Meatballs!

Paleo Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Like most sane people, I really like pasta. Being the health conscious nutcase that I am, however, I generally avoid it like the plague, and even more so now with the WLC. Lucky for me, I think the part I love most about pasta is the sauce; I love the warm tomato-ness and the herbs and the fact that its somewhere between soup and solid food.

I've been modifiying my pasta dishes to either use zucchini noodles or cauliflower while Tim still gets the whole wheat spaghetti he loves so much. It works, and it really doesn't take that much extra time to prepare two different bases.

This weekend, I decided to get ambitious and make meatballs. I usually am not much of a red meat eater, but you can really only eat so much poultry and fish before someone (cough cough, Tim) starts balking. So in an effort to compromise, I decided to use half ground chicken breast and half ground beef for these meatballs. You could very easily do a mixture of pork and beef here, as well as ground chicken thigh, really the possibilities are endless. I chose to use chicken breast and 95% lean ground grass fed beef simply because these were some good lean protein options.

To the meat mixture, I added an egg and some grated zucchini to up the veg factor, along with the usual bevvy of herbs and spices-salt, pepper, garlic, oregano. I also really felt like some chopped up mushrooms would have helped give the flavor just an extra oomph, but I'll try that next time.

You can bake these meatballs in the oven, sear them in the pan, or simmer them in a tomato sauce. I chose the latter, knowing that the juices from the sauce would be absorbed into the meatballs which would impart both flavor and moisture.

One more thing to note, I made these on a Sunday and promptly froze them, knowing full well I had an easy dinner waiting at home for one of those hectic days we all tend to have.

Beef and Chicken Meatballs
serves two, plus leftovers

1/2lb ground chicken breast
1/2lb 95% lean ground beef, grass fed if possible
1 egg
1/2c grated zucchini
2 cloves garlic, diced
2tsp oregano
1tsp red pepper flakes
salt, pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix everything together with your hands. Or a spoon if you're not into that sort of thing.

Roll into equal sized balls and place on parchment-lined baking tray. I ended up with 14 meatballs, meaning that each meatball was a little more than 1oz of meat, if you're watching your calories or macronutrients. Cook as below, or freeze until ready to cook.

Meatballs; just ignore the Tito's in the background

Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1tbsp olive oil

1c sliced mushrooms of  your liking, I used baby bella mushrooms

2c Pomi strained tomatoes

2tsp oregano

1tsp red pepper flakes

salt, pepper

Heat oil in a deep skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and the garlic, and soften for 3-4 minutes. Add the oregano and salt and pepper at this point. Add the mushrooms and let soften a few more minutes, then add the strained tomato (ps you can use any brand you want, I just like Pomi  because it comes in a carton and is just tomato).

Bring the sauce up to a simmer, then add your meatballs and let cook. While your meatballs are cooking, you can boil up your cauliflower and pasta (if someone is eating real pasta).

NOTE: I always cook my cauliflower/zuchhini noodles before I cook the pasta so that the starches from the pasta that end up in the water don't transfer to my veggies.

Turn the meatballs over at about the 4 minute mark, and let simmer for another 4-5 minutes. The longer they cook, the more flavor they will have, but this is also a dinner that is ready pretty quickly, which makes it perfect for a weeknight.

Once your bases are cooked, toss in a bowl and top with the meatballs and sauce. You can garnish with extra red pepper flakes and pepper, and some fresh basil or parsley goes nice here as well. I had some lovely farmers market cherry tomatoes that I used up here too. Tim got parmesan of course.

 Enjoy!