This week I have another make ahead recipe for you. I loved the convenience last week of having food in the fridge to heat up when I was hungry and this week was no exception.
I am by no means a vegetarian, seriously. Bring on the meat. I honestly could eat burgers every day of my life. But when I grocery shop and cook for myself, I tend to not buy meat. I don’t know why, maybe because buying meat for every meal is expensive and that I’m just not good at cooking it. Seriously. When I cook chicken, it tends to get a little dry because I’m afraid of undercooking it. I guess I need to practice but I’ll work on that.
Anyway, I’m trying to make sure I’m getting enough protein and I had an idea to make meatballs. They’re not Swedish meatballs (which I will make for all of you sometime, don’t worry), but I saw that ground turkey at Trader Joe’s was $4.34 for 1.45 pounds which is incredible. And meatballs are pretty versatile. I’ve mostly made meatball sandwiches and pasta with meatballs (both are pictured in this post). But I also had ideas for meatball lettuce wraps, buffalo meatball sandwiches, plain meatballs with vegetables, and anything else you can use meatballs for.
These meatballs came together easily with very minimal prep. The only time commitment was the 20 or so minutes they had to bake, which was definitely something this impatient cook could deal with. Once they came out of the oven, half of them went into a tupperware in the fridge and the other half in the freezer! Super easy. What’s not super easy? Trying to take pictures of meatballs and make them look appetizing. So I included some pictures of the two meals I’ve been making for lunch and/or dinner the past few days š
While the recipe included is only for the meatballs, making the sub and the pasta are both easy. Some quick directions: Get a nice roll, slather on marinara sauce, cooked/warmed meatballs, some mozzarella cheese and put under the broiler until the cheese is melted. For the pasta? Cook pasta and in a separate pot heat up meatballs and sauce together and then pour on theĀ parmesanĀ cheese. Easy!
These meatballs are definitely going to be on my permanent meal rotation.
Baked Turkey Meatballs
makes about 25-30 meatballs
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 1/2Ā pound ground turkey
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 large egg, scrambled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil lightly oiled.
In a frying pan, heat up oil over medium heat and saute onions until translucent. Add garlic and saute one more minute.
In a large mixing bowl, add ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, basil and onions. Mix together using a large wooden spoon, using hands if necessary. Roll meat mixture into meatballs, setting them on the baking sheets.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through (no longer pink on the inside and golden brown on the outside).
Note: I stored what I would eat in the next 2-3 days in the fridge and then put the rest in the freezer to defrost when needed.
[source: a Confectionary Tales original]
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