Oven Turkey Meatballs

Last night, I had a craving for the warm embrace of pasta.  It was cold and bitter outside.  The leftover Christmas snackie treats had disappeared to the office to be consumed by the masses.  I wanted something that would satisfy, but also keep me in my daily caloric range.  Thus, Oven Turkey Meatballs were born.  Taking several recipes and pulling out the redeeming qualities, here is my creation which was fast, satisfying and gave me a tasty meal at roughly 500 calories.  I served them with my spruced up pasta sauce and rotini pasta. Personally, I am a big fan of rotini.  It holds lots of sauce in its little nooks and crannies.  If I was just making this for me, I would have used whole-wheat pasta, but since my husband thinks whole-wheat pasta is an abomination, I used DaVinci Organic Rotini Pasta.   I kept the 2% Italian Cheese Blend on the dinner table so we could sprinkle some over the top of the pasta.  My husband wants most meals to sear his taste-buds from spice heat, so he also added a decent coating of red pepper flakes to the whole beautiful mixture.   My pasta bowl had approximately 1 cup of cooked pasta and sauce with 4 beautiful meatballs covered with 1-2 tbsp of cheese.

Oven Turkey Meatballs

Prep time - 10 mins
Cook time - 30 mins
Serves 6
Makes 24 meatballs, 4 meatballs per serving











INGREDIENTS:
1 (20 ounce) package ground turkey (needs to be 93/7, the turkey should have at least 7% fat otherwise it falls apart)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (you could also add different seasonings to taste, next time I may throw in a little onion powder too)
3 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp Kraft 2% Milk Italian Three Cheese Shredded Cheese (you could also just use Parmesan)
Olive oil or cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.     Cover a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with aluminum foil (just for easy clean-up, you don't have to do this if you want to wash the pan).  Lightly spray with cooking spray or use fingertips to spread a thin layer of olive oil.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground turkey, egg, bread crumb, Italian seasoning, garlic and cheese using your hands. Form the meat into walnut sized meatballs. Place about 1/2 - 1 inch apart on the pan. You should have 24 meatballs total.  Oh and your hands will smell like garlic, even after you wash them.  For me, this is never a problem :)
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then remove to turn them over, and continue baking for about 10-15 more minutes, or until somewhat brown on the outside. Add cooked meatballs to pasta sauce to coat.  Serve with whole wheat pasta.

Since I was pressed for time and didn't feel much like making sauce all the way from scratch, I cheated a bit and made a semi-homemade sauce with rotini.  I started the sauce once the meatballs went into the oven, but you could start it before if you wanted to let it simmer longer.  Here is my recipe:

Amanda's Semi-Homemade Quick Pasta Sauce with Rotini
INGREDIENTS:
Olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 cans Eden Organic Pizza Pasta Sauce (15 oz)
1 can crushed tomatoes (15 oz or so)
A few shakes of Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste

2/3 or 12 oz of dry rotini pasta
Olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Start heating water in a pasta pot on high using package directions for guidance as to how much water you may need...  not that I ever do that.  I just wing it.
2.  In a large skillet or saucepan (I used one large enough to hold the pasta and meatballs at the end so I could serve the whole lovely mess from there), add a small amount of olive oil, chopped onions and minced garlic over medium heat.  Saute until soft, approximately 5 mins or until it looks right.
2.  Add canned pasta sauce and crushed tomatoes and stir frequently until it starts to bubble.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
3.  Simmer on low while pasta is prepared.
4.  The water in the pasta pot should be at a nice rolling boil so you can prepare the pasta according to package directions, adding a tsp or so of olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking.  I timed everything so the pasta and meatballs would finish around the same time.  Once the pasta was drained, I added it to the pasta sauce and threw in the meatballs as well.  PS, your kitchen will smell heavenly from the meatballs and garlic and onions and sauce.  You're welcome.