Meatballs with tomato - spinach sauce and creamy polenta

Ingredients:

1 (5oz) package baby spinach

40 fl oz veggie or chicken broth 

2 (14.5 oz cans) diced tomatoes or fresh tomatoes 

2 eggs 

some fresh basil,slice or chopped

4 cloves garlic 

1.5 pounds lean ground beef or a meatloaf mixture 

1 oz Parmesan cheese

1 cup polenta (cornmeal)

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

salt/pepper & oregano 

1 Tablespoon Coconut oil 

Direction:

Grate 1 cup of Parmesan cheese - set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine meat, eggs, panko, and 3/4 of the cheese, 2 garlic cloves minced and spices. Mix to combine. 

Once the broth is boiling, slowly add in the polenta while whisking until the polenta is incorporated. Turn the heat down to low and whisk until thickened. Cover and cook about 20 minutes, making sure not to over cook it and stirring frequently, 

Preheat saucepan over med-high heat. Form the meat into about 20 meatballs and transfer to a plate. Add the coconut oil to the pan, adding the meatballs to cook. Turn the meatballs occasionally to brown but not cook through. Transfer to a bowl. Leave the meatball drippings in the pan to cook the veggies. 

Add the garlic and tomatoes to the meat dripping and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and crush tomatoes with a masher and season with salt and pepper. 

Return the meatballs to the pan with the tomatoes and add the basil and chopped spinach leaves. Cook the meatballs until they are cooked through.

Add butter to the polenta and serve! Garnish with more basil and cheese if desired. 

*our kids love the meatballs for this recipe and are not huge fans of the polenta. We always use fresh tomatoes for this recipe and they reduce great, as they become liquid. You can chop them or slice them in half depending on the tomato you are using. We do not sell coconut oil but this ingredient makes this recipe! You can swap it for olive oil but we do prefer the coconut oil. 

*Recipe is modified from mealime.com