Spaghetti Meatballs~Make peace with the grease

My daughter brought home a book from school called "Cooking the Italian Way". At 10 years, she is still my pickiest eater, still shying away from anything different. I'd be crazy to not jump all over this opportunity, right? Even if it turns out bad, well...who's fault is that? Of course, this isn't her first experience in the kitchen, but she usually sticks to chocolate cake, cookies, pancakes and chili from a can; which just happens to be the extent of my knowledge when I left home for college. She's excited to try some new dishes (Minestrone and Risotto)and revisit some family favorites (spaghetti and pizza).

We started last night with spaghetti, making the sauce from scratch. The consensus: tasty, but definitely not spaghetti sauce. The star of the evening turned out to be the meatballs. I'm not a big fan of meat, so huge chunks of greasy ground beef have never been on the menu. But, we tired it...her idea, and well...YUM!

Spaghetti Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
2 eggs
bread crumbs (I used homemade whole wheat with the crusts cut off 1-2 slices)
1 T dried basil
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese.
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 T oil to cook them in, I used coconut.

Mix all the ingredients well, except the oil. Roll into tight balls (golf ball size). Heat oil in skillet to about medium high. Drop in meatballs, don't overcrowd, it's better to just do 2 or 3 batches. They cook pretty fast, only a few minutes on each side, i only turned the 3 times. Be careful of the hot grease, remove meatballs from pan and drain on paper towel. Add them to you spaghetti sauce while cooking, or just on top of prepared plate.

Using coconut oil is better than vegetable and olive because it is more stable at high temps, and oil is actually required for your body to absorb all the healthy nutrients in the tomato sauce. I made peace with the grease and the grease brought peace to the dinner table.

Who'd have thought?