Spaghetti & Meatballs!!!

One of the few meals that we can get the kids to eat a good portion of is spaghetti.  Now...they typically only eat the spaghetti noodles which have been barely touched by the sauce and the layered in Parmesan cheese - but if I make it for dinner at least I know they are going to bed with full bellies.  So - to be honest - the gluten free diet seemed like one additional roadblock to me.  However...there is gluten free spaghetti!  I have read that some people have a problem with their GF spaghetti or pasta turning to mush when they cook it...so I probably am not cooking mine long enough...but the spaghetti seems a little more "chewy" than the "regular" stuff...otherwise it tastes exactly the same.  Also - since I can't get my kids to eat spaghetti sauce...making a meat sauce would not do me any good if my plan is to get some protein in their little bodies as well.  So - my husband suggested making meatballs.  Great idea!  However...every meatball recipe I've ever made used bread crumbs.  Uh oh...  I haven't made enough GF bread to have crumbs left over...so the meatballs worried me a bit.  So...I went online and searched for recipes - and this is what I found.  Here is the recipe as it is written on the website I found it on (here).

Baked Gluten Free Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

1/3 cup instant potato flakes (or GF dry bread crumbs)

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp GF soy sauce

1 Tbsp parsley

3/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1 egg

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Combine well using your mixer with the paddle attachment, your hands or a large fork. Gently form balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Place them in a greased baking dish.  Bake at 400 degrees about 15 minutes.  Cut one of the meatballs to check for doneness.

Here is what I did...  I actually used 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef (and increased my ingredients accordingly - except I didn't add any more than the one egg).  Also - I used the GF dry bread crumbs (I found a little container of them at Publix), although I wish I would have used the potato flakes - I'd love to know how those work out.  AND...I didn't have GF soy sauce - so I used GF Worcestershire sauce.  I was able to make 30 meatballs total with those ingredients...and they were fantastic!!!  Carson wouldn't eat them (no real surprise) but Kendall loved them!  We even had a bunch left that Jeff is planning on making a meatball sub with this weekend (using GF hot dog buns).

Ciao!!!