Eat This! Jim Trick's Meatballs

You know people who roll up ground beef, cook it, stick it on a plate with some spaghetti and call it a meatball...

I hope you're not that person.

If you are that person, I hope this post is gonna help get you back on your feet, turn things around and help you get back on the right road.

We are not making "beef balls".

We are making "meat" balls.

1 lb of good quality, high fat content, ground beef.

Yes, high fat...

Just settle down, you're not eating this everyday.

1 lb ground pork

Ask your butcher if he has any kosher pork available. It's not essential but he’ll be glad you asked.

1 lb ground veal

I know... I know...

Try not to think about it.

1 cup good Parmesan cheese

5 slices of the best sourdough bread you can find.

It needs to be a little stale.

It's a texture thing.

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons oregano

2 Tablespoons granulated garlic (not garlic salt and not fresh garlic)

Why?

Because I said so!!!!

Kidding.

Not kidding...

We're gonna seer these at a pretty high temp.

Fresh garlic does not like to be burned.

1 Tablespoon thyme

Thyme is one of the things that’s gonna to make people say "wow, these are good.. what is that thing?"

You are going to say "glad you like em" and your not going to say anything else... right? RIGHT????

Salt to taste which means more than you would normally use.

Pepper... whatever.. use some pepper... don't go nuts. I'm trusting you here.

2 tsps cayenne pepper

This is non negotiable.

But Jim, I don't like spicy food!

2 teaspoons of cayenne is not going to make this hot.

It is going to give these meatballs depth.

You need to be brave here.

I actually want you to use more, but I don't want to upset you and I know how you can be.

3 eggs

UN SEASONED PANKO!!! (We will discuss the quantity later)

It's written in all caps...

I'm yelling.

Ok lets make these suckers

WASH

YOUR

HANDS

Take off your ring.

It's a symbol of your love, not the love itself.

You’re still married if you take it off to make meatballs.

In a big bowl, mix all the meat, eggs, spices and seasonings.

You are going to use your hands for this and it's gonna be fun....

You have cayenne pepper in here so please don't touch your eyes.

In a separate bowl moisten your stale sourdough with the cream.

You want the bread moist but you sill want it to resemble bread.

Moist, stale bread.

Yummy?

It’s gonna be!

Ok so here come the 2nd mixing.

Bread goes in to the meat mixture and your hands are gross again!

Gonna be worth it, I promise.

Ok so now let's talk about our panko.

This next step requires some intuition.

Your mix is pretty wet.

If you dumped all the cream on the bread and if the whole mess is looking really loose, use more panko crumbs.

If on the other hand it's feeling like you can form it into slightly larger than golf ball sized balls and they’re keeping their shape, use less.

Use your intuition.

You’ve got this.

Roll your meatballs and place em on a big platter.

I don't know how many we are gonna get but I do know they are going to be awesome!

Get your ginormous, well seasoned, cast iron frying pan. (or whatever you have) and heat some canola oil (not olive oil) over medium high heat.

In SMALL batches brown your meatballs and at the same time be heating your sauce over medium heat.

Ok,I love you.

I really do, seriously, but I'm not giving you my sauce recipe.

If you are not making your own then use Prego, and NEVER quote me or tell anyone I said that.

Don't get fancy prego, the basic stuff is what you want.

As the meatballs brown add them to your pot of heating sauce. When all of your meatballs are in the sauce, lower the heat to simmer and walk away.

How long?

How long you got?

The sauce is going to cook the inside of the meat balls and the meatballs are going to flavor the sauce.

Feel the synergy!

Let this rock out on the stove top for at least two hours.

Longer is better in my book.

When your gut tells you they are done, sneak a couple....

Delicious right?

My body after losing 200 lbs

My body once weighed 430 lbs.

Can you imagine?

Perhaps you can.

I understand if you can’t.

For typical people it’s unfathomable…

If you’ve been there you know all the secrets.

Hygiene was a challenge.

Relationships seemed impossible.

Clothes cost twice as much and stylish threads were hard to come by.

