This is a very tasty recipe from the book More Fabulous Beans by Barb Bloomfield. Meatless Pinto Balls are a guilt-free way of enjoying your spaghetti. Plus, there is no blood or grease, just pleasant-tasting cooked pinto beans, bread crumbs and disease-fighting spices and chopped onions. You can eat yourself well.

They are fairly easy to make. You will really get filled up if you put some of these on whole wheat spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. I like Muir Glen spaghetti sauce, because it is organic, not GMO. If you have any meatless pinto balls leftover, they are great mashed on some toast or crumbled into a salad.

Whole wheat spaghetti tastes wonderful and has lots of fiber.

Meatless Pinto Balls by Barb Bloomfield (revised by Janet Hailstone)

• 2 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans (home-cooked or from 2 cups canned)
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup onions, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 Tbsp Nama Shoyu  (This stuff has probiotics. It is a natural soy sauce from the health food store. Unfortunately, the beneficial flora gets killed off with cooking.)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/4 tsp allspice

Put all of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. Break off little pieces, roll into 1″ balls. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 for 30 minutes.

I’ve made these for my family. It is a big favorite, because they taste great. You will have leftovers since they are so filling. If you have kids, they will have fun helping you roll the mix into balls.