Leftovers, but not Turkey... Meatballs and Fauxghetti!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin Dale's, so there were no turkey leftovers today.  :(  But there's leftover Chicken Cacciatore from Wednesday night!  There wasn't enough for five people, so I added a little more of that organic strained tomato (you know the brand I'm talking about, the one without added salt, and if you don't know, LOOK IT UP!  It's under "Ten Condiments," you lazy bastards), organic tomato paste (also, no salt), some more garlic, some more celery (for the natural salt content), some more fresh basil, and I made MEATBALLS to go with it all!

Meatballs and fauxghetti, just like my imaginary Italian grandmother used to make.  As a general rule, use two zucchini squash for every person.  Or even more, 'cause you're gonna wanna have leftovers!  This time I took some of the heated sauce and poured some on the fauxghetti in a separate pot and let that simmer some.  It cooked a little and reduced down in size, but it was softer than the crunchy raw version from the other night, yet still al dente.  It also twirled better on the fork!  The raw works best in the ramen, because it sits in the broth and softens, but with fauxghetti, there's not enough sauce to soften it.  Makes sense?  If not, forgive me, I'm still in a food coma from Thanksgiving.  Speaking of which, I'm very proud of the way I'm caveman'ing it one night, and then pigging out the next, it's really keeping me in check.  And even when I'm pigging out, I'm grazing very lightly during the day, so I can feast at night without feeling full and gross.  When I first planned my NY trip I imagined every day would be bagels for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and a massive NY dinner like Chinese food.  But I've been good, and I no longer dread falling off the paleo wagon while in New York.

Okay, back to the meatballs.  They came out GREAT!!!!!  OUTRAGEOUS EVEN!!!!!!  I took a pound of grass fed beef (the 15% fat stuff from Trader Joe's) and added about a cup of leftover walnut flour that I ground for bread the other day (all ingredients, all organic, all the time).  Then I added about one clove of minced garlic, some basil, some oregano, black pepper, and some parsley.  One egg to bind it all together and mixed it with a chef's best kitchen tools, my hands.  Once mixed, I heated up some olive oil in a BIG ASS pan (you can use a pot too).  I rolled the meat mixture into hearty sized meatballs, but not too big (you can make them as big as you want).  By the way, a little water on your hands helps you roll the meat easily into nice sized balls without them sticking to your hands (look at me, I'm giving tips now, look how far I've come in a year.  "Relax Jerk-wad, you rolled a friggin' meatball, what do you want the Congressional Medal of Honor?").  Into the pan the meatballs went, and I browned them, rolling gently so I got them brown on all sides.  Then I added the extra garlic (I put this in first, so they'd release some flavor when they hit the hot oil), and then the extra tomato paste, strained tomatoes, basil, celery, and the leftover chicken cacciatore.  Stirred it all up GENTLY (don't you dare break apart those meatballs after all the work I just put in, you ungrateful bastards), and let it simmer for about 40 minutes.

In the meantime, I made the fauxghetti, simmered it like I said (I hope you were paying attention, because I'm too tired to repeat myself), and when it was ready, we ate!  Look:

I don't know about you, but that shit looks good to me.  And it was beyond delicious!  Any sauce always tastes better the next day anyway, but the added meatballs put it OVER THE TOP!  Everyone ate it, and LOVED IT!  And check out that fauxghetti!  You'd never know it was zucchini if I didn't tell you.  I can't wait to make these meatballs again when I get back to California, when I'll add those Italian sausages to it too (look.  it.  up.).  I would have made them this time, but the Whole Foods here didn't have any organic pork (in fact, they didn't have much of any organic meat, including poultry).  The Whole Foods in heath conscious Cali have a much better selection of meats than in New Jersey, where health seems to be an afterthought.

Anyway, speaking of repeating myself (I said that somewhere in this blog), for my tumblr readers, I created a page that displays my very first blog entitled, "Entering the Cave," which can be found under MY PAGES.  I'm getting more and more new readers every day (thanks everyone!), so this is a good way for people to understand why I'm on this nutty journey, and a basic understanding of what paleo is all about.  I also encourage you all to read the archives, because you missed a lot of good food talk, and general complaining (two of my favorite past times).  I promise it'll make your mouth water so much you won't even be able to say, "Ugga-Bugga!