Melt In Your Mouth (Lean) Meatballs

Ready in: 40 mins

Serves: 6 (makes roughly 18-19 2 inch meatballs)

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs

• 300g lean minced beef

• 300g lean mined pork (I like to combine both types of meat but you can use one or the other)

• 2 eggs lightly beaten

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp crushed garlic

• ½ cup finely chopped parsley

• 1 tsp ground paprika

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• ½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Meatball Sauce

• 2 x 400g cans of diced Italian tomatoes

• 1-2 clove of crushed garlic

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 3 tbsp finely chopped basil

• 1 tbsp dried oregano

• salt pepper to taste

• olive oil

• 1 tbsp chilli flakes (optional)

Zoodles

• 3 medium sized zucchinis spiralized

Method

Make the Meat Balls

Step 1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Spray a large baking tray with olive oil

Step 2. Mix together the meat, panko bread crumbs, eggs, paprika, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, chilli flakes (optional) and olive oil, in a large mixing bowl. Mix gently until combined. Do not overwork

Step 3. Form into 2.5cm balls and place on prepared baking tray

Step 4. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until meatballs are browned and cooked through.

Make the Sauce

Step 5. While the meatballs are baking, in a medium saucepan heat the olive oil, add the garlic and sauté for 5 minutes or until golden

Step 6. Add the remaining ingredients including tomatoes, basil, oregano, chilli flakes (optional), bring to a simmer and then lower the heat to keep at a simmer for 10 minutes. If the sauce is splattering, partially cover and adjust heat to maintain a simmer

Step 7. Remove meatballs from the oven once cooked and place in the pot with the sauce. Cook for another 7-10 mins on low heat

Step 9. Combine raw spiralized zucchini, sauce and meatballs and enjoy!

Notes:

• The salts in the sauce will make the zoodles leave water so best to store them separately ( I learnt the hard way)

• You can easily swap the zoodles for spaghetti if you like because these taste great both ways

Use hashtags #LLMealPrep, #LadyLolas and tag @lady.lolas when you try one of my recipes or share an image of your meal prep on social media, so that I can feature you on my Instagram story

Subscribe to Lady Lolas to receive updates when my new blogs and recipes are uploaded