodies, and compensation for writing this post. I had lots of fun and am already thinking of other Halloween foods using black olives!!