Not too long ago I received an advertisement in the mail for a subscription for two magazines for $10 for a whole year.
I don’t normally jump on offers like this but after mulling it over I decided, why not? It’s cheap and it will give me a chance to check out the magazines which I don’t normally purchase.
One of the magazines is Better Homes and Garden and recently they had a recipe for Greek Stuffed Meatballs that are made in a crockpot. Well, I am normally prepared. Really, I am. But on this day I was a little lazy and didn’t read all of the instructions until a couple hours before I needed to make the meatballs. So ~ I had to improvise as I would have to bake them instead of “crockpotting” them. (Is that a word?)
The other change I made in the recipe was to paleo-ize it which was quite simple ~ I merely changed out the bread crumbs for almond meal and it worked great!
I’ve seen this exact same recipe on other internet sites so I’m not sure who the original owner is but here is it for you to check out with my changes. I must say, they turned out fantastic! I even put them on my “favorites” list.
First, let’s talk about cheese. I used Kerrygold sweet cheddar (which has just a touch of sweetness) for this recipe.
You can use any cheese you like although you want to be able to cut it in cubes (large or small).
Keep in mind that these cubes will go in the middle of your meatball. I made large meatballs so sometimes I used two small pieces in a ball.
At first the recipe felt like it might have too many olives. Is that even possible? Well, you really don’t taste the olives as much as you would think because they are diced so don’t be afraid of that.
The mixture with the egg, almond meal, olives, parsley, garlic, salt & pepper will look like this.
And after you add the lamb and the beef it will look like this.
Now, it’s really a personal preference, but I like to use my hands to mix everything together and form it into balls. If you decide to do this, please make sure your hands are really clean. No use spreading any more germs in this already germ filled world.
I picked up enough of the meat mixture to put it in the palm of my hand, flatten it then add a piece or two of the cheese in it. Then I covered the cheese with the meat mixture.
I had prepared a casserole dish for the meatballs by putting a couple tablespoons or so of tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish.
Then I added the meatballs to the dish. You really don’t need to oil the dish as the meatballs let out enough grease on their own but I like to have the meatballs covered in sauce ~ both bottom and top.
And then ~ whala!
Next you spread the rest of your tomato sauce over the top of the meatballs, put aluminum foil over the casserole dish and plop it in the oven.
They will come out looking like this … not too pretty but that’s because of the grease that comes out of the meatballs. You can pretty it up once it’s on the plate, eh?
Okay then ~ ready to see the recipe? Â Enjoy!
Baked Greek Stuffed Meatballs ~ Paleo
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives
- 1/4 cup finely chopped black olives
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 6 ounces Kerrygold Sweet Cheddar cheese or a cheese of your own
- Tomato Sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs.
- In a separate bowl, combine the almond meal, green olives, black olives, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper then add this to the beaten eggs and mix together.
- Add the ground beef and ground lamb to the egg mixture then blend everything together. (Using clean hands will make this easier.)
- Using your hands, pick enough of the meat mixture up so that you can pat it down into the palm of your hand then add a cheese cube (or two) in the middle.
- Completely cover the cheese with the meat by forming it into a ball.
- In a casserole dish, spread a little bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom then add the meatballs to the dish and cover with tomato sauce.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
- Bake approximately 35 minutes then remove the dish from the oven, turn the meatballs and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes uncovered.
- (The above directions are for cooking in a convection oven. If you use a regular oven your cooking time may be a little bit more.)
For additional paleo recipes, click here.
