Italian keto meatballs with mozzarella cheese

Name: Italian keto meatballs with mozzarella cheese
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef; 2 oz. grated parmesan cheese; 1 egg; 1/2 tbsp dried basil; 1/2 tsp onion powder; 1 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp ground black pepper; 3 tbsp olive oil; 14 oz. canned whole tomatoes; 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley; 7 oz. fresh spinach; 2 oz. butter; 5 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese; salt and pepper

Tomato sauce, rich and comforting. Mozzarella, fresh and creamy. Meatballs, with just the right touch of onion and basil. It's like spaghetti night, without the carbs. Enjoy every ketolicious bite!

August 20 2017 by , photo by in Recipes, Meal

Italian keto meatballs with mozzarella cheese

Tomato sauce, rich and comforting. Mozzarella, fresh and creamy. Meatballs, with just the right touch of onion and basil. It's like spaghetti night, without the carbs. Enjoy every ketolicious bite!

USMetric

4 servingservings

Ingredients

1 lb 450 g ground beef
2 oz. 50 g grated parmesan cheese
1 1 eggeggs
½ tbsp ½ tbsp dried basil
½ tsp ½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp 1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp 1 tsp salt
½ tsp ½ tsp ground black pepper
3 tbsp 3 tbsp olive oil
14 oz. 400 g canned whole tomatoes
2 tbsp 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
7 oz. 200 g fresh spinach
2 oz. 50 g butter
5 oz. 150 g fresh mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper

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Making low carb simple

Instructions

Instructions are for 4 servings. Please modify as needed.

Place ground beef, parmesan cheese, eggs, salt and spices in a bowl and blend thoroughly. Form the mixture into meatballs, about 1 oz (30 grams) each. It helps to keep your hands wet while forming the balls.
Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the meatballs until they're golden brown on all sides.
Lower the heat and add the canned tomatoes. Let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley and stir. You can prepare the dish up to this point for freezing.
Melt the butter in a separate frying pan and fry the spinach for 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the spinach to the meatballs. Top with fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into bite-sized pieces. Serve and enjoy.

Tip!

Like it hot-hot-hot? Swap out half the ground beef with spicy Italian sausage. Add red pepper flakes, as needed.

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64 comments

51
Reply to comment #50 by Desiree
Kristin Parker Team Diet Doctor
April 19

When you make a recipe for one person does 1 serving mean that’s what u have for dinner, and lunch ? Thank you

If you are cooking from the 2 week challenge, make sure to make 2 servings, or 1+1 so you will have enough for lunch the next day.
52
Cynthia
April 26
Loved these meatballs! I used 80/20 organic grass-fed ground beef and canned diced tomatoes rather than whole. I also used more basil and onion powder than called for. The sauce seemed a bit runny at first, but after simmering for awhile and adding the spinach, the sauce got slightly more substantial. I think this dish would be good served on cauliflower rice to soak up the sauce. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers!
53
Jan
May 2
OMG---My husband thought we were in Heaven when we ate this. NO need to go out for Italian food when this is over the top delicious! It is definitely a keeper and last time I made enough to freeze one batch, which we used the next week. I would never tire of this. Love Diet Doctor site!
54
Debbie
May 3
I’m not fond of tomatoes. I diced an onion and cooked it with the meatballs. It wasn’t a sauce but it made a more interesting plate than just meatballs and cheese.
55
Karen
May 9
That was really good! I made a double batch to have for another dinner and lunch. I am on day 4 and my scale has not budged. My scale goes from 211 to 214 to 213 to 211 pounds. I have two more servings of the alfredo chicken in my fridge and three servings of the meatballs from tonight. I feel I have overload of ingredients and the produce is going to go bad and I dread going to the grocery for week 2 and buying more food. Can I just eat the same food from week one on week 2? Please advise.

Replies: #57, #58
56
Maya
May 9
Amazing dinner tonight for all my family. I made hamburger out of this meatball mixture and my son who is a very picky eater was amazed by the taste. To mine, i added Fire Roasted diced tomatoes, touch of turmeric and saffron and they gave it a great color and taste. This will be our favorite recipe.
57
Reply to comment #55 by Karen
Maya
May 9
I personally don’t think eating the same food would be any problem. I am still eating my Alfredo chicken. As long as you are not eating carbs and sugar it must be fine. Likewise, my scale has not changed either, it fluctuates just like yours. I hope i will not gain weight due to all this deliciously fat recipes.
58
Reply to comment #55 by Karen
Kristin Parker Team Diet Doctor
May 9

That was really good! I made a double batch to have for another dinner and lunch. I am on day 4 and my scale has not budged. My scale goes from 211 to 214 to 213 to 211 pounds. I have two more servings of the alfredo chicken in my fridge and three servings of the meatballs from tonight. I feel I have overload of ingredients and the produce is going to go bad and I dread going to the grocery for week 2 and buying more food. Can I just eat the same food from week one on week 2? Please advise.

Yes, that's totally fine! Also, if you notice that you aren't hungry at a specific meal time, it's OK to skip that meal.
59
Karen
May 9
Thank you Maya and Kristen for your feed back.
60
Kat
May 26
Pork and beef mince worked well for me. I was worried about garlic powder and onion powder, having never used them, thought the taste might be artificial, but it was not, it was very nice. Quantities a slight bit weird factoring up, nobody can use 1 and 3/4 of an egg for example, but, y'know, use your common sense. Definitely thought it was wise to season the sauce.
61
Diana Elena
May 30
is it ok to replace beef with pork?

Reply: #62
62
Reply to comment #61 by Diana Elena
Kristin Parker Team Diet Doctor
May 31

is it ok to replace beef with pork?

Pork tends to be leaner which means they may be drier.

Reply: #63
63
Reply to comment #62 by Kristin Parker
Diana Elena
May 31
it was very good with pork :D
64
Gary
June 5
I wish the pictures matched the serving sizes. This is an example where it seems to not. The instructions say to use 1 lb of ground beef and to make 1 oz meatballs, which would be 16 for two people, for both lunch and dinner. So, this would be 4 meatballs per person, per serving. I'm also thinking that the meatballs in the picture are bigger than one oz.
65
Angel
6 days ago
These were DENSE meatballs, probably the parmesan cheese in the meat. I think next time we will leave that out of the meat and just sprinkle it on the final dish.
66
Mike McPhee
11 hours ago
I've made this a few times with great success. For the sauce I add couple of onions which I almost caramelise before I add the tomatoes and a teaspoon of oregano. All served on a bed of shredded spinach or silver chard from the garden.

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Italian keto meatballs with mozzarella cheese

Italian keto meatballs with mozzarella cheese

Ingredients

Instructions

Tip!

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