meat(less)balls

I’m a notoriously bad flirt. I should have been a caveman. See what I like, knock it over the head, drag it home and be done with it.

Flirting with vegan has been a bit of a challenge as well.  You have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding a keeper (e.g, vege burgers that taste like cardboard).

This weekend while shopping at Trader Joe’s I decided to get back into the game and give their meatless meatballs a chance. [As an aside I’m completely confused by the vegan naming convention – if vegeburger why not vegeballs?]

Best case scenario I’d have a yummy meal of sautéed kale, vege meatless balls and pasta. Worst case I had my lentil ragu sauce to fall back on.

I defrosted 6 balls (1 serving size) and throw them into my favorite vegan pasta sauce,Rao’s Eggplant Sicilian Sauce (when motivated I make my own but it was late and I was starving).

First impressions:

• Visually appealing: Nicely seasoned, good texture – not too firm but didn’t fall apart either.
• Yummy: The taste exceeded my expectations. I bet I could serve these to my carnivore guy friends and they’d never know the difference.
• Healthy: At 140 calories, 6 grams of fat (0 saturated and 0 trans fat) and 8 grams of fat it packs a healthy punch of 16 grams of protein. NOTE: They are high in sodium coming in at 560mg so keep that in mind if this is an issue for you. 
• Convenient: They come in an easy to reseal bag – throw it in the freezer and defrost only the balls you need on any given night.
• Cost: At just under $4 bucks I’d say the price is right.

Do you have any favorite vegan foods or recipes you’d like to share? Or any words of caution? I’m all ears!

PS – For what it’s worth they are also “Live Strong certified,”what ever that means!

PPS – In case you were wondering my cats, like all cats, are obligate carnivores so no vege or vegan diet for them. Admittedly I need to get better about finding out how their food is sourced. I will work on that!