Meatballs for the Meatball

I’ve always said that one of the reasons why eating vegetarian for a few years was so easy for me is because I’ve never been that crazy about meat.  Other than when I was pregnant (when I was SERIOUSLY craving steaks…and hamburgers…and turkey sandwiches…and lemonade), meat has always been something that I’ve had a kind of “meh, take it or leave it” attitude about.  Going without meat for a meal, or a week, or a month, is just fine with me.

So imagine my surprise that someone:

…has turned out to be quite the meat-lover.  A few nights ago, she gobbled up chicken.  Then at lunch yesterday, she couldn’t get enough of the turkey off my sandwich.  And tonight, I gave a new recipe a try—quinoa turkey meatballs—and she basically went crazy for these little suckers.

Vegetarian she ain’t.

That’s okay.  As long as she’s happy.   

Sidenote: today, during a class discussion about food, family, and culture, I asked my students if there was any sort of diet they could follow or food they could eat that would upset their family (ie, going vegetarian with a family full of hunters, etc.).  To which one of my students replied, “Human meat.”

Fair enough.

As long as Lila sticks with turkey, I guess we’re doing alright.

Our definitely non-human meatballs were based loosely on this recipe that I found online.  For ours, I combined:

1.25 pounds 95%lean turkey

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

2 tbsp. paprika

1 tsp. basil

3 tbsp. nutritional yeast

Mixed it all in a big bowl, then rolled it out into balls (it made a dozen, because we made them pretty large), and baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Ryan and I enjoyed ours with sweet potato fries and broccoli:

Lila enjoyed some broccoli too…so at least she isn’t eating ONLY meat (right now, ha):

It was raining ALL day today, but yesterday we snapped these shots of Lila staring out the window in the sun:

Can you tell we like polka dots around here?

One day without sunshine and I’m ready to stay in bed all day.  Here’s hoping tomorrow is sunnier!

Ryan and I have started watching Homeland and OHMYGODITISGOOD.  We’re off to watch an episode now….which will inevitably turn into three.
G’night!