Meatballs, fake spaghetti and a delayed hangover

Today has been a good day diet-wise. We went to a 5 year olds birthday party at a soft play venue but we were well prepared with our prawn salad packed lunches and coped admirably whilst surrounded by people drinking coffee and eating chips and crisps. Dinner was a very lovely meatball meal that I'll share the recipe for shortly.

Tonight though, we both feel as though we've been hit by steam trains and are completely exhausted. My other half has been prowling around the kitchen craving something sweet and snacky (and finally settled for a banana - yey) and I'm feeling all grumpy again. So I'm guessing we're either just not up to wrangling three small children (we acquired an extra for the day) or we're experiencing our food hangover from yesterday. We shall see what happens next week when we indulge again, but for now, it's clean eating all the way again. Let's see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Dinner was a big success. Lovely italian style meatballs in a tomato and spinach sauce with fake spaghetti. I've no idea how I've managed to still feel grumpy after eating this. It certainly doesn't deserve it.

KSFL Meatballs with Fake Spaghetti

Serves 2
 
Ingredients

For the meatballs:

2 tbs olive or coconut oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
500g beef mince
1 tsp dried oregano
freshly ground pepper
1 egg, beaten

For the tomato and spinach sauce:

1 tin tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
4 mushrooms, finely chopped
two large handfulls fresh spinach, chopped
salt and pepper

For the fake spaghetti

1 courgette, half a butternut squash and two sticks of celery, cut into thin strands

Lightly fry the onion and garlic for the meatballs in 1 tbs of the oil until soft, let it cool slightly then put it in a mixing bowl with the minced beef, oregano, pepper and egg. Mix it up well with your hand and form into small balls. You'll probably get about 20. Pop them in the frying pan with the remaining oil over a high heat and turn them frequntly until they are browned all over and cooked through. Lay them in an oven-proof dish.

Into the same frying pan, throw the garlic, mushrooms, and spinach and fry for a few minutes till lightly coked then add the tin of tomatoes and stir. Once it's warmed through and well mixed, pour the sauce over the meatballs and place in the oven at 180c for 15-20 minutes.

Whilst it's cooking, place the fake spaghetti vegetables into a pan of warm water and boil for 10 minutes or so until the vegetables are soft. Drain and lay on plates, then pile the meatballs and sauce on top. We served ours with some green beans but you could use any side veg you fancied, or none at all. Enjoy!

Having now tried this I can tell you that the butternut squash doesn't make a particularly good fake spaghetti, though it is tasty. The courgette and celery stay more string-like and pull off the texture much better. When I do this again (which I will - it's lovely) I'll use more of those and omit the butternut - or maybe just roast it as a side dish. You of course can do as you wish!