Let's Get The Meatball Rolling...
This post is a little off course for most people when it comes to Christmas foods, but at the same time I know a lot of people have a tradition of eating Italian food at their Christmas celebrations. Whether you have Italian heritage or it's just a tradition started somewhere down the line in the family, Christmas doesn't mean Ham for everyone!
I make these meatballs all through the year. They are ridiculously easy and go a looooong way for my husband and I. Generally, we'll eat meatballs with spaghetti squash for a couple days, then I'll take the leftovers, crumble them up and use them as the meat layer in a zucchini or eggplant lasagna (see earlier post for eggplant lasagna recipe. I may redo it in the future as it was my first attempt at posting such a thing.) When I do this, I generally stir together the stuff for a ricotta bake, saute up some veggies (whatever I have on hand at the time), and then layer it all. The usual pattern for me is: sauce (from leftover meatballs), zucchini or eggplant, ricotta mixture, sauteed veggies, crumbled meatballs, sauce, repeat. I'll then top this with shredded mozzarella and parmesan (because there is no such thing as too much cheese in my life!), cover with tin foil and bake at 350°F for 35 minutes, remove tin foil and cook for another 10 min to brown. I guess this post is recipe inception! Recipe-ception? Reception? No.... that's just a regular word... Either way, I didn't mean to have an extra recipe in here, but hey, why not?
My meatball recipe is a little different than most traditional recipes but it's what I've found works best for me. You can always change the complimentary ingredients to something that better fits your tastes. Since there's not a whole lot of chemistry involved when making meatballs, substituting is fairly easy. I'll make some substitution suggests at the bottom of the recipe.
*You don't have to use sauce if you don't want to. If you just want dry meatballs, you can easily bake these or pan fry them without sauce. My directions include sauce because this is how I make mine and how I prefer it.
**You can arrange your meatballs however you want, but I tend to do concentric circles starting around the edge of the pan moving in until I run out of meat.
+ In all honesty, I end up letting mine cook for a few hours. You could very easily put these in a crockpot at this point and leave them until it's time for dinner. You could also serve them after the initial 30 minutes. They are fully cooked, I just like to let them stew because, well, it's what I like!
Of course, the nutrition shown is for the ingredients I used in the recipe. You'll need to account for any changes that you make to the recipe when it comes to the nutrition info. The info is also for a serving of one meatball. Depending on where you are in your journey, one meatball with whatever you serve it with may or may not be enough, but as you can see, eating a larger serving won't hurt your caloric wallet! You'll notice in the photo of the finished product that there's a considerable amount of fat on the top of the meatballs and sauce. I generally layer up some paper towels and carefully soak up as much as I can. You don't have to, but the one thing that really bothers my sleeve is grease. It's a guaranteed way to make me dump, which is absolutely NO FUN!
What kind of things do you have for your Christmas dinner? Or do you even do Christmas dinner?
I know traditional Chanukkah recipes are MUCH harder to make low carb. It is possible though. Is that something any of my readers would like to see? Comment and let me know!
I make these meatballs all through the year. They are ridiculously easy and go a looooong way for my husband and I. Generally, we'll eat meatballs with spaghetti squash for a couple days, then I'll take the leftovers, crumble them up and use them as the meat layer in a zucchini or eggplant lasagna (see earlier post for eggplant lasagna recipe. I may redo it in the future as it was my first attempt at posting such a thing.) When I do this, I generally stir together the stuff for a ricotta bake, saute up some veggies (whatever I have on hand at the time), and then layer it all. The usual pattern for me is: sauce (from leftover meatballs), zucchini or eggplant, ricotta mixture, sauteed veggies, crumbled meatballs, sauce, repeat. I'll then top this with shredded mozzarella and parmesan (because there is no such thing as too much cheese in my life!), cover with tin foil and bake at 350°F for 35 minutes, remove tin foil and cook for another 10 min to brown. I guess this post is recipe inception! Recipe-ception? Reception? No.... that's just a regular word... Either way, I didn't mean to have an extra recipe in here, but hey, why not?
