What I Ate Wednesday: Healthy Turkey Meatballs Recipe

By Janelle @ Run With No Regrets | nutrition

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What I Ate Wednesday: Healthy Turkey Meatballs Recipe

Jan 22

Howdy! I found a really cool linkup at Peas and Crayons called What I Ate Wednesday…a lot of other bloggers that I follow participate so I thought it would be fun to get involved!

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know that I’ve been regularly seeing a dietitian, and I have spent a lot of time logging my meals. Right now, I’m not focusing on that so much, but I think it would be great to share a “slice” of what I eat on a given day on the blog. Plus, if I make a recipe that I’m particularly proud of, I’d like to share it with you!

So for my first What I Ate Wednesday, I’ll share my Turkey Meatballs Recipe!

Turkey Meatballs Recipe:

First, I want to acknowledge that I found the original recipe for Turkey Meatballs in the October 2013 issue of Shape Magazine. As usual, I didn’t have all of the required ingredients, so I’ll share how I adapted the recipe with what I had available to me. I made this for dinner last Thursday night. While it didn’t go perfectly smoothly, the recipe is very easy!

Ingredients:

8 ounces spaghetti1 pound of ground turkey1 small onion, grated 1/2 cup grated Parmesan2 tablespoons of parsley2 tablespoons of basil3/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs2 tablespoons organic ketchup1/2 teaspoon garlic salt1 beaten egg2 tablespoons olive oil2 cups jarred tomato sauce

Directions:

Cook spaghetti following package directions, drain and set aside.
Place ground turkey in large mixing bowl and gently pull apart with fork. Add onion, Parmesan, parsley, basil, breadcrumbs, and garlic salt. Fold in egg.
Roll the mixture into balls, a bit smaller than a golf ball and place on prepared baking sheet.
Place olive oil in pan and heat over medium-high. Add meatballs and cook for 1 minute; turn and brown for 1 minute more.
Pour in tomato sauce and cover with lid. Cook until complete.
Serve spaghetti and meatballs, garnish with chopped parsley.

Turkey meatballs complete!

The original recipe required 1-1/3 pounds of ground turkey with 4 servings for people. I only had a pound of ground turkey and was able to make 12 meatballs with plenty left over for leftovers.

Trials and Errors:

Several ingredients that I did not have on hand include: 2 tablespoons of Pecorino cheese, 3 drops of Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder (I used garlic salt). I was really happy with the flavoring, but I definitely think having the extra cheese and Worcestershire sauce would have added an extra punch!

The biggest error with this dish was that the recipe called for it to be made with a pressure cooker. I don’t have a pressure cooker and I don’t even know how one works. So I used a pan with a lid and made it work. The meatballs definitely cooked too fast and as I tried flipping they over, they started to fall apart a bit. So I probably should reduce the heat if I’m going to jerry-rig a pressure cooker environment.

Turkey meatballs without pressure cooker

This was my first time working with ground turkey and my first time eating it. I have to say I really liked it! I was worried that I burned away too much of the flavor, but I really liked the end result. Bret enjoyed it too. But I want to make sure my next batch is cooked more successfully!

Have you ever prepared turkey meatballs? Any suggestions on how to pressure cook without a pressure cooker? What new recipes have you tried lately? Please share!