Vegan meatballs~ made with lentils and brown rice

Can I really even call them “meatballs”? I think they should be called veg-balls. But, then there is the chance nobody will have a clue what a veg-ball is… and perhaps they’ll assume it’s a sport one might play if there were an abundance of rutabagas lying around….

So, I’ll stick with meatballs strictly for the concept, though.

I bet you’re wondering how I’m doing…I’ve had no sugar/sweeteners/butter/dairy/meat for a little while now.

I have more memory and energy than ever before. I (almost) don’t even have to make lists, because everything is getting done. It’s pretty amazing.

My car is clean, my house is clean, and a big tree is gone from my yard. My husband and I removed it. By hand.
After we played lumberjacks, we still had energy.Now, I’m not saying I’m ready to tackle the other tree (yet.) Maybe this weekend.

So this whole little fasting experiment has given us many blessings, of course the energy and weight loss is a plus (hubby lost 13 pounds) but knowing what fuels us is even more important. What we put into our bodies and minds plays a huge role in our reaction to the world. Fasting the negativity of our own mind’s creation, and allowing only pure and kind thoughts reside can also make a huge difference in how much you want to accomplish a task at hand.

I’ll admit, it’s sometimes hard to not “stew” over a particular circumstance in life, and it takes re-training your thought process to break the cycle… but once you’re able to “fast” negative thoughts you’re whole being transforms.

As far as the fasting of the foods… amazingly, it’s been simple. I cook the same, just with better substitutions. Such as these “veg-balls”

These meatballs are made with lentils and brown rice… and other seasonings of course. There is no egg, dairy or cow in there. 🙂 Yay for happy cows.

Lentils smell weird when they cook, though. ( I wonder if it’s just me that thinks that?) I should google lentils smell weird.

I just googled it. I’m not the only one that thinks that.

Sweet.

So here are your basic ball ingredients:

Not pictured: bread crumbs

I took a picture of these and texted it to my husband, he asked if there were blueberries in them. ( He thought they were muffins)

Yes, I make daily vegan muffins. And he gets pics of each batch. I guess he was in muffin mode when he got the text. Speaking of food (haha) I’m making a tofu lo mein tonight. He doesn’t know it yet. Apparently, he doesn’t like Chinese food… which is sooooo weird because when we were dating we used to get take out Chinese and a bottle of wine and have nightime picnics at the park.

Those were fun.

I’m totally going to do that again when we have an empty nest. I decided that right now is the time to make a list of all the stuff we can’t really do anymore since we have kids, that way- when it’s empty nest time, I won’t get all depressed, and we’ll have stuff to do. 🙂

Who am I kidding… I bet I’m going to have severe empty nest syndrome. But that’s like 15 years away at least…. so I’ll just keep making my idea list for now.

Note: Yes, we can have nightime park picnics with children, however…. it’s a little more romantic without. 😉

Back to the balls!

A few tips for these:

Use lots of seasoning. Let’s face it: lentils and brown rice have no flavor on their own. Just sayin’.

veggie meatballs

Ingredients

2 cups cooked lentils
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1/4 cup finely minced green pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2-3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1 tablespoon flax meal
1/2-1 cup whole grain breadcrumbs start with 1/2, add more if needed
1- 2 teaspoons salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

Mix everything together. (easy, huh?)
Mash with a potato masher, and roll into balls. (add extra bread crumbs if needed)
Place balls onto a greased baking sheet and brush tops with olive oil.
Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot with pasta.