My meatball recipe is a little different than most traditional recipes but it's what I've found works best for me. You can always change the complimentary ingredients to something that better fits your tastes. Since there's not a whole lot of chemistry involved when making meatballs, substituting is fairly easy. I'll make some substitution suggests at the bottom of the recipe.
Mia's Meatballs
- 16 oz 90/10 ground beef
- 8 oz mild Italian pork sausage
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (or approx. 1 slice ground in blender)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan
- 3/4 cup egg substitute (or) 3 extra large eggs
- 1 jar low carb pasta sauce of choice
- Add ground beef and sausage into a large bowl. Note: bowl should be large enough to comfortably hand mix all ingredients at the end. Mix together well using your hands.
- In a separate bowl, mix almond flour, breadcrumbs and grated parmesan. If using a slice of bread instead of already made breadcrumbs, rip up your bread and add it with the almond flour and grated parmesan into a food processor. Process for 15-30 seconds or until you can't see any different between the three different ingredients. Add onion powder, garlic powder and Italian seasoning and stir together.
- Add crumb mixture, eggs and shredded parmesan to the bowl of meat. Using your hands, mix well in a kneading type action. Doing this makes it a lot easier to make sure everything is evenly distributed. When using a spoon or other mixing tool, you end up having to mix much longer and still risk pockets of ingredients that aren't combined in very well.
- Turn burner to medium high and preheat a cooking pan that will be large enough to hold all of your meatballs as well as a large jar of pasta sauce without boiling over*.
- Using either a 1.5 oz scoop or a scale, measure out 1.5 oz balls of the mixture, roll between your palms and drop into preheated pan**. There's no need to add oil before adding the meatballs unless your pan is prone to causing food to stick badly. The fat from the sausage will come out as soon as it starts cooking and will be more than enough grease for most people.
- By the time you finish adding the last of the meatballs into your pan, the first ones will be ready to turn. Turn all of the meatballs and cook for another 3-5 minutes before turning one more time. Each turn should produce a side of the meatball with a nice brown crispy spot. That's all that delicious cheese we added!
- Add sauce to cover, cover pan with lid, turn the heat down to low and let cook for 30 minutes. DO NOT TURN MEATBALLS AGAIN until after the 30 minutes! If you turn the meatballs right now, you risk them breaking apart. After 30 minutes, you can stir gently to make sure nothing is sticking, then cover back up and let continue to cook+.
- Serve alone, over spaghetti squash, in a sub made with low carb bread... the possibilities are limited only by your preferences! Makes 28 1.5 oz meatballs
*You don't have to use sauce if you don't want to. If you just want dry meatballs, you can easily bake these or pan fry them without sauce. My directions include sauce because this is how I make mine and how I prefer it.
**You can arrange your meatballs however you want, but I tend to do concentric circles starting around the edge of the pan moving in until I run out of meat.
+ In all honesty, I end up letting mine cook for a few hours. You could very easily put these in a crockpot at this point and leave them until it's time for dinner. You could also serve them after the initial 30 minutes. They are fully cooked, I just like to let them stew because, well, it's what I like!
Of course, the nutrition shown is for the ingredients I used in the recipe. You'll need to account for any changes that you make to the recipe when it comes to the nutrition info. The info is also for a serving of one meatball. Depending on where you are in your journey, one meatball with whatever you serve it with may or may not be enough, but as you can see, eating a larger serving won't hurt your caloric wallet! You'll notice in the photo of the finished product that there's a considerable amount of fat on the top of the meatballs and sauce. I generally layer up some paper towels and carefully soak up as much as I can. You don't have to, but the one thing that really bothers my sleeve is grease. It's a guaranteed way to make me dump, which is absolutely NO FUN!
What kind of things do you have for your Christmas dinner? Or do you even do Christmas dinner?
I know traditional Chanukkah recipes are MUCH harder to make low carb. It is possible though. Is that something any of my readers would like to see? Comment and let me know!
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