These were another first for me. Hubby does not approve of minced meat, due to soy content and all those other things that tend to get mixed in with commercially produced products. However, we found a local meat market, Joey's, that ticks all of the Banting boxes and tastes like nothing you've ever had before. The minced meat, burger patties, and boerewors...my oh my. You just have to try it.
So, we heard about it from someone we know (and trust, food wise) and decided to give it a shot. Hubby showed up with a kilo of minced meat (among other things) and I thought "meatballs. YES!" Have always wanted to try it. Looked at some recipes and just decided to use what I've got in my fridge. Which was well stocked at the time, luckily.
Recipe:
1kg minced meat goes into a large bowl. Diced onion, garlic, spinach, and green (yellow or red) pepper, grated mozzarella cheese follow. Go crazy with your spices. Make sure there is enough salt, pepper, and some Italian herbs (Robertson's spices again) in there to give it that extra layer of ymmyliciousness. Then 3 eggs and some cream (half a container) goes in and you mix it well. I made sure my hands were clean and disinfected and had a ball of a time (a ha ha) making sure that the egg and cream saturated all of the meat mixture. Don't over manipulate, eggs do tend to go funny if you do. In an oven proof dish, sprayed with olive oil, place your meatballs and pour the remainder of the cream over it. Cover with tin foil and pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180*C. Just check them to make sure they are cooked all the way through before you switch the oven off. The timing depends on the size of the meatballs and your particular oven. So just wing it, but rather go for underdone rather than overdone...At least the former can be fixed.
And voila! Meatballs that won't break the bank and don't leave you feeling like a stuffed turkey with breadcrumbs afterwards, either. I got 12 meatballs out of this and we had 2 dinners and 2 lunches EACH from that. I made them on the eve of hubby's birthday, which meant that he had a great lunch at work and I didn't have to cook myself silly while also preparing for a visit from the in-laws for tea and cake. Was had a quick bite before they came and had a yummy lunch the following day as well. Worked out really well. I do sometimes surprise myself. I suspect there's an override system in my brain that does all of my strategic thinking for me and I just go along for the ride. And take all of the credit for it, thank you very much.
Oh, and if you're wondering what I served the in-laws for cake and tea (coffee in Dad's case), it was store bought cakes and pies that hubby took to work the following day. No, we were not tempted by the presence of milktart, cheesecake, and tiramisu. Some of hubby's co-workers are also on the Banting wagon and I sent some of the cupcakes along for them. Sharing is caring.
Besides, it's great to get feedback from other Banting enthusiasts. <winkwinknudgenudge> Not subtle at all.