Lean, Mean, Bean-Ball Machine
Insert ball joke here ______________________.
Tonight, we had delicious balls (altogether now: THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!).
Okay. I promise, I got that out of my system.
But seriously, these balls were delish:
But, backing up…
Thank you for all of your comments on my “dilemma” from earlier today! It sounds like you all agree that I made the right choice in forgoing the challenge for the morning and indulging in some non-vegan fare. I’m so grateful for the support that I get from y’all every single day on this blog!
When we returned home from Lee and Steve’s, Ryan and I pored over some cookbooks and picked out some great new recipes for this week’s dinners. I’m excited about some of the dishes we’ll be whipping up!
Before we headed to the grocery store though, we took a little detour…to the Antiques Depot! The Antiques Depot is a GIANT antique mall/flea market in a small town about 20 minutes away. It was POURING down rain today, so we figured, what better way to spend the afternoon than browsing booth after booth of flea market finds?
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I have a massive addiction to vintage juice glasses. They rarely make an appearance on the blog because, well, I drink my juice in the morning! Today at the antique mall, I picked up SEVEN more! They’re in the dishwasher right now, but I’ll take a pic of my collection tomorrow to share with y’all!
I also got this cool vintage recipe box:
Isn’t it cute?! It also came with the recipe cards:
Good thing I have a place to put all my cocktail recipes now! 
After making my gratuitous completely necessary purchases at the Antique Depot, we headed to the grocery store to stock up for the week.
Around 6:30, we headed down to the kitchen to get started on our dinner: Fettuccini and Bean Balls!
This bean ball recipe was courtesy of Veganomicon, a cookbook that never disappoints!
I can’t share the recipe on the blog, but I’ll tell you the main components: kidney beans, steak sauce, tomato paste, soy sauce, bread crumbs, wheat gluten, and spices. That’s about the gist of it!
Once you get all the ingredients together, you have to get down and dirty:
Be sure to take your rings off!
Once the ingredients are mixed, you simply form the balls and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes!
We served our bean balls with Ezekial fettuccini:
Mmmm…I love sprouted grain pasta! It’s so chewy and dense (in a good way).
Ready for the oven:
Sunday Supper:
Yum, yum! These bean balls are a great example of a vegetarian dish that taste nothing like the meat-based original (meatballs, duh), but are delicious in their own right. This recipe would also work well as a bean burger or even a falafel substitute.
Dinner was followed with something a little crazy:
I got this Vosges chocolate bar while we were in Seattle over Christmas at Central Market. Don’t worry, I checked—it was vegan!
This chocolate bar wasn’t as wild as it sounds. The ginger flavor was very present, but the others, not so much. Really, it just tasted like gingery dark chocolate!
Now we’re settled onto the couch watching the Golden Globes pre-show. Tina Fey, I love you, but what are you wearing?!?
Well, I guess that’s it for this Sunday. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
ps- Check out this huge stack of books that Lee gave me today at brunch! They’re moving, so she weeded out some of the books that she didn’t want to have to haul to their new place. I guess that’s one of the perks of being friends with other creative writers (both Lee and Steve teach English courses at Penn State Altoona, just like Ryan and me)! Can’t wait to dig into this:
Goodnight, friends!
What a great looking dinner! I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to antique shops! I’m pretty much obsessed with all things vintage. You should put the juice glasses on the blog! I’d love to see them
The bean balls look good. And I like that little recipe holder box, so cute.
Very jealous of your vintage recipe box, Anna. So cool!!
girl you are WAY TOO CRAZY! balls and that funky chocolate?!?! out of control!!
hahaha that meal looks AMAZING!!
Ooo! I would love receiving a huge stack of books like that! I think you might be getting one more…
Woo hoo! I saw that this morning on your blog! Can’t wait to read it!
wow..can I come over to your place for dinner!? The table is set SO nice…and your dinner looks scrumptious! I love the vintage recipe card box and that pile of books looooks soooo inviting
:D Sounds like you had a great day!
Yum! I love balls! You know what I mean…
You are amazing.. all your eats look delish!! I had no idea Ezekiel had pasta.. ahhh. MUST get some! Im obsessed with their tortillas and bread!
I’m intruiged by that chocolate. Could you taste the wasabi at all? I do love me some wasabit, but I’m never thought about eating it in chocolate!
Honestly, I couldn’t really taste it. The bar had a *little* bit of a kick to it, but that was about it. It was still a really good chocolate bar, though
Haha, everytime I write “balls” I always think of TWSS.
I seriously need to go and get Veganomicon.
That recipe box is so adorable! I love vintage things.
Ooo, you definitely hit the book jackpot! You have such beautiful place settings all the time – inspiring me to set up a nice looking table every once in a while
That chocolate sounds amazing!
Dinner looks tasty. I love that you take the time to set the table. My husband I should really do that more often. We did on Friday for pizza night. It makes the meal seem so much more special.
Trust me, we don’t do it every night
You always have such a great dinner presentation! I need to take a lesson!!