time changes everything

I don't think it was all that long ago that I bought a bag of Nate's Meatballs for some recipe and wished they were a bit better than they were.  They weren't bad, they just weren't anything special.  The girl who rang up my groceries that night, however, thought they were the bee's knees.  So, upon some research, apparently that occurred two years ago.

Good to know, though, that Nate put those years to good use, because when I used "his" meatless meatballs tonight when I made Southwestern Meatballs with Corn-Black Bean Salsa from Clean Eating magazine, they were spectacular.  I'm not sure what product development took place, but they looked better, cooked better, and tasted better than they did two Novembers ago.

Not surprisingly, Angst begged persistently and loudly.  Angst Loves Meat Analogs (and Spinach).

I served the meatballs and salsa over a pilaf of bulgur and brown basmati rice and the whole thing was delicious.  I have never actually eaten a turkey meatball - I stopped eating animals around the time making beef out of turkey became "the new thing," so I never really had a chance, if you want to look at it like that.  Nevertheless, these reformulated meatballs had an appreciable poultry flavor, so I couldn't help but wonder if that was their aim.  The "old" meatballs were definitely more ground beef-y in both texture and taste, even appearance - they had that grayish color I could never understand why beef had.

The salsa itself was quite tasty, made up of canned black beans and canned tomatoes with a cup of Trader Joe's brand frozen corn and a teaspoon of cumin (because heaven forbid we make something "southwestern" without cumin).  It went well with the meatballs, and the chicken-y flavor actually worked far better with their flavor profile than a more beefy flavor/texture would have.

Thanks for reminding me why I read you, Clean Eating!