Yesterday, I spent a lot of time telling you how to shop for, prep and store a week’s worth of meals in a day. Today, I’m going to start telling you how to cook what I’m digging into this week. Starting with my new favorite lunch – Greek meatballs. As you know, I have a major soft spot for anything Greek. After a summer spent bumming around on the beaches of Santorini, watching the world’s best sunsets, and celebrating all things American during the World Cup in 2010, I fell deeply in love with everything to do with Greece. Sometimes, I become so homesick for that summer that the only thing to do (aside from booking a one-way ticket back) is to cook up some quality Greek bites.
Now that it’s the dead of winter, I can’t whip together an authentic Greek salad, so savory dishes like these are the ones that take me home. These meatballs are money – they took less than five minutes of hands-on time to prep and were done in under 30 minutes (even less if you like your meat cooked a little bit under temperature). I yielded 18 meatballs out of two pounds of meat – enough for 6 meals (or even more snacks!). I’ve included a couple of optional ingredients, for those of you who aren’t sensitive to dairy, or that are fortunate to be prepping these in warmer times.
Greek Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground lamb
1 large egg
Zest from 1 lemon
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. granulated garlic
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Optional: 1 Tbsp. fresh mint, minced; 1/4 c. feta cheese;
Village Greek Salad
Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a bowl, use your hand to mix together all ingredients. Use an ice cream scooper to shape meatballs and place them into a baking dish (it’s okay if they touch while cooking).
3) Bake until cooked to your liking, approximately 25-30 minutes depending on size of your meatballs. Remove from the oven and cool until you are ready to eat them.
4) Serve on a Greek Salad bed, with spaghetti squash that has been spiced with dried or fresh oregano and mint, and salt and pepper, or with eggs at breakfast.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves: About 5-6 people