Turkey Meatballs.

It rained ALL day on Wednesday, which meant Jack and I weren't able to go out for a long walk on the beach, not that we would have anyways, but you get the point.  And I'm still housebound with the little guy.  He has been outside and to various homes, but we have not ventured out into a public place with him just yet.  We are trying our best to follow the Drs. orders, but let me tell you IT IS REALLY HARD!   All I want to do is take Jack to Babies "R" Us, during the day, where I will prance around and show him off to anyone who looks my way and inform them that yes, I really do have a baby.

So what's a girl to do with herself when it rains??  Well, make and bake some items of course.  However, my options were limited considering I could only work with what I had in the fridge and in the cupboards.  And after rifling through possible ingredients, I decided I would make turkey meatballs.   And I had a vague idea as to what might go into making the meatballs, but I figured I should play it safe and look up a few recipes online because that is what I do.  I find a few recipes online and then I decide which one I like best, and maybe take bits and pieces from a few and then improvise the rest.

I landed on these two recipes - Giada's recipe from the Food Network and a random one from AllRecipes.

Giada's Ingredients
1 small onion, grated
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
3 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pound ground dark turkey meat

Check out the website for more detailed instructions.

Random Recipe Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg, beaten
20 ounce package ground turkey
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Check out the website for more detailed instructions.

And after comparing both recipes, I realized I had all the ingredients for the Random Recipe, but Giada's called for some speciality things that I just didn't have.  So I improvised!

My VERY Specific Ingredients
a handful of spinach, finely chopped
1 egg
ground turkey
1 onion diced
2 slices of bread - made my own crumbs with my food processor
dash of salt
lots of pepper
additional seasoning
a few squirts of ketchup 
olive oil or oil alternative for baking sheet

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a baking sheet with olive oil (I used coconut oil), and place it in the oven while preheating.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together ALL of the ingredients (minus the olive oil - that's just for the baking sheet) using your hands.

3. Form the meat into golf sized meatballs.  Place about 1 inch apart in the hot baking dish.  Press down to flatten the bottom just slightly.

4. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn them over, and continue baking for about 5 more minutes, or until somewhat crispy on the outside.  Serve with pasta and sauce or however you'd like.  We actually just eat them on their own with a salad on the side.

And you can also cook the meatballs on the stove.  However, I prefer to put them in the oven, then I don't have to standby and supervise, but you do have to remember to check on them otherwise they will burn or set the smoke alarm off and no I'm not speaking from experience (insert smiley face here).

Enjoy!