Chicken Veggie Meatballs with Pesto Zucchini "Noodles"

I made this tasty little dish for dinner last night.  Isaac went back for seconds and Marin actually had a few bites-- which is a major accomplishment these days. Major.

Now, just to get one thing straight... this is a "paleo" recipe. I'm not normally into this kind of thing, but have been trying to make healthy dinners for Isaac and I (mostly so I won't gain a million pounds while pregnant) and this yummy dish popped up in Pinterest. Thank you, Pinterest. It made quite a few meatballs and I thought we'd have enough left over for dinner another night this week, but Isaac ate them all. They were small meatballs, so I guess I'll give him that. They are actually the perfect size for kids, in my opinion. So if your kids won't eat veggies, like my little one, then this is a good way to secretly squeeze some in! 

There were a few things I didn't have on hand and I used some other ingredients instead. For instance, I only had 1 zucchini and opted to use it for the noodles, instead of in the meatballs. All my changes/substitutions are noted below in bold. They were very easy to make, just for the record. 

Ingredients:
Chicken Veggie Meatballs

• 1 cup zucchini, chopped (about 1 zucchini) (I used half a bag of broccoli slaw I bought at the store in place of the zucchini. It included broccoli, carrots and cabbage, so I also omitted the extra carrots below)
• 1 cup carrots, chopped (about 2 medium carrots)
• 1 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cup blanched almond flour (I used oat flour, I'm sure any flour would do) 
• 1 egg
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used ground chicken, made it so much easier) 
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 2 teaspoon chili powder (optional... I did NOT use this)

Paleo Spinach Pesto

• 2 cups fresh spinach (I had a bag of spinach/kale blend. Worked great)
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Zucchini Noodles

• 1 to 2 large zucchini's (I just used 1, wish I would have had 2 for this)
• 1 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Chicken Veggie Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a food processor, pulse together the zucchini, carrots, parsley and garlic.
3. Add almond flour, egg, chicken and pulse.
4. Then add salt, pepper and chili powder and process until thoroughly combined.
5. Drop tablespoon size balls of the chicken mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake 23 to 28 minutes.

Paleo Spinach Pesto

1. In a food processor, add spinach, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Turn food processor on and add olive oil while processing.  Pulse until blended thoroughly.  If you need to add more olive oil add 1 tablespoon at a time.

Zucchini Noodles

1. Cut zucchini with a mandoline into "noodles".
2. In a skillet heat 1 tablespoons coconut oil, saut zucchini with minced garlic and salt and pepper to taste until soft or resembles noodles.  Toss noodles with spinach pesto and heat for about 1 minutes.