Are you looking for a small healthy changes to make to your everyday diet? Here's a super simple one: switch out ground turkey where you would normally use ground beef. This will save you a lot of calories and, of course, fat but won't cost you any of the flavor and will still give you an awesome source of protein. This is one of my favorite recipes that incorporates ground turkey. These turkey meatballs are so versatile too. You can use them in red sauce for pasta, like I did today, or put them in a more tradition barbecue sauce. Pretty much any instance where you would use more traditional beef meatballs, you can use these.
I also love them because they're baked instead of pan fried. Here are all the ingredients you'll need:
Ingredients:
2 lbs lean ground turkey
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 large eggs
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix turkey, breadcrumbs, carrots, zucchini, onion, eggs, Italian seasoning, and salt until well combined. Form into approximately 1 inch balls and place onto baking sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or lined with aluminum foil).
Bake meatballs for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and either serve plain or add to any sauce.
For spaghetti and meatballs: I make my go-to marinara sauce (I'll post that later) and then add the meatballs directly to the sauce once I remove them from the oven. I'll bring the sauce back to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to a simmer and cook another 10 minutes.
Note: This is a really easy recipe to halve if you're cooking for 2, like me!
Turkey Meatballs
Prep Time: 10 min. | Total Time: 45 min. | Makes ~15 MeatballsIngredients:
2 lbs lean ground turkey
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 large eggs
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix turkey, breadcrumbs, carrots, zucchini, onion, eggs, Italian seasoning, and salt until well combined. Form into approximately 1 inch balls and place onto baking sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or lined with aluminum foil).
Bake meatballs for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and either serve plain or add to any sauce.
For spaghetti and meatballs: I make my go-to marinara sauce (I'll post that later) and then add the meatballs directly to the sauce once I remove them from the oven. I'll bring the sauce back to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to a simmer and cook another 10 minutes.
