Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Best Meatballs Ever.

I like my meatballs to be full of flavors not just blah balls of meat.  And I like big flavors.  So, I made sure to add some big flavors to these.  I must say they taste pretty darn good.  Hubby agreed and ventured to say these were by far the best ones I’ve made yet.  That’s all I needed to know to label them Best Meatballs Ever!  He’s a very honest food critic and I value his opinion as my number one taste-tester!  I originally called these “Greekish 50/50 Meatballs” due to the fact that they have some Greek flavors with the addition of the green olives, and I used 50% grass-fed beef and 50% pastured raised ground pork.  I had on hand some Double Stuffed Green Olives (with jalapeños and garlic cloves) made locally in Corning, CA, known as the “Olive City,” at the Olive Pit.  You can definitely use any olives you have on hand.  In fact, that’s generally how I come up with many of my recipes.  I look in the pantry and refrigerator and pull out things I think will pair well together and go from there.  I highly recommend the “free style” cooking method in the kitchen!

This recipe also highlights the amazing protein from 5280meat!  I know I already mentioned this before, but I buy all my grass fed beef and pasture raised pork products from them.  Their customer service is amazing and I know these animals are raised humanely and Rachel and Ty give them a great life while here on the earth.  Plus they aren’t pumped full of antibiotics or hormones, so that is huge to me and has definitely made a difference in helping me heal my Hashimoto’s thyroid condition.

I am currently doing a Whole30, and I never eat regular pasta anymore since the gluten doesn’t like me, so I came up with something new.  The cabboodle.  I have try zoodles many times and they are ok.  But you have to have a zoodler, or a fancy peeler, or a some cool kitchen gadget that I probably don’t have.  I love shredded brussels sprouts and cabbage is pretty much just humungous brussels, so that works for me.  My brother actually made my meatball recipe the other night and told me he added shredded cabbage to the cast iron skillet after cooking the meatballs and he loved it.  So, cabboodles it is!  Oh, and I did declare on my Instagram the other day that according to me, zoodles are so 2014, and cabboodles are now in!  Everyone can thank me later, so go to the store and grab some cabbage!  You’ll only need a knife and a cutting board to slice them up and throw them in your skillet with some ghee.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Best Meatballs Ever

Recipe Type

:

Dinner

Author:

Natasha Gildea

Prep time:

10 mins

Cook time:

30 mins

Total time:

40 mins

Serves:

14 med meatballs

Ingredients

• •1 lb grassfed ground beef 85/15
• •1 lb pastured ground pork
• •1 egg
• •1 handful flat leaf parsley, minced
• •1 c green olives, stuffed w/ garlic and jalapeño, minced
• •2T FlavorGod garlic lovers seasoning
• •1T lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400*F.
2. Gently mix all together and form into meatballs (I made 14 med-large)
3. Bake on lined sheet tray at 400* for 25-30 minutes. Or until no longer pink inside. Can broil for a few min to finish off and give nice color!)
4. Serve with pasta, zoodles, or my new favorite thing, ‘cabboodles’ which is shredded cabbage and your favorite clean marinara sauce!

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