Baked Spinach, Garlic, and Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

Baked Spinach, Garlic, and Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

Flavor bombs, I tell you, and it’s no joke when I say these are da’ bomb! These large puppies are not only packed with flavor, they are the size of small cannon balls. I was searching the interwebz for something to make with my half-priced pound of ground turkey I found in the Reduce for Immediate Sale bin at the grocery, and came across several recipes for ground turkey meatballs. The thing is, I didn’t have all the ingredients for any single one, so did was I always do. I printed them all out, and mish-mashed them together to come up with this.

BONUS: Earlier in the week I had made some homemade croutons from roasted garlic-infused olive oil and grated Parmesan. I used leftover bread I took home from our company party.

Making Homemade Croutons

Gosh aren’t they lovely?

Homemade Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Croutons

They ground up in my Ninja perfectly to use as a binder for the meatballs. Keeping the roasted garlic theme in mind, I did a quick roast of three large cloves of garlic in my toaster oven for 20 minutes.

SECOND BONUS: The night before I had made a huge batch of our favorite side dish to go with whatever the heck meat we had (See I love these so much that I can’t even remember what I ate with them as in my mind they are the star of any meal.) I had plenty of this rosemary bliss to serve with the meatballs, so of course I carried the rosemary theme through to the meatballs. Recipe here ——–> Rosemary and Butter Red Potatoes and Green Beans.

Buttered Rosemary Red Potatoes and Green Beans

UN-BONUS: Sometimes my math isn’t so good. I was trying to figure out how long to set the timer so I could take the meatballs out of the oven about 5 minutes before they were done to zest some Parmesan over the top of them. I usually cook meatloaf about an hour, but figured I would check them with an instant-read thermometer at 30 minutes. So. I set the timer for 40 minutes. Why? I have no clue. Slightly on the dry side, but the spinach did help a lot with keeping them from being a disaster. The pan juices in the casserole dish poured over was also a perfect remedy.

Baked Spinach, Garlic, and Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

Baked Spinach, Garlic, and Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

3 large cloves garlic, peels left on
1/4 cup bread crumbs (from flavored croutons if you have them, or make your own!)
1/4 cup finely minced onion (I used the same Ninja that I ground up the breadcrumbs in)
1 pound ground turkey
8 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon dried, crushed rosemary (I crush the dried leaves with a mortar and pestle)
Pinch of dried thyme
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Ground black pepper, to taste

Wrap the garlic cloves in foil and roast for 20 minutes in a 400-degree oven (toaster oven is more economical). Remove and let cool, then peel and mince.

Meanwhile, process the croutons into bread crumbs, remove, then process the onion into a fine mince. (Store-bought bread crumbs are fine, as well as mincing your own onion with a knife.)

Processing the Croutons into Bread Crumbs

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and get ready to mess up your hands. Thoroughly combine all the ingredients using both hands.

Ground Turkey Meatball Ingredients

When completely combined, scoop out a large handful and roll around in your hands and shape into the size of a large golf ball or small tennis ball. (What is that size? A rubber squash ball?) Either way, you should end up with six fairly same-sized meatballs.

Turkey Meatballs Ready to Bake

Place the meatballs in a small oil-sprayed baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 25 minutes (not 40 please) or until an instant-read thermometer reads 160 degrees.

Remove foil then grate some fresh Parmesan cheese over top. Cook for another 5 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly browned. Serve immediately with any sides of choice.

Baked Spinach Garlic and Rosemary Turkey Meatballs

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

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Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

I saw this recipe just a couple of days ago that Pioneer Woman posted, and just drooled. I said right then and there, “I am SO making this!” The other great thing is if you go to her website and pin her post on Pinterest, Land O’ Lakes will donate 9 meals to Feeding America®, up to 2.7 million meals! I’ll give you the link down below.

My hubs helped with some of the prep, which was nice, but really there is not a lot to this. I adapted the recipe by halving it for our smaller family, and by baking the meatballs after browning them, not only because I’m terrible meatball maker, apparently, but because they were falling apart in the skillet. So what I did was after they were mostly browned on the outside, I took them out of the skillet to cool a bit, preheated the oven to 400 degrees, compacted them back into sort of round, then baked them for 15 minutes.

Meatballs and Seasonings

The plus about doing it that way is that you won’t have all that extra grease in the pan. I also omitted the beef bouillon and salt. Believe me there is enough flavor and salt in the rest of the ingredients that you will not miss it at all!

Changes I will make next time: I would use 2 1/2 cups of beef broth total. Hubby said he would have liked more gravy with it. Second would be to use flour instead of corn starch. Even though the gravy was “glossy” like the original recipe said it would be, I think the flour would make it all stick to the noodles better.

Even so, the fam ate it up and I’m good with that. The hubs called it a “glorified hamburger over noodles.” LOL! He said he would eat it again with those additional changes, though. Although the Pioneer Woman called this Salisbury Steak Meatballs, I didn’t find it to taste anything like that. Yep, a glorified hamburger. But if you want a fairly simple recipe to feed the family with ground beef and pasta, this is a great change of pace. 🙂

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman, Salisbury Steak Meatballs

SPECIAL NOTE: To help donate 9 meals to the hungry, click the following link and pin on Pinterest! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs. Thank You!

