Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Sweet Potato Fries

I apologize for all the Instant Pot recipes lately, but that appliance really saves me a lot of time on meal prep day. If you want to try this recipe and do not have an Instant Pot, you can sear these meatballs on a skillet, then bake in the 400 degree F oven for 15 minutes! Even if you do have an Instant Pot though, I still suggest searing the meatballs on a skillet instead of on the saute mode in the Instant Pot. Maybe it was just me, but the saute mode did not work well when I tried to quickly brown the meatballs. The ghee naturally spreads to the outsides of the pot, so some of the meatballs just stuck to the pot and were difficult to brown while keeping a meatball shape. Also, since I was trying to turn over the meatballs that were stuck to the pot, my hand just kept getting hit with hot ghee and that was not pleasant. I ended up just searing on a skillet and that was a lot easier, cleaner, and made me way less cranky. Anyways, I doubled this recipe below to get enough meatballs for the whole week, and also a few meals for my mother as well. I also ended up just adding a cup of PaleoChef Wing Sauce to make sure I had enough sauce in the pressure cooker and to cover all the meatballs. The meatballs turned out tasting delicious though! (Thank goodness because ground chicken is messy to begin with and that saute fiasco really was not pleasant whatsoever.) Also, I found out that greasing your hands with oil before making the meatballs helps the ground chicken from not sticking to your hands as much. I am not sure why I've never thought of doing that before! Anyways, I did not do a good job of selling this recipe, but the meal seriously did turn out tasting really yummy and I look forward to eating this all week. If you give it a try let me know what you think!

Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb ground chicken
• 3/4 cup almond meal
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 green onions thinly sliced
• 2 Tbsp ghee or coconut oil
• 6 Tbsp hot sauce (I used PaleoChef Wing Sauce)
• 2 Tbsp ghee or coconut oil
• Chopped green onions, for garnish

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine chicken, almond meal, salt, minced garlic cloves, and green onions.
2. Use your hands to combine everything together, but be careful not to overwork the meat.
3. Grease your hands with ghee or coconut oil, then shape the meat into balls 1-2 inches wide.
4. Set your Instant Pot to sauté setting and add remaining ghee.
5. Working in batches, gently place the chicken meatballs in the Instant Pot to brown them. Turn them every minute until all sides are brown.
6. While the meatballs are browning, combine hot sauce and 2 Tbsp of ghee and heat them in the microwave or the stove top until the butter is completely melted. Use a spoon to stir. This is your buffalo sauce.
7. Place all the browned meatballs in the Instant Pot, then pour the buffalo sauce evenly over the meatballs.
8. Screw on the lid to the Instant Pot, make sure that the pressure valve is set to "sealing," then set it to "Poultry."
9. Once the meatballs are finished cooking (about 15-20 minutes), the Instant Pot will beep. If you are eating right away, hit "Cancel" then release the pressure valve, making sure your hand is away from the opening where the steam escapes. If not, the Instant Pot will automatically switch to the "Warm" setting for the next 10 hours and the pressure will slowly lower on its own.
10. Serve over rice, cauliflower rice, zoodles. or just eat on its own!

Original recipe found here


My Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 4-6 Sweet Potatoes (Depending on how much you want to make. 5 medium sized sweet potatoes usually gets me 6 oz of sweet potato fries for 6 meals. I think my idea of medium sized is bigger than most though.)
• Olive oil spray
• Sea salt (I actually use Garlic Sea Salt on everything I cook)
• Optional: Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Skin and cut the sweet potatoes into whatever shape you want. I either do fries, wedges or circles.
3. Spray baking pan with olive oil. Lay down sweet potato fries flat (please do not just dump a pile on the pan).
4. I fill my Misto with olive oil and lightly spray the fries, then add some sea salt (sometimes cinnamon too).
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out of the oven and move them around or flip them over. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Keep an eye on them, if they are thin bake for less time, and vice versa. Key is to move them around or flip them over half way through baking them. I usually make mine thicker, so I bake them for at least a total of 40 minutes.