Guest Post: Anthony – Meat Balls and Zoodles

Today we have a guest post from Anthony who blogs over at I am NOT an urban hippie. Having gone back and forth on a low carb diet, I can appreciate great tasting alternatives to high carb dishes. Take a look at what Anthony has put together below…

Our house hold is from Melbourne. That is the one in Australia not Florida.

We have a standard 1/8 acre block with 35 fruit trees, garden beds, ducks, chickens and few hives of bees. I am called a hippie by many but I am more old school country (read US redneck).

I am a bit of locavore but not to the point of stupidity. We like to eat what we can where we are and within reason we do. We also like a low carb diet where possible both for the weight control but also for the fact that it means we end up with less processed food in our diet.

We don’t try and push out life style on anyone (well not too much ) at the I am not an urban hippie blog but we like to make people think.

One of the things people need to think about is their diet and where the food is coming from. For us on rule is we buy 95% plus ethical meat (this can be hard eating out or for the kids) free range is great but we aim for local, grass feed true free range living in a field type meat. We are lucky and we can afford to do this but we are also lucky we have access to local farmers who cut out the middle man and we can get the meat for about the same as we can buy at the supermarkets.

The other thing we are wary of is fads and the current Paleo diet fad is one I am wary off. We embrace parts of it. Reducing processed food and wheat flour from our diet is a no brainer. One of the problems as an old school Aussie country boy is that many of those eating a paleo diet don’t add a lot of the ‘bits’ in the diet. The average paleo did not live on back strap and steak so when I cook low carb there is a good amount of liver, heart, kidneys and brains in my food. All cheap cuts and the stuff I grew up on when we used to hunt and kill our own live stock.

I have included the addition of some rolled oats in this we tend to make a 50/50 mix as the kids like them in the mix and we try to keep the carbs down.

The recipe below is great and you will find it fills you up very quickly. The addition of the nutrient rich liver just seems to have that effect.

Meat Balls and Zoodles

Meatballs

• 1kg (2lb) of mixed veal/beef and pork
• 350 grams (¾ lb) of lamb liver chopped or minced fine.
• 1 onion finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 free range chicken egg
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• ½ teaspoon of dried coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 2 tablespoons of rolled oats.
• 1 tablespoon of passata

Mix it all together by hand

squeeze it into balls and fry in batches (I like to fry it in coconut oil but any oil will do). Squeeze it tight without bread crumbs to bind you will find they can fall apart.

While frying meat balls mix up the passata mix in a bowl.

• Bottle of passata (around 750ml minus a tablespoon)
• Cup of water
• Cup of white wine
• 1 table spoon of molasses
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• ½ teaspoon of dried coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Fresh or dried bay leaves (4-5)

Once the meat balls are fired off, add back into the pan or a casserole dish and pour over the sauce. Bring to the boil and once at a simmer put into the over with a lid on at 200 degree Celsius (400 Fahrenheit) for around 40 minutes till the sauce has thickened.

For the zoodles finely slice up some long green zucchini

and put in a bowl with some butter and water and microwave for 4 minutes till just soft (al dente) or pan fry in butter till al dente.

Put in a bowl and grate some Greek feta over the top and enjoy!

As I have said go for the best meat you can afford but at the end of the day we all can only do what we can do, so do what you can.