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
- 1/3 cup pork rinds, crushed
- 4 ounces bacon
- 24 ounces ground beef
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large egg
- 3/4 cup pesto
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!
This makes a total of 8 servings of Bacon & Mozzarella Meatballs. Each serving comes out to be 394 calories, 32.2g fats, 2g net carbs, and 22.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1/3 cup pork rinds | 60 | 3.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.7 |
| 4 ounce bacon | 604 | 52.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30.2 |
| 24 ounce ground beef | 1728 | 136.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 116.8 |
| 1 cup mozzarella cheese | 336 | 25 | 2.5 | 0 | 2.5 | 24.8 |
| 1 teaspoon black pepper | 5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 |
| 2 teaspoon fresh garlic | 8 | 0 | 1.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 0.4 |
| 1/2 teaspoon onion powder | 4 | 0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 large egg | 157 | 10.5 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.8 | 13.8 |
| 3/4 cup pesto | 647 | 63.3 | 12.1 | 3.7 | 8.4 | 7.2 |
| Totals | 3551 | 291.7 | 19.4 | 4.5 | 14.9 | 199.4 |
| Per Serving (/8) | 444 | 36.5 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 24.9 |
Bacon & Mozzarella Meatballs
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup pork rinds crushed
- 4 ounce bacon
- 24 ounce ground beef
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon fresh garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large egg
- ¾ cup pesto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Add the pork rinds to a food processor and pulse until completely crushed.
- Chop the bacon into small pieces and add them to a large mixing bowl.
- Add in the ground beef, crushed pork rinds, and mozzarella cheese.
- Measure out the pepper, garlic, onion powder, salt, and eggs. Add them to the ground beef mixture — this is where the fun begins.
- Knead everything together well by hand. It's a bit messy, but well worth it!
- Roll the mixture into evenly-sized meatballs and place them on a foil-lined baking tray. Spread the meatballs out evenly to ensure proper cooking and keep them from sticking together.
- Bake for 40–45 minutes, depending on the size of the meatballs.
- Let them cool for 5 minutes or so, then remove them from the grease filled tray.
- Serve with pesto sauce dolloped over each meatball.
