Being on a ketogenic diet can get pretty boring at times, especially when you’re eating the same thing over and over. I had a craving for some meatballs and hadn’t made any since the Bacon and Cheddar BBQ meatballs, so I decided to put together some new recipes to help all of you with some new ideas in the kitchen!
I made a trio of meatballs that turned out absolutely superb. These Bacon, Ground Beef, and Mozzarella meatballs. Chorizo, Ground Beef, and Cheddar meatballs. Italian Sausage, Ground Beef, and Pepperjack Cheese meatballs. The three together were fantastic, had a very appealing presentation, and were extremely filling.
You only need 4-6 meatballs to serve as a meal, especially with the sauce and a side of vegetables. They’re relatively easy to make, and they taste phenomenal. If you’re ever in a bind for a meal that needs to feed a lot of people, this can be a go-to. It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes for the total time, start to finish, most of that being the actual cooking time.
If you want these to be even better, you can make a homemade sauce for each. Tomato sauce, pesto sauce, and Alfredo sauce. They’re pretty simple to make, and you can make them while the meatballs are cooking. I got lazy and only made the Alfredo sauce myself – but if you have a lot of guests over and want to serve something homemade and elegant, I say you should go the whole nine yards!
Yields 24 medium meatballs
The Preparation
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- ¾ cup pesto sauce
- 1/3 cup crushed pork rinds
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
The Execution
1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Add your pork rinds (about 1/3 of a bag) to the food processor.
3. Pulse the pork rinds until they are crushed completely. We will be using these to bind the meatballs together.
4. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Almost cube like so that it can cook at the same temperature as the beef.
5. Place your bacon in a large mixing bowl.
6. Add your ground beef to the mixture. Don’t touch it just yet.
7. Add your crushed pork rinds on top of the ground beef.
8. Add your mozzarella cheese to the ground beef.
9. Measure out your pepper, garlic, onion powder, salt and eggs. Add them to the ground beef mixture – this is where the fun begins.
10. Mix everything together well using your hands. This is going to get messy, but you’ll be using your hands to roll out the meatballs so don’t worry.
11. Roll your meatballs out and rest them in a foiled baking tray.
12. Make sure your meatballs are spread out evenly to allow proper cooking. Some grease and cheese will seep out of the meatballs so you don’t want them to get stuck together.
13. Cook them in the oven for 40-45 minutes. It may need longer if you made larger meatballs.
14. Let them cool for 5 minutes or so, and remove them from the grease filled tray.
15. Serve with presto sauce on each!
Per meatball, you’re looking at: 155.75 Calories, 13.51g Fats, 0.95g Net Carbs, and 6.98g Protein.
| Bacon & Mozzarella Meatballs | Calories | Fats(g) | Carbs(g) | Fiber(g) | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) |
| 1 ½ pounds ground beef | 2251 | 203.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 97.29 |
| 4 slices bacon | 178 | 14.02 | 0.44 | 0 | 0.44 | 11.58 |
| 1 cup mozzarella cheese | 333 | 22.35 | 6.31 | 0 | 6.31 | 26.84 |
| ¾ cup pesto sauce | 720 | 69 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 9 |
| 1/3 cup crushed pork rinds | 95 | 5.93 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.49 |
| 2 large eggs | 143 | 9.51 | 0.72 | 0 | 0.72 | 12.56 |
| 1 teaspoon pepper | 6 | 0.07 | 1.47 | 0.6 | 0.87 | 0.24 |
| 2 teaspoons minced garlic | 8 | 0.03 | 1.85 | 0.1 | 1.75 | 0.36 |
| ½ teaspoon onion powder | 4 | 0.01 | 0.95 | 0.2 | 0.75 | 0.12 |
| Totals | 3738 | 324.32 | 26.74 | 3.9 | 22.84 | 167.48 |
| Per Serving(/24) | 155.75 | 13.51 | 1.11 | 0.16 | 0.95 | 6.98 |
Bacon & Mozzarella Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- ¾ cup pesto sauce
- ⅓ cup crushed pork rinds
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Slice your bacon into small pieces (almost into small cubes).
- Add your ground beef, ground pork rinds, spices, cheese, and eggs to the bacon.
- Mix everything together well until you can form meatballs.
- Roll your meatballs out into circles and place them in a foiled baking tray.
- Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until bacon is cooked.
- Spoon out 1/2 Tbsp. pesto sauce per meatball and serve.
