Halloween is a great time to serve spaghetti and meatballs, especially when the meatballs have extra nutritious ingredients and also have green olives that make them look like eyeballs. Although all of us have eyeballs which aren’t scary, they are considered scary at Halloween, particularly when they are staring up at us from a pot. These easy Bloody Eyeballs can be made ahead and frozen. When it’s time to serve them, they can simply be put in spaghetti sauce, either homemade or canned, and heated in the slow cooker.

Although the meatballs can be rolled into balls by hand, a 1” scoop makes round meatballs not only quickly, but also uniform in size. These meatballs are a bit different than standard meatballs, since they contain extra nutrition in the form of carrots and zucchini, which add moisture, and also cold-milled flax and whole wheat bread crumbs. Round out the meal by serving these Bloody Eyeballs over whole wheat pasta; add a tossed salad and crusty bread.

8 Servings

Meatballs
1 pound lean ground beef
2 tablespoons cold milled flax
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs, preferably whole wheat
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
1 egg
1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoned salt, or favorite seasoned salt

32 stuffed green olives

1 26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350°.


2. Mix the ground beef, flax, bread crumbs, eggs, carrots, zucchini, and seasoned salt well.


3. Scoop 1" (about a tablespoon) balls from the mixture.


4. Press a green olive in the center of each.


5. Place the meatballs on a broiler pan, olive side up, and bake 15 minutes.


6. Pour the Spaghetti sauce over the bottom of a 5-6 quart oval slow cooker; arrange the meatballs in a single layer in the sauce.


7. Cover and let cook 1-2 hours on low.


8. Serve the meatballs with sauce over pasta.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 247 Calories from Fat 132
Percent Total Calories From: Fat 54% Protein 24% Carb. 22%

Nutrient Amount per Serving
Total Fat 15 g
Saturated Fat 4 g
Cholesterol 66 mg
Sodium 1242 mg
Total Carbohydrate 14 g
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 15 g

Vitamin A 59% Vitamin C 23% Calcium 0% Iron 12%