I think I mentioned it that when I got this book from Bobby that I immediately flagged about twenty recipes right off the bat that I wanted to make.  While this is a keto diet, it’s real food, and I adapted his Nonna’s meatballs to make them a bit more WW friendly, but these balls have so much flavor, you will want these in your mouth asap!

I started my marinara sauce out with two pound of farmers market tomatoes and a pound of baby bella mushrooms.

I also had about 5 ounces of hot Italian sausage and I cooked that with the sauce for an extra kick of flavor.  Without the sausage, this is a zero point sauce.  Some WW folks will tell me that tomatoes have sugar, so I need to count points for that.  To that I say “thanks, but no.”  None of us got to WW by eating too much tomato sauce – it was the pound of pasta and half a pound of cheese we put with the tomato sauce.

I also used meatlaof mix.  It’s a combination of beef, pork and veal.  I lowered the amount to 1.25 pounds vs. Bobby’s 1.5 pounds of meat.  To keep this keto, Bobby made a panade out of almond flour and heavy cream.  I subbed in unsweetened almond milk because I had that on hand.

A panade is usually made with stale bread, or bread crumbs.  It helps keep beef dishes moist.  I always add the umami mushroom blend from Trader Joe’s when I make meatballs – to me it just makes them taste more – beefy?

I also added a heaping tablespoon of Dak’s steakhouse seasoning.  The mustard seeds are a must!  My discount code is still good – 10% off by using the code Bizzy10 at checkout.  All of their seasonings are salt free, although I do add a touch of salt to my dishes.

Once rolled put them in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  You could even do this step the night before and cook them for a quick weeknight dinner.  

I weighed out the meat mixture, and it was 26 ounces so I got 13 meatballs at 2 ounces each.  I put my recipe in the recipe builder, and each one is 2.5 points, or 5 points for 2.  And two balls in your mouth is plenty. 😀

I browned them in two batches in my cast iron skillet in a teaspoon of grape seed oil, then finished them off to simmer in the marinara sauce for 30 minutes.

How glorious does that bowl look.   Rich marinara with super tender meatballs.  I literally could make a meal out of that bowl with some crusty bread to soak up all that goodness.

Yesterday for lunch I made a lasagna soup out of it.  I took one cup of the marinara sauce, added one cup of chicken broth, and added one meatball, and 1/2 cup of cooked pasta and some torn baby spinach.  Not a pretty picture but this was so tasty.  I broke up the meatball in the soup.  So good!

I served it with some angel hair pasta with sauteed zucchini.

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If you don’t follow Bobby, you need to.  He is such a nice person (I’ve met him in real life!) and has so much knowledge about food.

His blog can be found here.

His YouTube Channel can be found here.

I hope to cook in his FlavCity kitchen one day – what do you say Bobby?!

Happy Yoga Pant Wednesday – make it a great day!