Last weekend my family planned an impromptu family dinner. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, work parties and sporting events for all of the kids, time has flown by fast and we all hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks. Sunday morning I woke up to a text. Emails were sent back and forth, and by noon a family pot luck dinner for 14 people was planned, and we were all going to meet at my parents’ house in 5 hours.
I signed up for appetizers thinking that I could make a quick run to the grocery store and pick up something easy. I started looking through flyers and noticed frozen beef lollipops. I quickly researched the ingredients and, not surprising, the meatballs were made with egg and wheat breadcrumbs. The store bought beef lollipops were not going to work for my family.
I took a quick look at what I had in my pantry and refrigerator, and decided that instead of using my time at the grocery store, I could take a few minutes to make my own Gluten-free Egg-free Beef Lollipops.
The meatballs were super easy to make. I used ground flaxseed and pumpkin purée to bind the ground beef and seasoned it lightly with some sea salt, ground pepper and dried basil. If you don’t have pumpkin purée, unsweetened applesauce will work just as well. The trick to tender and juicy meatballs is to make sure you don’t mix it too much, as the meatballs will become too dense.
I used a full package of bacon and cut the bacon strips in half crosswise. I rolled one bacon strip loosely around a raw meatball and used a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. I lay the raw beef lollipops in rows on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet with space in between each morsel so they wouldn’t stick to each other while cooking.
After 30 minutes in the oven, the most delicious, tender and juicy hot hors d’oeuvres were ready. \
Wow your family and friends this holiday season with your own homemade Gluten-free Egg-free Beef Lollipops.
