Turkey Meatballs

I’ve wanted to get back to eating healthier and have been searching for recipes that are low fat, low calorie and low carb….recipes that are especially diabetic friendly. One day while sitting at the car dealership for two hours waiting for my car to have some repairs done, I was catching up on reading my magazines and I was going through my Woman’s Day trying to find some interesting recipes. I have been getting Woman’s Day for the past year and I don’t’ know why….I know I didn’t subscribe to it. It’s not my style magazine….too much about beauty, families, children and pets….none of which have much to do with my lifestyle. The only saving grace is that there are always a few recipes and some information on health. It just so happened that the issue I was reading that day contained an article titled, “Comfort Food Without the Guilt” by Joy Bauer who is a nutritionist. There were four or five recipes in the article and all of them looked very good (that is unusual, most of the time I may find one or two in articles like this, if I'm lucky) so I pulled out that section and saved it to use later.

Last week after the Fourth of July weekend and days of eating a diet loaded with fat, sugar and carbohydrates and delicious as it all was, I decided it was time to try something new and healthier. I pulled out the pages that I took from the Woman’s Day magazine on healthy comfort foods and decided to make the Turkey Meatballs and a marinara sauce. I followed her recipe for Turkey Meatballs, with the exception of the ground turkey, I used ground turkey breast instead of just plain ground turkey and since her marinara sauce recipe was similar to mine, prepared mine instead.

Turkey Meatballs
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Marina Sauce or store bought sauce*
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/4 pound ground turkey breast
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 cup old-fashioned or quick cooking oats (not instant)

In a 5 quart saucepan, prepare marinara suace or bring store bought sauce to a gentle simmer.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the onion, carrot, garlic powder, Parmesan, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.

Add the ground turkey breast, egg whites and oats. Mix thoroughly until ingredients are well combined.

Shape the meat mixture into approximately 20 meatballs.

Carefully place all meatballs in the marinara sauce. Do not stir, stirring will cause the meatballs to break apart. If meatballs are not completely covered with the sauce, don't worry. Cover the pot and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid and gently stir the meatballs to thoroughly coat them with sauce. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

*If using store bought sauce you'll need two jars (26 oz. each)

Chopped onion, grated carrot, garlic powder.

Add grated Parmesan.

 

 Add Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.

Mix in ground turkey breast, oats and eggs.

Shape into balls...should end up with about 20.

Place in marinara sauce .... do not stir.

Place lid on pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove lid, gently stir meatballs coating completely with sauce and simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes.

Even though I was looking forward to trying this recipe, I had a few reservations…were the meatballs going to be as satisfying as the ones I make using meat? When making meatballs, I always bake mine in the oven….were these going to be completely cooked by just simmering in the sauce? Well, I was worried for nothing….the turkey meatballs were incredible! They had a wonderful flavor and were moist…..probably because they “were” cooked in the sauce along with addition of the grated carrot in the meatballs and yes, they were completely cooked.

These would make great meatball sandwiches but I decided to continue with the health conscious theme and served them over whole grain pasta. The pasta was an added plus….it cooked in less time than regular pasta and it too had a wonderful taste and texture. Who would have thought that healthy could taste so good!

Turkey Soup

I decided that this year I was going to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for Michael and me. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my eldest sister's house and had a ton of food but I knew we wouldn't bring home many leftovers. We did bring home a good bit of dessert though. I wanted to have plenty of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and dressing...but I mostly wanted the turkey carcass.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I was out shopping and wandered into TJ Max and found the cutest pasta....it was shaped like turkeys. I purchased a package planning to make turkey soup sometime after Thanksgiving.

How cute are these?

I prepared our dinner on Friday and after Michael had cleaned the carcass of most of the meat, I proceeded to make the stock.

Turkey Stock:

Having never made stock before, I had to do some research and between doing an internet search and the help of one of my BakeSpace friends, Vicki, went to work.

1 turkey carcass
2 onions - quartered
4 celery stalks -washed and cut into large chunks
2 carrots - scrubbed well (don't peel) and cut into large chunks
water - enough to cover the carcass, but not completely
2 bay leaves (my addition to Vicki's instructions)

Put the carcass in a large dutch oven and cover with water. Bring to boil. Then, simmer for approximately 3/4 to 1 hour. Remove turkey and vegetables. Discard vegetables. Bone turkey and refrigerate. (While boning the turkey, let the broth slowly boil to concentrate the broth.) Refrigerate broth so you can skim any fat.

I changed Vicki's instructions a little...Michael didn't have a pot big enough so I managed to get the carcass into a crockpot that he had just purchased. I added everything that Vicki instructed plus put in 2 bay leaves, turned the crockpot on high and cooked for about 5-6 hours.

Once the stock was ready, I strained it using a colander placed in a pot, covering the colander with a triple layer of cheesecloth. Once the stock has been strained discard the cheesecloth and vegetables.

Place the stock in the fridge overnight - the fat will rise to the top. The next morning, using a large spoon, skim the fat from the top of the stock.

The stock was very good, but I think next time I'll add some peppercorns and garlic cloves in addition to what I used. After further research, I found out that you should leave the peel on the onion (which I didn't) and also when using garlic. Leaving the peel on makes for a stronger flavor.

Turkey Soup:

After I skimmed the fat from the stock, I placed the pot on the stove to heat up. While the stock was heating up, I prepared the ingredients for the soup.

1 large onion - chopped
2 carrots - sliced
2 celery stalks - sliced
2 garlic cloves - chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups leftover shredded turkey
1 package noodles (approx. 14 oz)
1 cup leftover peas
dried thyme - I didn't measure, just sprinkled some  into the pot.
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, I heated the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes - add to stock, then add the sliced carrots and celery, thyme,  and bring to a simmer; cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Just before the vegetables are soft I add the pasta and cook about 7 minutes. Once the vegetables and pasta have cooked, gently stir in turkey and the peas. Simmer until heated through.

One thing I've learned over the years, while helping my mother and sister make vegetable soup, is that you can put just about any vegetable in. The recipe that mine is based on used corn and dumplings where I used peas and pasta.

If you don't eat all the soup and have to store in the fridge, the next time you go to eat it, your pasta may have soaked up a lot of the stock. If you have turkey stock on hand, (I had purchased two cartons for my gravy and dressing and hadn't used it all so added it to the soup) add that to the soup. Chicken stock can be used in place of the turkey.

The soup was delcious! Look at how cute it is too! Looks like the color disappeared from the little red turkeys....or the white turkeys gobbled them up....