Turkey and Spinach Meatballs

Here I go again with another meatball recipe. I still have a bunch of ground turkey in the freezer from my big trip to Wegman's a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I'd make another batch of meatballs. I looked around the kitchen and here's what I've come up with.

1 lb ground turkey
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup frozen, chopped spinach
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground pepper
1 cup gluten free panko
1 egg

Put the ground turkey into a mixing bowl.

Mince the onion. Put the coconut oil in a pan and melt it on medium heat, then add the onion. Sautee the onion until it starts to brown. Remove the onion from the pan using a slotted spoon and add it to the bowl with the ground turkey.Add the spinach to the sautee pan, and cook until no longer frozen. This will help cook off some of the moisture from being frozen.Add the ground pepper. This mixture is pretty wet which is why I add the panko at this point. If you can't find GF panko at your store, just use some crushed rice chex. Sometimes I have to use that, so I put it into the food processor until it gets to the desired consistency.

So it turns out I used too much panko. No problem. I grabbed an egg and whisked it up. Once I added that to the mixture it was perfect. Not too wet, not too dry. This is what happens when you write a recipe on the fly. Sometimes you just have to improvise. I think this actually turned out better anyway, because the added bulk of the panko meant the recipe yielded more meatballs.

Now form your meatballs. I use this awesome little 1 inch meatballer. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite kitchen tools.

Put the meatballs on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper so the don't stick. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through the cooking time.

I got 29 meatballs from this recipe. The 29th one kind of pissed me off at first, ruining my nice, neat lines, bt then I realized it gave me one to taste when they are done. Man these things are good!

These will make great snacks, they'll be good over salad greens, and they'd also be great with some tzatiki sauce.

Turkey-Apple-Bacon Sliders

A few weeks ago I made these chicken-apple-bacon-sliders. The recipe was good, but I found the mixture to be really wet. The original recipe is for a paleo diet, but since I'm not paleo, I added some GF panko and flax meal to help with the wetness. I also didn't have celery, so I just omitted that. This week I realized that Wegman's sells 3 lb containers of ground turkey for $2.99 per pound, so I bought 2 packages. I made some of these for dinner this evening, and made a bunch more to put in the freezer for DizzyFest. :)

Here's my version...

1 lb ground turkey
2 cups apple, peeled and shredded (about 2 medium size apples will do)
1 tsp poultry seasoning
8 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup flax meal (this adds a really nutty flavor)
1/2 cup GF panko
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients together in a bowl until well everything is well incorporated. I used my meatball scoop, but did 2 scoops for each slider. Form a large meatball, then squish it into a flat slider. I like to let mine sit in the fridge for about an hour before cooking to help then firm up a bit. Get your grill going to a steady 350 degrees. Grill the patties for about 4 minutes per side.

For lunches I like to serve these on a bed of mixed greens with some balsamic dressing. For dinner this evening I served them with baked sweet potatoes with honey-cinnamon-butter and some sauteed kale.

Here they are going on the grill...

And after a flip...

Ready for serving...

And plated...

If you've been paying attention you may notice the definitive lack of sweet potatoes on this plate. I had purchased the sweet potatoes that you can just steam in the bag, in the microwave, then my microwave decided to die. Hence, no sweet potatoes. Eh, it was still really tasty, even without the sweet potatoes. I'll do something with them next week. Anyway, I'm happy to say that I have leftovers, so I'll be eating these for lunch this week, in addition to the Mediterranean meatballs.

Mediterranean Turkey Meatballs

I found a recipe for sundried tomato and feta meatballs the other day that sounded good, but I had to give it my own tweaks. I used more tomatoes and feta than the recipe called for, but I also added kalamata olives, and since I don't have almond flour I used some GF panko. I also baked mine instead of frying them. Here's what you need...

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup minced sundried tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/2 cup GF panko
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp minced garlic

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then form your meatballs. I have a one inch meatball scoop that makes this so easy. I baked them for about 10 minutes, then turned them over to brown the other side for about 5 minutes more. This recipe made 25 meatballs. They are great as a snack, or over a salad of mixed greens with some roasted garlic dressing. You could also serve them over spaghetti squash with your favorite red sauce.