One of the things I’ve been into recently (possibly brought about by the holidays) is attempting to recreate my family’s traditional recipes into paleo-friendly recipes. My fave family recipe happens to be Ham Balls, already including the most important part, MEAT! 😉 They’re like little cooked salty meat balls drenched in a tomato based, vinegary, sweet sauce. Mmm. Recreation went great, except I forgot I normally cut the recipe in 1/2 (that’s about all Seth and I can eat ourselves…next time I’ll freeze), so my neighbors got a pan for their family!

Here’s the original recipe:

Ham Balls:

• 2 1/2 lbs ground smoked ham
• 3 lbs ground beef
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 2 cups milk

*combine and mix well. Form into 50-60 balls. Place in shallow pan.

Sauce:

• 2 cans tomato soup
• 3/4 C vinegar
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 2 1/4 C brown sugar

*combine sauce ingredients and pour over ham balls before baking.

Paleo-Friendly Ham Balls

Ham Balls:

• 2 1/2 lbs ground smoked ham (at the least, certified gluten free!)
• 3 lbs ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C grassfed dairy/cream of your choice (could maybe use butter too!)

*combine and mix well. Form into 50-60 balls. Place in shallow pan.

Sauce:

• 2 BPA free cans of organic tomato paste (you know, with only tomatoes in them)
• 1 1/4 C vinegar
• 2 1/4 raw, organic coconut sugar
• 3 tsp dry mustard

*combine sauce ingredients and pour over ham balls before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

So comforting, and not overly sweet. It seemed like an awful lot of sugar to me (I don’t eat much), but when you spread that over 60+ meatballs, could be far worse! They keep a long time in the fridge too, so this would be a great weeknight easy reheat for any family! I’ve eaten them plain, with eggs, on a cheese board, at breakfast, lunch, etc.!

Pre and Post-bake! (looks like I was eating bacon while cooking).