Whole30 Pesto Meatballs

We’re just over half finished with our pork loin and veggies waiting for us at home.

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Below you’ll find a recipe for Whole30-compliant pesto meatballs, as well as the deets on what I ate last week. Hopefully it will be helpful to those of you who are considering doing a Whole30, or who have already taken the plunge! I feel pretty tired and my husband hasn’t noticed any changes, but based on the more of mine, as well as The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health, which includes over 100 Whole30-compliant recipes!

Alright, here are days 9-15 of my Whole30:

Day #9:
Breakfast: Peach chia pudding with pecans and a hard-boiled egg
Lunch: Leftover roasted chicken, veggies, and green beans
Dinner: Collards with andouille sausage (Whole Foods has quite a few choices for Whole30-friendly sausage!)
Snacks: Apple

Day #10:
Breakfast: Peach-apple chia pudding
Lunch: Leftover collards/sausage and leftover carrot-ginger soup
Dinner: Pesto meatballs (recipe below!) with slowcooker marinara sauce and spinach
Snack: Hard-boiled egg with stone-ground Dijon mustard

Day #11:
Breakfast: Peach-apple chia pudding and a hard-boiled egg
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and homemade balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner: Leftover pesto meatballs, marinara, and spinach

Day #12:
Breakfast: Peach-apple chia pudding
Lunch: Hard-boiled egg, leftover pesto meatballs, marinara, and spinach
Dinner: Cajun roasted pork loin (sub olive oil for butter and skip the flour) with roasted veggies/apples and sauteed turnip greens

Day #13:
Breakfast: A peach and scrambled eggs with chicken, spinach, and Herdez salsa verde
Lunch: Leftover pork and veggies
Snacks at the party: Vegan potato salad, grapes
Late dinner: Leftover pork and veggies

Day #14:
Brunch: Sausage, onion, and pepper frittata (although I couldn’t get it out of the pan, so it turned into a scrambled egg pile)
Lunch: Hard-boiled egg, salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and pistachios
Late dinner: Sauteed spinach with onions and leftover breakfast sausage, Polska kielbasa (another Whole Foods find!) with balsamic roasted veggies
Snacks: Celery with almond butter, cucumbers

Day #15:
Breakfast: Blueberries and mango, hard-boiled egg
Lunch: Leftover sausage/veggies
Dinner: Buffalo chicken leg quarters, steamed green beans, and grapes

And now on to the pesto meatballs recipe! When looking for pesto recipes to make with the overflowing basil plant in my balcony herb garden, I stumbled upon this yummy-sounding pesto meatball recipe on the Savory Lotus. As usual, I made a few changes based on my tastes and what I had on hand. The result was a huge batch (30 + one weird hamburger that got squished by my panini maker) of delectable, basil-y little meatballs that taste great on their own, or with some homemade marinara sauce.

Ingredients:
2.5 pounds of ground meat (I used ground beef and turkey)
3 eggs, beaten
3 cloves of garlic, minced
juice of one lemon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
3 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
4-5 cups of fresh basil leaves

Put 4-5 cups of tightly packed fresh basil leaves into your food processor (I love my Cuisinart Pro Classic food processor!) and pulse a couple times to break up the leaves.

Add in the minced garlic, lemon juice, salt/pepper, and coconut oil. Process until smooth.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl (I received this Pyrex set with lids at my wedding shower), whisk together three eggs. Add in your ground meat (I used a combination of ground beef and ground turkey), and use your hands to smoosh it all together. Pour in the pesto mixture from your food processor and smoosh some more, making sure to completely combine the ground meat and pesto.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Begin rolling the meat/pesto mixture into balls (mine were ~2 inches in diameter) and space evenly on the baking sheet. I fit 15 meatballs on each sheet. If you plan to use these meatballs for appetizers at a party, make them about 1 inch in diameter and be sure to adjust your cooking time.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until fully cooked and just beginning to brown.

Let cool, serve, and enjoy!

Since I’m doing Whole30, I served these bad boys over spinach and covered them with homemade, no-sugar added slowcooker marinara sauce. It was super delicious! The recipe makes a lot of meatballs (30 big ones), but it reheated well for leftovers throughout the week.

 
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