Off the journal wagon, but... RECIPES!

Hi. Apparently my resolve to food-journal ends when my head fills with snot and I have no choice but to surround myself with drifts of wet kleenex, moan, and eat nothing but tea and various international noodle-bearing soups to make myself well again.  So there'll be no more of the (boring) lists of my ingestions, sorry.

BUT!  I made some foods that you might like to replicate, because they were yummy (and lovely and whole and paleo-ey), so here you go -

Last night I had a hankering for meat in minced/browned form.  Nothing else would do.  So, meatballs and sauce and veg. it was. 

Forget about weird marinara in a jar... it always gives me and husbeast a stomach ache for whatever reason.  I still use canned tomatoes, but I swear a below-average monkey could make the best tomato sauce ever (that doesn't send you off to the loo 20 times the next day).  And really, what else are you doing while you're making the meatballs?  Multitasking, people!

Best, Simplest Tomato Sauce (makes about 1.5 cups?) (from Smitten Kitchen)

1 big (28 oz.) can of whole peeled tomatoes (I like the San Marzano kind, I think I'm influenced by the pretty can label, though)
5 T butter (pastured if you can swing it) (I guess ghee to sub if you're strict paleo)
1 big onion, peeled/trimmed and hacked in half, leave the root end intact, since you'll be straining it out at the end

Dump everything into an adequately sized saucepan or dutch oven, turn on the heat and bring to a simmer, and let it do its thing for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon as they cook.  I also like to blend the tomatoes about halfway-to-pureed at the end of cooking with my immersion blender, but this is totally not necessary. Season to your liking with salt and pepper.

(N.B. if you're not up for making the meatballs, it is super easy to make this into a meal just by adding a whack of sauteed mushrooms and browned meat, and whatever other vegetables or herbs you feel like doing, at the end.  I've even poached eggs in it to great success.)

Meatballs-Without-Bready-Stuff  (makes... a lot of meatballs, at least to serve 4 generously) I apologize for my wishy-washy amounts of ingredients here... I tend to just add things until it "looks right".  I think it is totally necessary to learn to trust your instincts when cooking, so freeball it a little bit.  If you go overboard or under.. board(?) with something you'll learn for the next time.  (do not attempt for baking)

1 lb. each of ground grass-fed beef and pork
1-2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 C almond flour
1/4 C fresh grated Parmesan cheese (omit if going strict paleo, but face it, this hard cheese is basically pure fat, so why not?)
A big pinch of fines herbes and oregano, or Italian herb blend, whatever you like
A big pinch of onion powder
4 cloves of minced garlic
salt and fresh ground pepper

Meatballs ready to brown... a big piece of waxed paper makes a good staging area

Squish everything up in a bowl until it's uniformly blended, then form into meatballs (obviously).  Heat the fat of your choice (I used duck) in a large, flat-ish skillet, and brown on all sides.  Set aside.

Multitask!  Do your sauce and meatballs at the same time!

Then, when your tomato sauce is done, stick the meatballs in the sauce, cover, and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes.  I also sauteed some sliced mushrooms and added those to the sauce, for kicks.

Serve this over spaghetti-ized spaghetti squash, noodle-sliced zucchini, or do like I did and nuke some broccoli, if you're lazy.