Can you make meatballs/meatloaf without eggs or cheese?

[Hopin2Lose]

I bought a spaghetti squash for the first time and I want to make some meatballs to have with it. I googled low carb meatballs but they all have eggs in them and I can't have that. Most had parm cheese too. I can have the cheese if they would be totally blah without it, but I'm trying to limit dairy as much as I can (though I think I digest that cheese okay). Anyone have a recipe that's decent without the eggs? I'm allergic to eggs. Thanks in advance.

Bree

P.S. I hope it's ok to post this here. There's more traffic here and I wasn't sure which food forum to stick it under. Thanks.

[liv]

the egg is just a binder - not essential to the recipe so you can leave it out. You can add a bit of gelatin to replace the egg if you wanted. I sometimes add some flaxseeds (but this is not induction legal unless you use if for constipation issues). No reason to add cheese in the meatballs if you do not want to.

[not2late]

Check your thread about your eggless situation. I posted a bunch of links that had egg subtitutes.

[Hopin2Lose]

I did read that, thank you. However most of the substitutes aren't good for me either. There are a few I could use, but not for meatballs. The more common subs involved some flour, fruit, or starch. I can't do those. I also need to avoid milk so those with dairy don't work either. I appreciate the time you took to link them for me though and I will reference them for other recipes. It seems most people wanted substitutes for eggs for baking and those suggestions were good for that. I think I'll just make them without the eggs and see if they fall apart. Who cares? Thanks again.

Bree

[not2late]

One of the links suggested using unflavored gelatin as an egg substitute. Can you have that?

Editing to add, when you make meatballs or, especially meat loaf, you are baking---meat rather than grains. So the gelatin should work for meatballs. In fact, Cook's Illustrated Magazine had a recipe that used gelatin in hamburger not too long ago. And Chef Michel Richard uses gelatin as an egg replacement in some of his fried foods.

[quiltkat]

Hi
I make my meatballs with 2- 3 lbs ground beef, a box of chopped frozen spinach (microwaved for 3 1/2 minutes) - do not drain, and a couple of teaspoons of seasoning salt. I fry them or sometimes bake them in the oven.

[JulieB]

I make hamburger patties out of ground beef. That's it - nothing else. They don't fall apart on me, even on the BBQ grill. I'm sure you can do meatballs that way too...I haven't made any since I went low-carb, but I'm sure it would work fine!

[Hopin2Lose]

Thanks guys!

Bree