{"id":5498,"date":"2014-01-23T14:06:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/?p=5498"},"modified":"2014-01-23T14:06:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T20:06:15","slug":"meatballs-with-zucchini-and-carrot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/23\/meatballs-with-zucchini-and-carrot\/","title":{"rendered":"Meatballs with Zucchini and Carrot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My kids, ages 3 and 16 months, aren&#8217;t very good at eating their vegetables. \u00a0Fruit, cheese, bread, french fries, ice cream, cookies, chocolate? \u00a0No problem. \u00a0But vegetables are another story. \u00a0Carson will eat a baby carrot from time to time, and Betsy will eat a few green peas if I mix them up in her macaroni. \u00a0But that&#8217;s as good as it gets around here. \u00a0So in an effort to get them to eat more vegetables I decided to hide them in meatballs. \u00a0Both of my kids are pretty good at eating meatballs, so I figured this was a genius plan.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5499\" alt=\"meatballs1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs1.jpg?resize=858%2C724\" width=\"858\" height=\"724\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs1.jpg?w=1190 1190w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs1.jpg?resize=300%2C253 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs1.jpg?resize=1024%2C863 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first night I gave them the meatballs plain without sauce, and they weren&#8217;t the biggest fans. \u00a0And I felt like a failure. \u00a0I went to all that trouble and they didn&#8217;t want them!? \u00a0But the next night I heated them in some pasta sauce and we had much better results. \u00a0My kids ate vegetables! \u00a0Without gagging!<\/p>\n<p>These meatballs are simple and geared towards a picky kid&#8217;s palate. \u00a0Not a lot of spice or heat. \u00a0If your kids are more daring than mine (or if you&#8217;ve done a better job of exposing them to spices!) add what you like to the mix. \u00a0You could also use half beef and half Italian sausage for a more interesting meatball. \u00a0I used jarred sauce, but if you have a great recipe, then use it&#8230;and then share it with me! \u00a0Do you have any great meals that are healthy and delicious that your kids enjoy? \u00a0I&#8217;d love to hear them. \u00a0We need all the help we can get!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5500\" alt=\"meatballs2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs2.jpg?resize=858%2C827\" width=\"858\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs2.jpg?w=1500 1500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs2.jpg?resize=300%2C289 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/meatballs2.jpg?resize=1024%2C987 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Meatballs with Zucchini and Carrots<\/h3>\n<p>Makes 24-30 meatballs<\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 pound ground beef (85\/15)<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 cup dried breadcrumbs<\/li>\n<li>3 tablespoons milk<\/li>\n<li>1 egg, beaten<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup shredded carrot<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup shredded zucchini (pressed between paper towels to remove excess moisture)<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup grated onion<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon salt<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon pepper<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon garlic powder<\/li>\n<li>Pasta sauce<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Directions<\/em><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Preheat oven to 350\u00b0F.<\/li>\n<li>Combine breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl and let soak for a couple minutes. \u00a0Add in beef, egg, vegetables and seasonings and mix (clean hands are a great tool here) until combined.<\/li>\n<li>Form into balls (around golf ball size) and place in a greased pan.<\/li>\n<li>Bake for 30 minutes. \u00a0You can pour on some sauce in the last 10 minutes of baking or heat the sauce separately.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:70px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/23\/meatballs-with-zucchini-and-carrot\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"400\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My kids, ages 3 and 16 months, aren&#8217;t very good at eating their vegetables. \u00a0Fruit, cheese, bread, french fries, ice cream, cookies, chocolate? \u00a0No problem. \u00a0But vegetables are another story. \u00a0Carson will eat a baby carrot from time to time, and Betsy will eat a few green peas if I mix them up in her [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[406,646,4],"tags":[290,591,669,148,89],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p51jE-1qG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5503,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5498\/revisions\/5503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hottie-biscotti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}