Pregger Party Swedish Meatballs

Even though she's making a funny face -- you can still tell my sister makes one beautiful pregger. So beautiful in fact that my Mom and I decided to throw her a pregger party, er, I mean baby shower. My sister is gluten-free too so my Mom and I had a mission: to make the entire shower gluten-free (and mostly dairy free). It wasn't a large gathering (we pretty much had to force her to agree to let us throw her one), I think there were ten of us total, and my sister and I were the only two under fifty, but still -- I was a bit nervous that people would be turned off by the "gluten-freeness" of it all. But there was really no need. Everyone was wonderful and complimentary and kind.




Our menu included: deviled eggs, ham-wrapped asparagus, spinach salad with strawberries and red onion, a rockin' cheese platter with almond crackers, swedish meatballs with brown rice pasta, coc a vain (I'm butchering the spelling: it's French for chicken with mushrooms and other tasty stuff), chocolate chip cookies, flourless chocolate cake, vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a lemon-almond cake.


I put together my chocolate chip cookies (I will post the recipe in the near future), cupcakes (Pamela's vanilla cake mix), Swedish meatballs and salad. I've always had a thing for Swedish meatballs -- they may be the very first thing I ever cooked on my own. You see, I had this doll, "Kirsten" growing up. She was one of those American Girl dolls that was outrageously expensive and I adored her. Even more perhaps, I adored the cookbook that came with her and since she was of Swedish background, a recipe for Swedish meatballs was in the book. I hybrid that recipe and one from Gluten a Go-Go to create the one below. If you half it, it should feed a family of four for dinner. In my case, the whole recipe fed ten as a side dish.


Simple Swedish Meatballs (gluten-free and dairy-free)


2 lb ground bison

2 eggs

1 onion, chopped

4 (previously frozen) waffles toasted and ground into crumbs (you can use regular bread crumbs here, too. should measure out to 1 1/2 cups of breadcrumbs)

1 cup almond milk (rice milk works too)

3/4 teaspoon all spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Butter, or margarine (Use Earth Balance to keep it dairy-free)



Place the waffle-crumbs, milk and spices in a large bowl and let sit for a few minutes. Add the onion to a medium-sized pan on medium heat and cook until lightly brown. Add the bison and eggs to the waffle-crumb mixture and add the onions when ready (let them cool a bit before adding). Now, get in there and work it around with your hands. Form into one-inch balls and place in the same pan (now coated in margarine on medium heat) and cook until browned on all sides.



Now you have a choice -- place the meatballs on a tray in the oven at 350 degrees for five minutes, or until the center is cooked. Or, place in your slow cooker on high heat to finish (so you can take it to your sister's pregger party).

Serve over brown rice pasta and pour drippings from pan over meatballs.

Mmmmmmmmmm.