You can reduce the amount of garlic in these meatballs, but then you might have to call them something else. Its not an overpowering amount, just enough to earn them their name. To make fresh bread crumbs, just take some slightly stale bread, trim off the crusts (or leave them on for even more texture), and pulse them in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Also, when you first add the milk, this seems like a lot of liquid, and perhaps it even seems like a lot of bread crumbs, but the milk makes the bread crumbs expand, and the combination of the two really lightens up these meatballs, but doesnt result in them feeling bready. My younger son charlie pronounced these, one of my finest meatballs ever. Sure, he was pretty hungry, but ill take that compliment.