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Last night a miracle occurred at our house. Every single person in my house ate the same exact thing for dinner. No one complained. No one whined. No dishes were strewn by an unruly toddler. It was the best night EVER!
This a staple meal in our house. William requests these meatballs every few days, we eat them a lot. They are really easy to make, relatively healthy and they make a ton, so you get two dinners for the price of one! I sometimes make my own sauce which I will also include the recipe for, but have used a bottled sauce in a pinch. We usually eat one batch over spaghetti and use the other half for meatballs sandwiches. I use turkey breast but have also used ground chicken and they are delicious as well.
2 pounds ground turkey breast
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup pesto sauce
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs whites
Mix everything in a bowl and combine well. Roll mixtures into balls. I use an ice cream scoop to make them all the same size. I put them on a cooling rack on top of a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with a little cooking spray.
Bake the meatballs at 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.
In the meantime, I start on the sauce.
2 onions diced
2 carrots chopped
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 garlic gloves minced
2 – 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes (I use San Marzano tomatoes)
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Saute the onions and carrots until tender, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Add the tomato paste, bay leaves, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and let simmer over low heat for about an hour. The sauce should thicken a bit.
Add the meatballs back in to heat through and serve.
These are so good. Make these and share them with your family. Hopefully they will become a staple in your house too.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Yummy Bree, these were great, my whole family loved them too.
I hope to make these on Sunday…yummy! Hope you received my email about a recipe desire to spruce up my sandwich…forgot to mention I thought avocado may be good on it?!
Great idea to toss in some pesto with the meatballs! I will have to try this recipe.
I love turkey meatballs I like how you incorporated pesto as the main flavoring. Great job!
I made these the other night and they were fantastic! I even threw two in the cuisinart for Baby Matthew to enjoy. Delish!
Love the photos and the way you lay put ingredients…will try this one…..I just made Asian flavored meatballs….
thank you! this is a regular at our house. my oldest son requests these all the time.
These look good! Have you tried the Panko bread crumbs before? Progresso makes some. They are really light and airy and are supposed to be good for you. I made homemade chicken nuggets with them recently. I also saw on Dr. Oz the other day to add cooked quinoa to meatballs to pump up the protein factor.
These are amazing! The kids, Jude, and I all loved them. I will definitely make them again. Thanks so much! Diana
Made these last night and they were delicious! I think they have magical powers!
http://happybabydesigns.blogspot.com/2010/05/turkey-pesto-meatballs.html
I am so glad that you liked them.
Thanks for this. I make the same recipe, but never thought of baking the meatballs — I usually cook them right in the sauce. Love the idea of baking them. They also freeze beautifully — just leave them raw on the rack in the freezer til they’re solid, then transfer them to a zip-top bag. I also like the idea of adding quinoa to the recipe. Will try it in place of some of the breadcrumbs. I’ve been making lots of quinoa salads lately.
I always have a batch of these in the freezer. My kids love them. I just bought my first bag of quinoa, I have never used it before.
Just made another batch of these and served it with a creamy Parmesan sauce. It was so yummy!
that sounds good!
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