Recently while I was being schooled on the food rules of a special someone, I nearly swallowed my tongue.  He says, "no flour, no sugar". What?? How can someone not eat flour or sugar? I'm also thinking he has no idea how many dishes have 'hidden' flour- specially since he doesn't seem to cook.  Just ask someone allergic to gluten, it eliminates more dishes than you can imagine. The list of forbidden foods seems endless. Granted, this works quite well for him, but how I'll ever be able to cook under these constraints is beyond me at that point.  It's a good thing he could not directly see my face as he informs me of this... I'm sure it wasn't a good look.  In the few days that have passed, this is sinking in and I now have a brand new formidable challenge.

I make meat balls- really, really good meat balls. The kind of meat balls that leave you wondering how my mostly non-meat-eating self pulls this off.  Well, it is one of the few meat concoctions I eat and I am Gourmet Girl after all, right? Right. But, Gourmet Girl and all, I am still no magician. (Oh, forgot to tell you- no grains, no rice, no potatoes, no dairy. The only consolation is that butter is allowed- thank God).  Somehow meatballs come up in this conversation and he informs that he likes those a lot.  I'm thinking well, you must like them really tough and solid as a rock, but I don't say that- I just sit there, listen, smirk and ponder.  Then I say my meat balls don't have breadcrumbs, he gets all excited.  Then I remember, yes thats because they have cubes of real fresh bread, real bread which is also soaked in real milk.   Not so good.

At this point you might be wondering what is this all about, clearly there has not been some epiphany on my part and a recipe to follow.  Well, this is about my search for a good meatball recipe which has been made by a real person, which does not come from a "diet" web site, and which most importantly tastes amazing and is juicy and moist but has no bread or milk.  I'm desperate here and that leads me to desperate measures... asking you, my dear readers to help me out.  You can email me or leave your perfect recipe in the comments, I will share whatever the finished product is.  The last time I asked for help with a recipe you came through gloriously- caramel icing.  I am absolutely positive there is someone out there with a grain-less, non-dairy, perfect meatball which does not taste like sawdust.  I'll be waiting!

P.S.
It did occur to me I could possibly use dehydrated carrots.  Anyhow, just a thought.

UPDATE:
I made the meat balls, I just omitted the bread, milk, and cheese. And guess what? They were totally fine, all that stressing out over nothing.  Now granted, they were never side by side by the "real" version but good enough.  He approved, all's well.
I'll post the recipe this week when I make them again and actually have time to photograph the little darlings. Thank you for all your comments- very helpful, specially the mushrooms- I'm implementing that when I make meat loaf again.