Cook: Vegan Meatballs Stuffed with Mac and Cheese

Tough case this week. I was in up to my eyeballs, sorry that's probably a bit inappropriate. Let's try this again. Tough case this week. I was in up to my elbows with this set of twins who were wreaking havoc by rolling a dice and then randomly spraying acid into people's eyes. The victims proceeded to scream and bleed and...well, you don't need to know all the gory details. Just know we finally got them.

Any the who, one of the themes of the case seemed to be that combining two things that history suggests shouldn't go together, easily can. We're talking games and death, acid and eyeballs here. As if to drive this idea home, every time I walked by a television the same commercial was playing. There was a father in the commercial who decided that the age old tradition of separating the kids from the adults during holiday dinners was no longer necessary. In the commercial, he pushes the two tables together and, despite some minor hiccups, proves that separation is not necessary.

Because of the case and this guy in the commercial, I decided to attack something that had been bothering me for years. Why do meatballs and pasta have to be separated? Couldn't the pasta fill the role that the colby jack cheese once served, giving me one semi-gigantic on-the-go meal? I found the answer to the latter question was one big resounding "HELL YEAH." Here's how the meal, chock full of balls and elbows, rolled out:

Vegan Meatballs Stuffed with Mac and Cheese
(printable version)

-1 cup of saltine crackers, ground to a powder
-1/2 cup of finely ground walnuts
-1/4 cup of onion, small dice
-3 flax eggs
-2 cloves of garlic
-1 Tbs. of oil (for frying)
-bowl of your favorite vegan mac and cheese (I used this one)
-tomato sauce

1. Mix the saltines, walnuts, onion, flax eggs and garlic in a large metal bowl. Scoop out a meatball sized portion. Flatten the mixture in your palm, take a little bit of mac and cheese and place it in the middle. Roll the ball around it. Set aside. Repeat until you have used all the meatball mixture.

2. Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet. When it is bubbling, place the meatballs in the oil and heat for five minutes until browned. Roll them to the other side and do it again (or don't, doesn't really matter).

3. Layer some tomato sauce on the bottom of a glass baking pan. Place the meatballs inside the sauce. Spoon some additional sauce over the meatballs. Cover the glass pan with foil and place in a preheated oven. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. Remove the foil and let it cool before diving in. The last thing you want is for your mouth to look like...nevermind.

This meal sounds a lot like this.