Cooking Mommy: Light Swedish Meatballs

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Light Swedish Meatballs

I got this recipe off Gina's Skinny Taste, a Weight Watcher food friendly blog. They were very yummy! I wasn't sure if my husband was going to like these, but he did. My kids weren't crazy about them, but they liked the egg noodles I served them over. :-) Next time I want to try these with ground turkey since we like the flavor of ground turkey a lot. I will probably also double the recipe next time and my husband said he wanted more sauce. He likes a lot of sauce on his pasta. I did add some cornstarch and water towards the end because it didn't look thick enough to me, but I don't think I would do that again because it got almost too thick after cooling some.

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil (I just sprayed my pan instead)
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 cup minced parsley (plus some to put on top if you like)
1 lb 93% lean beef
1 egg (or use one of my egg-free options to the right)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used Italian)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cups beef broth (I just used a can)
2oz light cream cheese

Directions
In a large deep saute pan, heat oil on medium heat, add onions and garlic; saute until onions are translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add celery and parsley and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes. In a large bowl combine beef, egg, onion mixture, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and allspice. Mix well and form meatballs with your hands 1/8 cup each. Add beef stock to pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly drop meatballs into the broth. Cover and cook about 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add to blender with cream cheese and pulse until smooth. Return to pan and simmer a few minutes to thicken, then pour over meatballs. Garnish with parsley and serve over noodles or with toothpicks for an appetizer.

Makes 22 meatballs, 4 servings, 5 meatballs each.

WW points: she says 4 points, but I came up with 5 points, 1 per meatball. Go to her website, link above, if you want to know calories and other nutrition information.

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Allergies and Intolerances

My son, Daniel previously had allergies to egg whites and peanuts. I am lactose intolerant. My nephews have allergies to many foods. I will try my best to label things to help those with allergies since I know it's difficult finding recipes sometimes when someone in your home has common food allergies. Make sure you check labels yourself. If it's marked soy-free or nut-free, it only means it doesn't have the soy or nut protein in it, not necessarily the oils. Look for dairy-free, egg-free, gluten/wheat-free, nut-free, and soy-free labels.

Egg replacements

If you need an egg free recipe, I have some great egg replacements. Now these really won't work in recipes that require a lot of eggs, like a meringue or cheesecake, but they do work well in most recipes I've ever tried.

Egg replacement #1: use 1 Tbsp ground flax seed and 3 Tbsp of water in place of 1 egg. Why this works? I don't know, but flax seed is extremely healthy for you, full of lots of omega fatty acids, so this is my preferred substitute.

Egg replacement #2: Boil 1 cup of water and 1 packet of unflavored gelatin together. In it's liquid state, use 3 1/2 Tbsp of this in place of 1 egg.

I have found sometimes one works better than the other. The flax seed seems to work better overall, I believe, but my mother-in-law made Christmas cookies with the gelatin and you couldn't even tell the difference.