"That's a spicy meatball!"

I had a hankering for meatballs the other day.

Does anyone say 'hankering' anymore?

Anyway, I was watching Ina Garten on the television, and she made turkey meatballs.  She was very practical about her meal.  She made the meatballs from scratch, so she justified the use of sauce from a jar.  I could do that too!

Except, I had ground beef, and turkey patties, and I'm not too fond of red pepper flakes. And, I wanted to use some fresh herbs and spinach from my garden.

So, off to Google I go, to explore recipe ideas, trying to keep in mind my macros.

I couldn't find a single recipe that fit every want, so I took the basics and made it my own.  The basics included: meat, egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper.  The add-ons: home grown spinach and basil, minced garlic, and Cholula hot sauce.

Stay with me.

I really should have taken a picture before I mixed them and rolled them, but here's what they looked like:

Because the food scale is my new best friend, each meatball was approx. 2.75 oz pre-cooked.  They went into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

I boiled spaghetti, warmed the pasta sauce in a pot, then added my meatballs to the sauce, just to warm through. You might ask why they needed to be warmed up if they were just taken out of the oven.  Well, I cooked the meatballs about 2 hours before dinner.  I then channeled my inner Ina, put everything in a platter, just to be fancy.

Just add torn basil leaves.  It makes it look pretty.

This is what my individual serving looked like. The hot sauce gave it good flavor, without being too hot, and I was able to sneak some spinach and basil in them, and the kids ate them up with no objections.  Owen even asked for seconds.

Meatball Recipe

1.5 pounds of ground beef 90/10

2 turkey patties (8 oz. 93/7)

3 tsps. Cholula

1 tsp. minced garlic

5 large spinach leaves (cut)

10 basil leaves (cut, leave 2-3 for garnish)

1 large egg

1/3 cup of Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Salt/Pepper to taste (about 1 tsp. each)

Preheat oven to 400.

Throw all ingredients in a bowl, mix with your hands. 

I used an ice cream scooper and food scale to get approximately the same size meatballs.

Cook meatballs for 25 minutes.

Makes 13 meatballs.

2 meatballs is more than enough to fill you up.

Macros per meatball: 7g fat, 2g carbs, 15g protein

These were great the next day too.

Enjoy!



Our Hipster Garden

In an effort to eat healthier and potentially save some money*, we decided to replant our garden.

Last year, we had everything in buckets.  Lots and lots of buckets.  It was a very hot summer, and our sprinklers were low.  That led to mass destruction of our garden.

So about a month ago, we decided to re-do the whole thing.  With many thanks to Pinterest! we opted to create a raised garden using concrete blocks.  We decided to use the small squares for herbs, spinach, strawberries, and lettuce.  In the bigger space we planted tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, and cucumbers?  Seriously, I have no idea what seeds my son threw in there, but something is growing.

To ensure we don't set ourselves up for failure, we did a few things: before laying the blocks and soil, we laid down some cardboard to help with weeds, we bought taller sprinkler heads, and we planted some plastic bottles with holes drilled in to catch excess water and have that water distributed deep into the roots.

A month in, and everything is growing beautifully.  Way better than I thought it would and with minimal effort from me which is a huge plus.

The basil and cilantro are growing like crazy.  In order for it not to go to waste, I decided to make herb ice cubes, so I can use them any time.  Cut, rinse, and dry herbs (with salad spinner) - then place them in ice cube trays, fill with water, and throw them into the freezer.  Once completely frozen, put cubes in a freezer bags and use whenever you need them.

Now that we're pretty serious about this whole garden thing, we went back to the Home Depot and bought more seeds/plants, including marigolds.  I know that the whole marigold thing may not be entirely accurate, but it can't hurt, right?  So, here's what the garden looks like as of today:

Marigolds along the back, tomato cages for the growing tomatoes, new plants, newly planted seeds, and just as many herbs as there were last week (1st picture).  Looks like there are more herb cubes in my immediate future.

Here's the *money saving disclaimer: it costs money to plant something like this.  Even more money if you want it to be organic, like ours.  We utilized sales at Home Depot and didn't buy everything all at once.  I used to buy Dorot cubes at Trader Joe's for about $2 each.  My organic cilantro seeds cost $2.49, but made three cilantro plants.  I think it will be cost effective in the long run and well worth it.  Besides using the garden to get healthier, it has given us (me and Owen anyway) a new hobby.

I'll keep you updated on it's progress and the meals we make with it.

Let me know if you garden or what you would plant if you could.