Swedish Meatballs

I am back on reset before I start phase 3 of the PINK method...I never thought I would stick to it this long but it truly has become a lifestyle change for me. In all honesty, I still walk by all the awful stuff in the grocery store and think, "Oh, I bet that would taste good or Oh, I used to love those" but it doesn't really go beyond that. I no longer feel deprived or find myself craving things like I did in the beginning and I can easily walk away and be okay. I will admit I do like to sniff things occasionally, yesterday at Costco it was the cinnamon swirl bread, I picked it up, sniffed it and walked away, that is okay right? It is a good thing sniffing doesn't add calories because I sniffed that bread a good long time.

Now that you are all grossed out by my sniffing habit, back to reset. I started reset on Friday and made up a huge batch of meatballs and have pretty much been living off of them the last few days. I know I have shared with you my meatball recipe before in my very first post but I have since tweeked it ever so slightly and I don't think I have ever done a step by step picture tutorial so I thought I would share again. I also made up a big batch of marinara sauce and had spaghetti and meatballs for lunch or dinner at least 3 times over the weekend. Come Sunday night, I needed a change to my meatball routine and my sweet hubby suggested I make a swedish style meatball using my vegan alfredo recipe. He is a genius I tell you...Thanks for the inspiration!

Turkey Meatballs
1 package lean ground turkey (I got mine from Costco and it was about 1 1/2 pounds, in the standard grocery store they are usually about 20 ounces so just over a pound)
1 cup loosely packed spinach
1/3 large red onion
2 carrots
1/2 red bell pepper
Dash of Original Mrs. Dash
Dash of  Pepper
1 tbsp Bragg's (you could omit, or simply sub in a little low sodium soy sauce, it adds a little flavor to the meatballs)
1 tsp minced garlic

Method

Start by dicing up your vegetables in your blender of food processor until they are finely diced

Add your vegetables to your ground turkey along with your seasonings, Bragg's and garlic to the meat

Stir to combine...I always use my hands it just works better to incorporate it all.

At this point we need to do a little math to figure out what a serving is. Here is how I figure it out. Start by looking at your package to see how many ounces there are. In my case it was 1 pound 8 ounces. There are 16 ounces in a pound so the 16 plus the 8 gives me 24 ounces. I know that on PINK I am allowed 4 ounces of protein so if you divide 24 by 4 I should get 6 servings out of my meat/vegetable concoction. You can now start forming your meatballs to whatever size you want, just know that you need 6 equal portions if you have 24 ounces of meat, if you have a standard 20 ounce package you would get 5 servings. I like a smaller one bite size meatball so I ended up making 48 small meatballs which gives you 8 meatballs per serving. If you want bigger meatballs, make them bigger and aim for 6 meatballs per serving in which case you would want to get 36 meatballs. Again remember, I had a larger package of ground turkey so if you are using the standard 20 ounce package, you will only get 5 servings not six. I hope that helps.

Form small meatballs using your hands and place on a lined baking sheet. I use a silicone baking sheet but parchment paper would work fine also or you could just spray your pan with some olive oil. As you will see, the vegetables give off a lot of juice and the meatballs will want to stick so use something.

Bake in the over at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, again the time will vary depending on how large you make your meatballs. I also like my meat very well done so to some of you, you may say they look burnt to me they are perfect.

These freeze great and are great to have on hand for a quick meal. I've used them for my protein in a salad, made zucchini noodle spaghetti and meatballs and last night I made a quick vegan alfredo/white sauce to make Swedish meatballs that my entire family ate without complaint not know how healthy their dinner was. Here is the link to the alfredo/white sauce recipe.

Simply make the white sauce add to a pan and heat until it thickens. I added a little more almond milk to my sauce last night because I didn't want it as thick.

When your meatballs are done, simply add them to the sauce pan, stir to coat with sauce and you are ready to serve. I served mine with cauliflower mash and a little vegan summer squash gratain, made by smearing some of the vegan alfredo/white sauce on the bottom of the pan, laying out your squash and drizzling over a little more sauce and seasoning and baking in the oven along side the meatballs. My husband and kids had normal mashed potatoes and the gratain.

Enjoy!