One of our favorite things to eat these days are paleo friendly meatballs. After some trial and error, Nick perfected this recipe. They are good alone or with marinara sauce. I get excited whenever we make these. I barely even miss the pasta that should rightfully accompany them.
Nick doesn’t measure things, so the ingredient amounts are all estimations. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe. Let us know if you make any!
Ingredients:
- 1–2 cups Italian parsley leaves, medium chopped
- 2 pounds ground meat, your choice (Italian sausage, beef, bison, lamb, veil, pork, etc. Mix and match for unique flavors!)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2–4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped (or substitute 1 onion for 1 green pepper)
- 2/3 cup almond meal
- 2 tablespoons oregano
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 cup meatball seasoning (we like Wee Willy’s Classic Homemade Meatball mix)
- Extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the olive oil and mix thoroughly.
Roll the mixture into balls. We like to make them a little bigger than golf balls.
In a frying pan, heat olive oil and brown the meatballs on all sides.
Place meatballs in a baking dish lined with non-stick aluminum foil. You’ll want to leave a little bit of space between them. Bake for 20–30 minutes depending on size.
Makes approximately 24 (1.3 ounce) meatballs.
I have all these questions I want to ask about this diet, not cause I want to go on it, just cause I am a curious foodie whore. But I worry that my questions will come off as either a) exceedingly fucking stupid or b) like I’m being a condescending bitch. Neither of which is my intention.
Also, would it be inappropriate for me to say, I want to nom your balls? No? good.
You may ask. Most people don’t know anything about anything, and I’ve heard enough condescending bitchiness to know the difference, lol.
Technically they are my husband’s balls. I give you permission to nom them.
ok – random stupid questions coming at you (please forgive their total lack of knowledge);
are you allowed to eat potatoes?
how do things like olive oil and chocolate fit in cause of the processing that makes them?
is alcohol allowed?
for all the brownies etc you’ve made is it just a nut flour you substitute for actual flour?
can you have rice? I guess this fits with the potato question – which comes down to, are ALL carbs forbidden or just processed wheat?
and stuff like coffee and tea, are you allowed that? (I have assumed soda is a big fat no?)
omg, I’m annoying with the questions, I just get so damn curious about this kind of thing. ok, I’ll stop now. bai
Here’s a good flow chart for paleo foods. It will answer your questions about potatoes: http://colebradburn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/paleo_chart.png
Grains aren’t paleo. Neither are legumes or beans. So no wheat, rice, corn, soy, peanuts, etc. No dairy also.
Olive oil is good. Coconut oil is better.
Alcoholic beverages are not paleo.
Sugar not found naturally in foods isn’t paleo. This includes sugar cane and honey, though honey is a popular item to include in things that need to be sweetened. For the brownies I used honey, and chocolate chips that were gluten, dairy, and soy* free (they did have cane sugar). Zucchini was the main ingredient if you can believe that! Though almond and coconut flour are both popular substitutes for wheat flower.
Personally (and if you look at paleo sites you’ll see a lot of people do this), I take a modern approach to paleo. I don’t like to think of things as allowed, because for most people who eat paleo, it’s not a diet; it’s a healthy lifestyle that can be sustained long term. Coffee and tea aren’t paleo, but I still drink coffee (with a tsp of sugar and a splash of half & half). A movie theater experience without popcorn? Blasphemy. Eating only grass-fed beef might be great in theory, but 1) who can afford it? and 2) most of the people on the planet would starve if it weren’t for Big Ag.
I still go out restaurants with friends, and I don’t fret too much if I’m eating at someone else’s house. I don’t look at these instances as “cheating.” I just make sure that these are the exceptions, not the rule.
Nick and I have cleansed our house of non-paleo foods, and we do our best day to day. We both agree that eating this way makes us feel good. He performs better at the gym; I have less digestive issues. Admittedly he’s a lot better than I am at being strict, but I think we do what works the best for us. For instance, if I deprived myself of a single cupcake one day, I may eat an entire box the next, but if hubs ate a nacho, he might eat the entire bag, kwim?
It really bothers me when people are under the impression that I’m on some radical fad diet. I did research, it makes sense, and I feel much healthier when I eat this way. People seem to think it takes a lot of work, is hard to do, and that I’m depriving myself, when really that’s not the case at all. To them I’d like to say: the food pyramid is fucked, and what you think you know about nutrition is wrong.
*omg do you have any idea how much soy is in EVERYTHING that’s pre packaged? It’s a cheap ingredient and used in almost everything. Look at labels. It’ll blow your mind. Restaurants use it a lot too. Legumes cause nervous system inflammation and don’t mesh well with digestive enzymes. Soy is especially bad for women because it contains estrogen.
Thank you for answering all my annoying questions!!!
I took a nutrition class at school and we looked at a bunch of different ‘diets’ but we never looked at paleo so I was just filled with curiosity. And I totally agree with you about making a lifestyle change rather than a ‘diet’. If something makes you feel better and can be kept up long term without absolute deprivation, its worth doing. I cannot sit and watch people do wildly crazy diets that cut out all the things, cause its just a countdown to failure cause one day a cupcake will look just too appetizing. (especially if I made it – lol). I am a firm believer in moderation with food, if you spent your life telling yourself that you could under no circumstances have a cupcake, it’d be the only thing you could think about.
And yeah, I’m with you on the soy – its a direct line to breast cancer. I had to cut out all caffeine for a while because caffeine was causing excess estorgen production and causing all sorts of fucked up reactions in my body. I’ve never drunk coffee but tea and soda were enough to send my estrogen levels all over the place.
The food pyramid is fucked and the government has finally started to realize it too, it’s pretty much been replaced with this ‘my plate’ thing but most people have no idea that it has changed so much from back in the day and still stick to the old crappy, unhealthy one.
Anyway, I’m rambling but thank you for answering all the questions, I understand it much better now!
I’m just going to be over here crying about the no alcohol thing on your behalf.
Did it have a face? It’s Paleo and you should eat the shit out of it.
http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/paleo_diet_flowchart.jpg
I won’t echo all of your guys (gals) comments because I’m reviving an old thread but I think there are some awesome points in all of this.
But I will say this, it’s not all puppies and rainbows. But neither is eating shitty, you’re just accustomed to it. You are OK with feeling sleepy and crappy after a meal, Ok with that over full feeling. Now I have none of that. I perform better at the gym, I feel better over all and I dont’ ever feel crappy from eating.
That doesn’t mean I dont’ miss things, because I do. Its easy to miss things that are delicious, but that doesn’t mean its never again. To me it means it isn’t a daily occurrence anymore. The 10 year bacon cheeseburger “diet” failed me. Who would have thought?
I wonder how these would be with deeeer…
I bet if you made them with part deeeer part berger it wouldn’t be so bad…