Last night at work I was caught in a bit of a situation. As we were closing up the kitchen for the night after the cooking class, one of the other girls working there was telling the chef how her friend is on a Paleo diet. Now I really DON’T like the term ‘diet’ but that’s not what bothered me.

The chef asked her what she meant by Paleo as she had never heard of it before. This person went on to say that Paleo means that you only eat meat and vegetables and nothing else. She also said that her friend who is following this ‘diet’ doesn’t eat grains which means he is probably malnourished…!!! 

I mean really? malnourished because you don’t eat grains! I debated whether or not to speak up at that point but I let it go. I imagine that this person wouldn’t really be interested in what I had to say anyway considering that she was speaking as if she were an expert on the topic. Plus I’m not one to push my views onto others unless they ask… as I mentioned in another post what works for me might not work for you, it’s important to pay attention to your own body and to see how it responds to the things you eat.

BUT to put out statements like “he doesn’t eat grains so he is probably malnourished” is not only just plain wrong but very misleading to those who don’t know that this information is incorrect but I’m not going to get into all of that here.

In certain situations I think not saying anything is probably best and that’s why I chose not to say anything to this person. Plus I really didn’t feel like having to justify why I eat this way to a person who I barely even know. Why I choose to omit certain foods from my ‘diet’ is my own prerogative, as long as I’m not forcing everyone around me to do the same (my husband even eats differently to how I do in certain situations) and being preachy and all-knowing about it.

I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on all things nutrition but I do read a lot and consider all points of view. Like I said and I will say again what works for me might not work for you so it’s important NOT to blindly follow along without doing the research for yourself.

Ok now enough of all this…. let’s move onto more important things like FOOD!

This next recipe is definitely Paleo approved.. but it is also eat-something-delicious approved! In fact most of my recipes here are Paleo approved, unless I’m using some form of dairy which is a debatable topic when it comes to Paleo, but again not the time to talk about that here, if you want to read more on it then I’ll leave it to you to do the research. And by all means if you eat grains then go a head and eat these meatballs with your chosen grain. Like I said I’m not here to tell you what to eat and what not to eat, I’ll leave that up to you 🙂

Butternut Squash Meatballs with Zucchini & Carrot

Courtesy of Diane from Balanced Bites – I saw this meatball recipe posted on her Facebook page and couldn’t wait to try it out. I added in some ingredients of my own and this was the result…

Ingredients:

• 450grams/1lb grass-fed minced/ground beef.
• 1/2 cup mashed butternut squash (I used an organic canned version, I suppose you could even sub pumpkin for this).
• 1 pastured egg beaten.
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Savoury Spice blend* (featured in Diane’s book Practical Paleo)
• 1 large carrot, peeled to remove the outer layer and the peeled into long strands (I used a regular peeler as I don’t have a julienne peeler to make long thin strands, so instead I made large thick strands with my regular peeler).
• 1 large zucchini peeled the same was as the carrot.
• 1 Tbsp grass-fed ghee.
• Sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper.
• Lettuce (optional).

*The Savoury Spice Blend:

• 2 Tbsps Rosemary-Sage salt (1 cup of fresh rosemary and 1/2 cup of coarse sea salt. Dry rosemary in the oven at the lowest temperature until it starts to break up in your fingers then process in a food processor until it starts to break down into smaller and smaller pieces then add in your salt a bit at a time and process with the rosemary. You could also just be lazy and use dried Rosemary to begin with).
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder.
• 1 Tbsp onion powder.
• 1/2 tsp paprika.
• 1 tsp black pepper.

N.B. Both the Rosemary-Sage blend and the Savoury Spice blend can be kept in air tight containers in your spice cabinet for use on other dishes. The Savour Spice blend in particular would be fantastic on some sweet potato fries!

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220C/425F. Then place the meat, eggs, butternut squash and Savoury Spice blend into a bowl and mix together. I find your hands are the best tool here.

Form them into meatballs and place onto a lined baking tray and bake for 25 – 35 minutes depending on the size of your meatballs. Mine were done at 25 since I kept them fairly small.

Remove meatballs from oven and keep warm.

Place ghee into a skillet and heat on medium-high and add in your strands of carrot and zucchini. Cook until softened then season with S&P.

Serve with lettuce or as you like.

and….

Enjoy!