Hello! Happy Sunday night. Sunday nights are becoming too good around here. Well, really, all of Sundays are, but the nights really do put that bow on the weekend so nicely.

Since I’ve not had a lot of remarkable things to blog about recently, I decided to share a recipe I recently made up and have made twice now. It’s a pretty straightforward and simple recipe that does not HAVE to be paleo. In fact, the reason I made this the first time anyway was because I had this old forgotten about half-bag of egg noodles way back in the pantry. I felt bad that they had not yet fulfilled their destiny, so I decided to try something with them and it came out so great, I wanted to re-create it with zucchini noodles to give it that paleo flare. This recipe is so light and flavorful and can probably be made with items you may already even have in your kitchen! (And I’ll be the first to admit, it was DANG good with regular pasta). You’ll see why in a minute.

So I guess I will call this “Meatballs and Zucchini Noodles with Veggies”…Pretty clever huh?

The Main cast of Characters:

I/2 red bell pepper and 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

5 cups of uncooked chopped kale (really I don’t know, I grabbed several handfulls)

2 Zuchinnis, noodleized through a Noodler

1 pound of ground beef (mine was more like 1.3 pounds)

1/3 pound or ground sausage (I used Jimmy Dean Sage breakfast sausage)

1 can petite diced tomatoes

To begin the process, I made the meatballs fairly quickly. I mixed the two meats with some basic seasonings (S&P, garlic, red pepper flakes and some other spices. You can use whatever you like!) Then, I heated a little olive oil and Kerrygold butter in a pan and then browned them.I did mine in two batches. The goal here is to sear them on both sides, but not to totally cook them all the way through. They will go back into the pot later on to simmer and that’s where they will cook through. Fair warning: when these start to brown, animals will begin migrating into the kitchen much like, I imagine, they did to Noah’s Ark.

Once you’ve browned them all, place them on a plate to rest while you get to work on the other things! I didn’t bother draining any of the fat left in the pan because fat is your friend and makes an excellent base for sautéing your veggies in, which is what’s up next!

Throw in those peppers and onions and toss them around in the fat over medium high heat.

One thing, when you’re chopping your peppers up- do me a favor and pause to smell them. The wonderful fresh scent of chopped sweet bell peppers will take you to magical places, like a lazy, warm summer night. Oh I can’t wait for those.After a few minutes, add your kale.Stir this around and then set your lid on top so the kale can wilt and cook down, just takes 2-3 minutes.

After, add in your undrained can of diced tomatoes.And your meatballs!Close the lid and let the heat take this to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Then, though it will seem you will need to defy physics to do so, you’ll add the zucchini noodles. Clearly, I had space issues. I also added a few splashes of white cooking wine for fun.It took some timid movements to get this stirred and mixed around. So, be patient, or…just use a bigger pan than I did. 🙂 Reduce your heat to low, and cover it and let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the meatballs are completely cooked through. The liquid level will rise even more as the zucchini noodles cook down. This is why I said earlier that adding regular cooked pasta would be so good because it absorbs so much of that liquid. Yum!

When you’re done, sprinkle some fresh grated parmesan on top if it makes you happy. It did me! See, a good bit of liquid on the plate. Maybe use a bowl. I only used a plate so I could photograph it better for you. Or hey, how about a slotted spoon?

Bon Appétit!!

Let me know if you try it and like it!

I hope each of you are happy, healthy and well. 🙂