Paleo Italian Meatloaf

I had a craving for some Buca Di Beppo meatballs. If you have never tried them, they are softball sized garlic flavored meatballs. I am sure they have breadcrumbs and cheese, so I had to come up with my own version. I decided to form it into a meatloaf instead of meatballs, just for ease of cooking. This was exactly what my craving was looking for! Garlic, Italian, Meat! Yum! I used jarred sauce in this recipe. Feel free to use homemade if you want, or just read labels at the store. I found an awesome store brand organic with very few ingredients.






Paleo Italian Meatloaf

2 eggs
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 head of garlic (or about 15 cloves), minced
1/4 cup almond flour
2 lbs ground beef
1 jar of your favorite paleo sauce (or small batch homemade)

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl whisk together eggs, salt, seasoning, onion powder, garlic and almond flour. Add ground beef and combine using your hands. Mix until well blended. Form into a loaf (or put in a loaf pan). Bake for 45 minutes. Drain off excess grease. Cover liberally with 2-3 cups of sauce. Bake for 15 more minutes. Slice, serve and enjoy! (Feel free to top with extra sauce if it suits your fancy).

Paleo Porcupine Meatballs

My husband's family has always made porcupine meatballs as a special meal for birthdays or gatherings. These little beauties contain rice, condensed tomato soup and other things that are not paleo approved. I decided to up the paleo-ness of these meatballs and wrap them in cabbage leaves. Feel free to skip the cabbage leaves if you do not like cabbage. Either way this is comfort food at its best!



Paleo Cabbage Wrapped Porcupine Meatballs

1 head of cabbage, remove all of the leaves
1 head of cauliflower, remove florets

Heat a large pot of water to boil. Boil cauliflower for 6 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and grate into rice (use food processor or potato ricer). Boil cabbage leaves for 4 minutes, drain.

Filling
2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp tomato paste
Riced cauliflower

Sauce
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
remainder of tomato paste
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup vegetable stock

Combine all of the above ingredients. Add cauliflower and mix well with your hands. Fill cabbage leaves with meat mixture and fold over ends, place in skillet on low heat. If there is extra meat make some meatballs out of them. Pour sauce ingredients in bowl and mix. Pour over the rolls in the skillet. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hours. Serve and enjoy!

A Mediterranean feast

Tonight we made one of my hubby's favorite types of foods, Mediterranean! We always used to do grilled chicken lettuce wraps filled with homemade hummus and tabbouleh. Now we tried a different take on it. We used some recipes from www.health-bent.com, and modified them a little to our tastes and to what we had on hand. My kids loved it because they got to have meat on a stick, hubby loved it because he got to eat his favorite flavors and I loved it because it was veggie loaded and delicious! Something I didn't think of, but feel free to take the meat off of the stick and enjoy in a tasty lettuce wrap with the dipping sauce and salad. I am sure it would be amazing!

Meat on a stick (aka. meat kabobs)

2 lbs ground beef (grass fed preferable)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp dry parsley
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
pepper to taste

Soak bamboo skewers for 30 minutes or more. Heat grill to Medium-High. Mix beef and seasoning in large bowl. Form meat into large hot dog or sausage like shapes around skewers. Grill until brown throughout. Enjoy!

Veggie Baba Ganoush

5-6 summer squash
7-10 cloves garlic, with skin on still
olive oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp tahini (sesame paste, can also use sesame seeds or sesame oil)
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Remove steams and halve summer squash. Place on sheet to roast, drizzle with olive oil. Place garlic on sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil and wrap up in foil. Place the squash and garlic in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove and allow to cool until garlic can be touched with bare hands. Place the squash, garlic, olive oil, juice, tahini, salt and pepper in food processor. Blend until pretty smooth. Serve along side the beef kabobs for a delicious dipping sauce.

Tafooleh salad

1 english cucumber, diced
1 pint grape/cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 sweet onion (vidalia), minced
4 lemons, zested and juiced
handful of fresh mint leaves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and allow to sit in the fridge for about an hour or two before serving.