Turkey Meatballs & Whole Grain Pasta - 500 Calorie Meal

Tonight for dinner, I made turkey meatballs with whole grain pasta. I love cooking and I will never share a recipe that I have not made myself. In fact, this recipe is something I just kind of came up with on the fly.

Let's take a look at our ingredients.

I forgot the cheese in the first picture! Oops.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees!

Grocery List:

• 1lb 93/7 Ground Turkey
• Whole Grain Pasta
• 1/2 c of Pasta Sauce (I used Barilla Marinara Traditional)
• 3/4 c Panko Bread Crumbs (I use unflavored, Japanese style)
• 1 small-medium onion (diced finely)
• 1 egg
• 2 T ketchup
• 1/2 c Italian blend cheese
• Spices (I used onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper - you can use whatever seasonings you like!)

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. For the spices, I just eyeball everything. But if you are of the anal-retentive variety - I probably used about 1/2 t of each. 

*Tip: When using dried oregano, crush it in your palm before adding to the mix. It releases some of the oils.*

Here is where we are once the ingredients have been combined. 

Combine well, but don't overwork the meat, you will make it tough if you handle it too much. You should be able to make about 12-13 fairly good sized meatballs. Place them in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray so that your meatballs don't stick!

Place them on the middle rack in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the insides are no longer pink!

Once your meatballs are in the oven, you can start your pasta water. Once mine starts to boil I add a palm full of sea salt and a splash of olive oil. Not sure if it makes any difference but that's how my mama always did it so that's how I do it! :)

One serving of whole grain pasta is 2oz. I am delusional when it comes to knowing portion sizes - so I pulled out my handy dandy food scale. 

This is what 2oz of pasta looks like. I also counted them and it comes to 78 sticks of pasta. I know no one will count them after they cook but I thought it was interesting any way! Since I was cooking for more than just myself, I measured out three 2oz servings and just eyeballed it after the pasta was cooked by visually dividing it into thirds. It's not exact science but it's the best I have!

My meatballs and pasta finished about the same time. Here is our finished meatballs.

You can see the one I cut to make sure it was finished.

AND viola! Our finished product!

So there you have it! A delicious and healthful meal that is really simple to make. 

Here is the nutritional breakdown.

Turkey Meatballs - 81-88 calories per meatball

2oz of pasta - 210 calories

1/2 c pasta sauce - 90 calories

I eat two meatballs with my meal, which with the pasta, ends up being roughly 476 calories. The meatballs provide about 8.2 grams of protein per meatball. You could also add a salad to round out the meal. 

I hope you enjoyed my first recipe post! I know the pictures are kind of cruddy but my camera kind of sucks! Let me know if you try it out and any variations you made!