1 pound ground beef
3/8 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/8 cup spicy brown mustard
1/8 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend (or salt)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon corn starch (or flour) mixed with 1/2 cup beef broth
1 1/2 to 2 cups homemade or low-sodium beef broth, divided
1/2 teaspoon additional Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons additional ketchup
1/4 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (I used Stubb’s)
8 ounces wide egg noodles
Dried minced parsley

In a medium bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and mix well with clean hands. Roll and compact into meatballs. I didn’t do such a great job of compacting them, maybe you are better. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a large skillet, then sear over medium-high heat on all sides until browned. Remove to a plate to cool and meanwhile preheat your oven to 400 degrees. This is also a good time to put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta.

Seared Meatballs

Add one more tablespoon of butter to the skillet (with all the leftover browned burger bits) and add in the onions. Reduce heat to medium and saute them for about 10 minutes until fairly soft. While the onions are cooking, you can re-compact your meatballs up and place on a parchment or foil-lined pan in one layer and cook in oven for 15 minutes.

Baked Meatballs

Remove and set aside if your timing is off, like mine was. It’s choreography, I tell you!

Cooking the Onions with Browned Bits

Once the onions are softened, add the cornstarch or flour slurry to the skillet, scraping up all the yummy browned bits. Then add the rest of the beef broth, the additional Worcestershire and ketchup and the Liquid Smoke, then mix well, bringing up to a simmer (lower heat once it does).

Onions and Gravy

Now add your pasta to the boiling water. Cook pasta until al dente, drain, and pour onto a large plate or in bowl. The onions and  gravy should be nice and done now, so pour the mixture over the pasta, top with the meatballs, sprinkle some parsley over it, scoop into bowls, and chow down. Serve if you like with a side salad, French bread, and fruit.

Seared/Baked Meatballs with Brown Gravy and Pasta

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

 

Italian Wedding Soup for Rainy Day Blues

Italian Wedding Meatballs

After a pleasant burst of warm and sunny weather, this past weekend greeted us with wind, chill, and rain. So of course a big pot of soup came to mind when figuring out what to make for dinner. Italian Wedding Soup is one of my favorite soups, but I had never made it myself before. I didn’t feel like venturing to the store if I needed any ingredients for it, so I was tasked with scouring the internet for recipes that I could cobble together to make this soup with what I had. I was actually quite surprised I had pretty much everything I needed! I also finally used the last of the frozen spinach for this, so my next dish with spinach will finally have fresh. As with most of my recipes, feel free to substitute, add, remove any of the ingredients where it makes sense. Especially when it comes to using salt. I did find this to be only slightly blander than I wanted, but I’m sure the use of fresh lemon juice helped. I also added lots of extra Parmesan cheese to my bowl. But feel free just to supplement with salt if your diet can take it.

Cooked Meatballs

Concerning my dismay on boring food shots, I also wanted to start using some features of my camera that I’ve never really experimented with this time around. I worked on using the depth of field for my main photo of the meatballs, and I am quite pleased with the results! Oh, and one of the things I noticed about all the recipes I looked at, the meatballs were cooked directly in the broth. I was worried about all the grease that would leave behind in the broth, so I baked the meatballs in the oven first to render out some of the fat then drained them on paper towels. I’m really glad I did that.

Italian Wedding Soup

For the meatballs:

1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 green onions, chopped very small, including the green part
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon crushed, dried sweet basil
Black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking oil. (I didn’t spray with the oil and they stuck a little bit, so I do recommend it.)  Mix all the meatball ingredients in a bowl until well combined.  Form meatballs with your hands about the size of a quarter, maybe a little smaller, and place them evenly apart on the baking sheet. I ended up with about 40 of them. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels.  I also patted the tops of them with more paper towels. Set aside while making the rest of the soup.

For the soup:

2/3 cup baby carrots, diced thin
2/3 cup  chopped onion
2  tablespoons Olive Oil
Black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Regular
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 – 2/3 cup Orzo pasta
1 cup thawed frozen spinach, with 1/2 lemon squeezed over it
The other 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Meatballs
Shredded Parmesan cheese for serving

Italian Wedding Soup

In a dutch oven or soup pot, sauté the carrots and onion in the olive oil until the carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic in the last few minutes. Add the next six seasonings, then the chicken broth.  I only had 3 cups of homemade chicken broth in the freezer, so I used 3 cups of vegetable broth I had from my first attempt at making beef broth. You can read that adventure here: How to Make Homemade Beef Broth.  Bring to a boil, then add the pasta. Stir and bring back to a simmer for 10 minutes. Next add the spinach with lemon and squeeze the other half lemon into the pot.  Add the grated Parmesan cheese and the meatballs, and bring to a simmer again for about another 10 minutes. Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese on top and a loaf of crusty bread. This soup came out very thick, so next time I’ll either add additional broth, or reduce the pasta to 1/2 cup. This was a wonderful, comforting meal to have at the end of a very dreary weekend, however it came out so good I think I’ll make this often throughout the summer!