Meatball-Bacon-Onion Bombs

Aloha!

OH! MY! GOSH! I have found the CROWNING JEWEL of recipes! The CREAM-OF-THE-CROP! The GOLDEN EGG! If you cannot tell how excited I am for this recipe, go back and read the past few lines! haha. I said before the Bacon-Guacamole Stuffed Chicken was the King of King recipes. Well, I think that recipe has just been trumped! I have been seeing this picture floating around Facebook with a meatball stuffed in an onion shell, wrapped in bacon & smothered with BBQ Sauce! Give me a moment. I think I just died & went to taste bud heaven! Unfortunately, when I went to go find the recipe for this picture, it was NOWHERE to be found. I usually like to give credit where credit is due. I don't believe in taking someone's recipes as my own. In this case, technically it is my own recipe. I drew inspiration from the picture but I put together my own ingredients based on the picture.

I wanted to make this as close to an AIP recipe as possible. Other than the bbq sauce, this recipe is healthy on its own. With the AIP version, it takes it up a notch. I made this meal for a family of 8. Yes. I know. We have a big family. And I wouldn't change it for the world. But dang, we can eat a lot! So when you are trying to feed this many mouths, there are going to be a few picky ones in the bunch. I am happy to announce, this recipe is a 100% success! Everyone LOVED it! We are all food critics too. Warning: Don't come to this house to cook & expect not to get critiqued. In a good way though. No pressure! lol. The only criticism was what they would put in it themselves to suit their individual tastes. Other than that, the consensus was: it is delicious, the meatball was moist & the flavors all meld together perfectly. I don't know about you, but I'll take it!

With that said, I am following a specific way of eating but the rest of my family isn't. A lot of what I cook uses coconut which my mother-in-law is allergic to. For this particular recipe, I made my own "bbq sauce". It uses a few coconut items so I chose to set aside a portion of the meatballs for my dinner to cook separately. How I made this recipe AIP friendly is, I used olive oil to substitute the egg which helps bind the meat. I also used an AIP bbq sauce instead of Stubs bbq sauce which is our favorite. I found this amazing bbq recipe from Kaiku Lifestyle. It is tomato-less. It uses pumpkin puree as its base instead of tomato sauce or ketchup. I will include the recipe here as well as the link to the original recipe.

The recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 lb of ground beef (or Bison)

2 med. yellow onions, peeled

1 pkg. Sliced mushrooms, diced

5 Garlic Cloves, minced

3 Tbs. of Olive oil (Or 2 eggs)

2 tsp. Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

1 Tbs. dried Basil

1 Tbs. dried Oregano

1 Tbs. dried Thyme

1 Tbs. dried Rosemary

(You can get an Italian blend of the above spices)

2 pkg. All-Natural bacon (I used Oscar Meyer)

"BBQ" Sauce

(Original Recipe here)

1 Cup of Pumpkin Puree

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp coconut oil 1 tbsp molasses 1/3 cup maple syrup 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp coconut aminos 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

Equipment

Culinary Knife

Cutting board

Large bowl

2 metal baking sheets

Small sauce pan

Measuring Cup

Measuring Spoons (1 tsp. & 1 Tbs.)

Small-Medium wood skewers Culinary Brush

Directions

BBQ Sauce

1.) In a sauce pan, saute the coconut oil, garlic cloves & ginger. (Be careful not

to burn the garlic & ginger.)

2.) Add all of the other ingredients. Bring to a boil.

3.) Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4.) After 15 minutes, cover & set aside.

Onion Bomb

1.) Set the oven to 400 degrees.

2.) Cut the ends off of the onion. Peel the onion, being careful not to split

them as you peel each layer away from each other. (The easiest way is to

gently run your finger inside each layer, along the outside.) Set them

aside.

3.) In a large bowl, mix the pound of beef, diced mushrooms, minced garlic,

Himalayan Sea Salt & Spices, & Olive oil (or egg) together with your

hands until everything is mixed evenly. Once everything sticks together

without falling apart, you are good to go. (You can use a food mixer but

the best tool for this project is your hands.)

4.) Pick up two pieces of closely matching onion peels. Stuff one side of the

onion peel with the meat mixture. Close the other side around it. You

want to make sure there is enough meat to fill both sides without over

filling it.

5.) Wrap the onion ball with 1 - 2 pcs. of bacon depending on size. Use 2

skewers to keep the bacon in place & to keep the onion from falling apart.

Place on baking sheet. Repeat until all of the onion peels are done.

6.) With a culinary brush, dip the brush into the bbq sauce and coat each

onion, top to bottom.

7.) Bake for 30 - 45 min. depending on your oven.

8.) Once done, let it set for 5 min. before serving.

9.) Enjoy!

We served this recipe with a side salad which included: green medley, nectarines, strawberries & beets. It was a perfect balance between the two.

Tip:

1.) You have to use skewers. If not, the onion will fall apart & the bacon will

not stay in place. I found this out the hard way & used skewers for my

onion ball. The skewers worked.

2.) If you do not want to purchase each spice separately, you can purchase an

Italian blend which usually has most of these mixed together. I have all of

them on hand, so that is what I used.

3.) I found the easiest way to peel the onion is to work slow with it, starting

from the top, begin to peel away the layer until you can work your finger

in between the top layer & bottom layer. From there, work around the

entire peel until it is easy to pull away from the bottom layer without

splitting it.

4.) When mixing the ingredients in with the meat, use your hands. God

gave us the greatest tools in the world and that is our hands. I know it

can feel gross but honestly, it is the best way to make sure everything is

mixed evenly.

5.) My sister had a great idea of cooking the bacon a bit in the oven on

a baking sheet just to crisp it up a bit more. When I make these next

time, I am going to try that.

6.) If you are not keen on using the pumpkin puree bbq sauce (which is

amazing by the way!) then just use regular bbq sauce. I used Stubbs

Original for the family. Either way is delicious.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below! Did you do a different variation? Maybe a different sauce?

Mahalo!

Brittany Bowman

"Food is essential to life; therefore make it good." - Anonymous

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