How to: Make Whole 30 Italian Meatballs

A few month ago, Whole 9 posted a recipe for buffalo chicken meatballs, which can be found here. Also a few months back, grass fed beef was on sale at Whole Foods in bulk, so like the good frugal foodie that I am I bought a pack and stuck it in the freezer until this Whole 30 came along and I could modify it for beef. Here's what you'll need:


Materials:

• Large bowl
• Cutting board
• Sharp Knife
• Small bowl 
• Fork
• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• Disposable gloves ( I got mine at Target)
• Garlic press

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of ground beef, preferably grass fed 
• 1 stalk of celery (I used 4 because I need to use them up and they were small)
• 4 green onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 eggs, preferably cage free organic
• No sugar added organic tomato sauce
• Italian spices

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, beat both eggs and set aside.

Mince the celery and green onions. 

Separate one pound of the mega pack of beef into a container. You can use that to cook with tomorrow or the next day.

 Place the 2 lbs of beef into the large bowl and add the minced celery and green onions.

 Time to get out the garlic press! Love love l-o-v-e fresh garlic. A wonderful time saver is Whole Foods' organic peeled garlic. You can find it in the produce section. It is worth every penny.

 Press the garlic, one clove at a time.

Use a knife to get the garlic off the press.

Add some fresh ground Italian spices. I used the one pictured below.

 Add the eggs.

 Add 1/2 cup of sauce. Make sure your sauce has no sugar or sugar substitutes. I found the Monte Bene brand at Whole Foods. It is delicious!!!!

 Put on your gloves and mix everything together. It should look like this when it is completely mixed up.

 Form your meatballs into golf ball sizes. I consider 3 meatballs a serving, so I put 2 servings in two different containers to freeze for later on during the Whole 30. This helps to heat one packet up per meal if you are feeding two or a dinner and a lunch if you are feeding one.

Place the rest of the meatballs on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then check, rotate the pan, and bake for another 10 minutes.

 The finished product is below. The fat from the meat and the liquid of the sauce  is what you see all around them.

After taking off what you are eating, place the leftovers in a microwave safe container.

 Then, for added flavor, pour some of the tomato sauce over so you can heat them up at work.

Hope you enjoy! I will post a ground buffalo chicken meatball recipe probably next week. The Whole Foods in Indianapolis doesn't see the Tessemae's sauces yet, but I did find a Whole 30 compliant buffalo sauce! Can't wait!!!