There’s something about a rainy day that triggers a desire to make comforting, warming food. Whether it’s soups and broths, casseroles or something pasta based, a mixture of slow cooked meats and carbohydrate rich vegetables usually feature.
When we think about comfort food, we often don’t think about it as being suitable when trying to lose weight. Comfort food is usually synonymous with high calories, lots of sugar or salt and processed or simple carbohydrates like white bread and pasta or gooey pastries and cakes.
At Lose Baby Weight we are all about a balanced, healthy diet, that doesn’t restrict or remove food groups. We’ve found that this is the best way to ensure gradual and sustained weight loss. This means that ‘comfort foods’ don’t have to be off the menu, they just need to be tweaked slightly to create something nutritious and delicious! And you can see more comfort food recipes in our Comfort Eating Weight Loss Plan here
One of the best ways to turn your favourite comfort food into a healthy, weight loss friendly meal, is to try and make it from scratch, at home, using lean, fresh ingredients. By doing this, you control exactly what you put into the meal, and, more importantly, what you leave out. Making your own favourite meal also allows you to add things like extra veggies, plant based sources of protein or herbs and spices that promote good health and weight loss.
If you’re concerned about getting your five a day (and getting any form of greenery into your little ones), adding extra veggies to your recipes is a great way to bump up their nutritional value. Dishes like pasta, casserole and the meatballs featured here today all lend themselves to having extra grated or diced veggies added. In some recipes, you can even halve the meat content and replace it with things like lentils or legumes or chopped and diced veggies.
These delicious, family friendly meatballs, combine lean minced lamb with grated carrot and zucchini, shallots and garlic, while the flavour comes from spices like cumin and black pepper. Using a strong tasting cheese is also a great way to cut down on calories, without losing any of the taste. A really creamy fetta cheese is generally so rich and flavoursome that you only need to use a small amount to get the required taste. Cheese like blue or a strong vintage cheddar have a similar effect.
The sauce for the meatballs is made using antioxidant rich tomato passata, chopped onion and garlic for flavour. You can add other veggies to the mix if you choose and serve this meal with wholemeal spaghetti or pasta or even something like cous cous or rice.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
For the meatball sauce
- 700g bottle of tomato passata
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp salt reduced tomato paste
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500g lean minced lamb
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 spring onion, diced
- 1/4 cup wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 100g fetta cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 1/2 cup grated zucchini
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tbsp fat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
Directions
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat.
- When warm, add garlic and onion to the pan and saute gently.
- When onion has started to turn transparent, add the passata, paste and cinnamon stick.
- Stir well then bring to the boil.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes while you make the meatballs.
- Place all meatballs ingredients into a large bowl.
- Using clean hands, mix everything till well combined.
Roll into balls (makes about 20 medium sized and 40 smaller balls)- Heat remaining olive oil in a frypan over medium heat.
- Add meatballs and gently fry until golden.
- Remove cinnamon stick from the sauce and serve meatballs, sprinkled with parsley, with tomato sauce and your choice of side dish.
Roll into balls (makes about 20 medium sized and 40 smaller balls)See our shop here
