Lamb Meatballs

Remember the extra special dish I was going to make to celebrate Jon finishing the first 2 weeks of his South Beach diet? Well, it was a Moroccan lamb dish that we LOVE. Sadly, our local grocery didn't have the right cut of lamb so that was a bust. Then I found a recipe for Greek Meatballs that used lamb so I thought I would make those, but I missed a couple of ingredients when I made my grocery list. Bust #2.

So what do you do when you have some ingredients for one recipe and some for another? Toss some stuff together and hope it works out! Good news-it did. So yummy! Here's the recipe:

Mediterranean Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 c chopped parsley
3 cloves minced garlic
8-10 dried dates, chopped
8 (or so) kalamata olives, chopped
1/2 Tbs Montreal Steak Seasoning (McCormick, or any grill seasoning will do)
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp (pinch) ground cloves

Combine all ingredients. Make sure the spices are mixed evenly throughout the meat. Form into meatballs (mine were 1-2 inches across). Place a cooling rack on a baking dish. Arrange the meatballs on the cooling rack so they can bake all around. Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes.

I served them with salad and mashed cauliflower, but I think they would have been even better with a sweet potato dish as a side.