As a child, kids were cruel.

As an grown up, adults were ignorant. (and sometimes cruel)

I learned to cope.

I learned to manage.

I learned to love myself, find my motivation and change.

Now I’d like to give you the skinny on the extra skin.

There’s a lot of it.

It sags…

It ripples…

It rolls…

The stretch marks that used to bum me out are a distant afterthought now.

Think about how hard my skin had to work.

How it stretched beyond its job description and yet still did its job.

Imagine the pain it felt when being crammed into a seat in a theater.

For those of you who have been there I’ll say two words.

“Arm rests”

I realized the other day that for all the loving, accepting space I hold for clients as a life coach, my thoughts towards my new body are not always very loving or accepting.

Part of my personal work this year is about shifting perspectives on how I see my new body.

My body is not gross and my skin is not disgusting.

If I see it as those things what I’m really saying is “I’m gross” and “I’m disgusting”.

I’m not…

Neither are you…

How I am moving towards loving my body?

1. Giving thanks daily for one part of my body that served me well that day. It could be my hands on a guitar, my feet that got me from here to there or my heart that kept beating without me even thinking about it.

2. Eating really healthy, delicious food as an act of self love rather than a torturous chore.

3. Seeing my body as a dear friend. To be here for it and listen to what it has to say. To be trustworthy and to encourage it through thick and thin. (Pardon the pun) Like a true friend, to never give up on it.

I’ll close this piece with a quote from the great Leonard Cohen.

“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

May your seemingly broken places create passage ways for light to shine on your beauty and goodness.

To learn more about overcoming the challenge of change, check out my first book, co-authored with Brant Menswar. Click here for more information.

Jim Trick is a certified life & professional coach, passionate about working with individuals longing to live with greater freedom, fulfillment and success. For more information or to schedule a session email ThatLifeNow@gmail.com  All sessions are held over the phone or video with people from all over the globe.

The Wisdom of Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss has written a bunch of best selling personal development books and has created one of the best podcasts going, but his real strength is that of being a self proclaimed “human guinea pig. It’s one thing to write about what other people have accomplished, but actually testing those methods and strategies on yourself is an entirely different matter.

In his most recent book Tools of Titans, he distills the practices of hundreds of the world’s top performers and shares them in a manner that is both personal and incredibly motivating. I’m not the human guinea pig that Tim is, but I have benefitted from his work greatly.

Here are a handful of the areas he talks about that I’ve applied to my own life and greatly appreciate.

1. Win the morning and you win the day.

Starting your day with a half dozen, groggy snooze button hits and then diving right into social media and email might work for some, but not for me. Meditation, journaling, hydration, protein consumption and exercise can all be done in an hour or less. If you don’t believe me, consider his next idea.

2. Minimal Effective Dose.

From cardio to career building Ferriss, when facing a new challenge asks himself a simple question. “What if this was easy?” Why run five miles if you can get the same results from a one mile, intense sprint? Why engage complicated diet routines when by eating the same lean meats, beans, and veggies daily and avoiding fruit, white foods (bread, potatoes, pasta), and sugar six days a week can transform your body? He says on the seventh day you can go completely crazy and it will still work. I did it and it does. Think about the mountain you’re trying to climb and ask yourself the same question.

3.  Fear is not your enemy.

Fear gets a bad rap, but it’s actually really important. Fear has protected you in a million ways every day of your life. Ferriss is quoted as saying  “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” In his new show FearLess he focuses not on being without fear but just fearing less and applying or overcoming fear when it makes sense. The fear could be about asking her to marry you or finally setting out on a new career path. Maybe there’s a hobby or activity you’re curious about but fear is holding you back. Rather than avoiding your fear you could lean into it and finally learn what it’s about and whether or not it’s serving you.

I hope you found these items helpful. If so please like, subscribe and share.

Jim Trick is a certified life & professional coach, passionate about working with individuals longing to live with greater freedom, fulfillment and success. For more information or to schedule a session email ThatLifeNow@gmail.com  All sessions are held over the phone or video with people from all over the globe.