Peggy's Porcupine Balls (Meatloaf balls)

These porcupine balls turned out great. They were easy to make and start to finish in less than an hour. I started out with really fresh ingredients: fresh zucchini, green peppers, onion, all from my garden and carrots, ground beef, and arborio rice from the grocery store.

And an egg. This one was a double yoker. I have always considered double yokers good luck!
These ingredients looked so pretty in the mixing bowl, especially with the afternoon sun shining in through the window.

I love my Pampered Chef chopper and veggie spatula, and my hand grater. I use these almost every day.

Peggy's Porcupine Balls

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1/2 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 chopped carrot

1 medium onion-chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked arborio rice

1 egg

2 packages turkey or brown gravy mix (enough to make 3 or 4

cups)

Dash of paprika to add to the gravy mix.

Add all ingredients in mixing bowl and gently mix and form into

3 inch balls. Place in baking dish (I use my cast iron skillet) and

bake 30 minutes until fully cooked, no longer pink in the middle.

Make gravy according to package directions and pour over

cooked porcupine balls. Serve with bread or noodles. Makes

about 18 porcupine balls.

There's no added salt in this recipe, the gravy mix adds enough to give this dish alot of taste.

I mixed this easy side dish up and baked it in the oven with the porcupine balls. It is simply 3 cups of chopped cauliflower, 1/2 cup fat free sour cream, 2 tsp. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix, 6 thinly sliced pats of butter and about 2 tsp. freshly chopped chives. Again, just mix everything together toss in the oven, stirring occasionally.