Two of my favorite people in the whole world are my sisters-in-law, Jenn and Cindy. I can’t say enough good things about these women—not only are they fun to be around, but they are strong women who share similar values on health and fitness. Cindy is an avid biker and a triathlete. Jenn is a talented, dedicated runner and fitness junkie. They both are mindful of what they feed their families—choosing organic where they can and limiting the processed junk. They also aren’t local, so getting to spend quality time with them is difficult and unfortunately limited to once or twice a year.
Jenn has three amazing kids—ages 10, 8, and 5. They are all active on the soccer field year round and also involved in swim, tae kwon do, drama, Boy Scouts, among other activities. Needless to say, keeping track of their busy schedule is a fulltime job for Jenn. However, if anyone can make a busy schedule work, it’s Jenn—the ultimate of Type-A personalities (and I mean that as the sincerest of compliments—I wish I were as together as she is). Jenn is the queen of plan-ahead meals. She has a second refrigerator, in addition to a chest freezer in the basement. She shops in bulk at the big box warehouse establishments and also at the local country store in Ohioan Amish Country. She has an inventory of every item that she has in her pantry and freezer and plans her menus for the MONTH (compared to my weekly menus, a monthly menu is amazing to me). She heads up a group called Freezer Friends, a group of friends who will make a bulk meal and divide it into freezer portions to exchange among all the other families in the group. Jenn can pull out almost any meal from her freezer in case of an emergency and know that her family is well fed and won’t resort to prepackaged garbage or fast food.
On our last trip to Ohio, the entire family was present for my goddaughter’s First Communion. Jenn had a brood and a half to plan for, with the added challenge of finding meals that worked with multiple dietary restrictions. Thanks to Jenn’s organization, she was able to quickly find two meals that were in her freezer that everyone could enjoy, and with just a quick email to the family we all knew what we were eating and what the ingredients were in the already prepared meal. When we all arrived, it was great to know that the only item that needed to be prepped for was a fresh salad, as everything else just came right from the freezer.
One of the meals that we had was Lion’s Head Meatballs. They were delicious. Lion’s Head Meatballs, are a traditional dish served in eastern China around the Chinese New Year. They are typically extremely tender, large pork meatballs, cooked with vegetables and served on cabbage. They are named Lion’s Head due to the fact that they resemble the head of a lion with the cabbage acting as the lion’s mane. Jenn has served them to us on past trips and we always leave Ohio saying that we needed to make them when we got back to Rhode Island but never followed through. This time however, I made it a point that I would adjust the recipe to be Paleo friendly (which didn’t require much work as it was already filled with healthy ingredients). Thanks to our weekly schedule being busier than usual thanks to marathon training for both me and The Hubs hitting its peak weeks, we needed a meal that was quick and easy to prepare in advance—enter the Lions Head Meatball—”Paleo” Style!
We didn’t need much in the way of ingredients—just our veggies so that helped tremendously. We used a combination of pasture raised ground pork and ground beef that we had from our CSA share from Pat’s Pastured. I adjusted the flour to utilize coconut flour; the oil became coconut oil. For a side dish, instead of making a cabbage slaw, I whipped up a version of my broccoli slaw (I used almonds instead of walnuts this time and opted not to use the dried fruit). I made a double batch which amounted to about 30-meatballs. Just as with my sister-in-law, Jenn’s version, this would be a great meal to make ahead of time in bulk for those emergency situations. Thanks to the utilization of a broccoli slaw as a side dish (insert your favorite salad here), there is minimal prep and minimal clean up required.
Thanks to my sister-in-law Jenn (she can be found over at Jenn’s Homework) for the inspiration—so grateful to have you in my life!
Paleo-esque Lion’s Head Meatballs
Ingredients (below recipe makes about (30) 1-1.5” dia. Meatballs):
- 1-lb (pasture raised) ground pork
- 1-lb (pasture raised) ground beef
- 4-chopped scallions
- 2-large carrots, grated
- 1-large minced leek (I only use the tender white and light green portion)
- 4-Tbspn arrowroot powder
- 2-Tbspn coconut flour
- 2-Tbspn coconut oil
- 2” “thumb” fresh ginger, minced divided into 2 portions
- 1-clove garlic, minced
- 2-small jalapeño peppers, minced (seed them if you don’t want the heat)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2-cans coconut milk*
- 4-Tbspn coconut aminos
- 3-Tbspn curry powder
- 3-tspn corriander
*I know the use of canned coconut milk is one of those controversial things in Paleo cooking as most canned versions contain guar gum, which is not Paleo. Hence my term “Paleo-esque” since it seems it gets given a “pass” on the approved lists by a great deal of people.
Preparation
Prepare scallions, leek, carrots, garlic, ginger and set aside. In a large bowl combine the beef and pork until the mixture is well incorporated. Add oil, arrowroot powder and coconut flour to meat mixture and incorporate well. Add veggies, reserving half the minced ginger for the sauce.
Portion the meat mixture into roughly 30-equal portions. I find that they hold together better by patting them into a sausage-like patty and then rolling into a ball. Set them aside on a cookie sheet to set while you prepare the sauce.
In a sauce pan, add the 2-cans of coconut milk, remaining ginger, minced jalapeño, coconut aminos (you can use reduced sodium soy sauce here if you prefer), coriander, and curry powder. Note: you can reduce the curry powder down to 2-Tbspn if you aren’t a big fan of the flavor. Bring to a simmer.
While sauce is beginning to simmer, heat a skillet (I use cast iron) for your meat balls. With coconut oil in the heated skillet, gently place meatballs in small batches and brown on all sides. Remove from pan as they develop a nice crust. Set aside on cookie sheet until all meatballs are browned. Add meatballs into the sauce cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. The meatballs are NOT like Italian meatballs, which tend to be dense. These meatballs yield a light, fluffy texture that break apart easily.
To freeze, I plan on separating the sauce from the meatballs and freeze the meatballs on a cookie sheet so that they do not freeze into a giant mass. They can then be transferred into a zipper bag for the freezer. The sauce can be frozen in its own zipper bag laid flat to save space in your freezer.
