Turkey/ Chicken Meatballs

Meatballs are very versatile, and are a fallback-on-food when they have been made ahead of time. I buy 5lbs ground turkey at Sam's for around9.99. That's 1.99/lb (about half the price per pound at the grocery store). I make about 3 lbs of meatballs at a time and freeze them. During my dairy-free, soy-free days, I omitted the cheese and used soy free crushed pita chips in place of the bread crumbs. The changes were hardly recognizable.
A kitchen gadget that I use often right now is a cookie dough scoop. I use it to make evenly portioned meatballs. It also speeds up the prep time!

Meatballs:
Turkey/ Chicken Meatballs

1 LB ground Turkey or Chicken
¼ cup bread crumbs
10 sprigs of Italian Parsley chopped (optional)
1 TBSP ketchup
1/2 c grated Romano Cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 eggs
pinch of salt (especially if not using Romano cheese)

Mix all ingredients together. Spoon out onto a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Use a cookie dough scoop for evenly sized meatballs or form by hand to desired size. Freeze on cookie sheet 4 hours- overnight. Remove and place in a large freezer Ziploc bag. Label and use within 3 months.
When cooking, remove from freezer, place in a skillet over medium heat with a little olive oil, cook until browned. Remember to turn the meatballs over often until evenly cooked which is about 15 minutes.
-OR-
Steam them in the oven. Preheat oven 400 degrees. Take a jelly roll pan or other baking sheet with high side and fill with 1/4 inch or less of water. Pull 20-30 meatballs from the freezer and place in a single layer on the watered baking sheet. Cover with foil and tuck side over the pan. Cook/steam meatballs for 30 minutes or until cooked all the way through.



Uses for Meatballs:

Meatball sandwich-cut open a hoagie, toast hoagie to desired crispiness, remove, add marinara sauce and mozzarella or provolone cheese slices, return to oven and toast until bubbles form on top.

Stroganoff-Dice 1 sm-med onion. Brown in a skillet in olive or vegetable oil. Add meatballs, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, ½ tsp of garlic powder, 1 can of drained mushrooms (I leave out mushrooms). Add 2/3 can of water and stir. Simmer uncovered 15 min. Add a large dollop of sour cream (maybe 1/3 c). serve over egg noodles

Make an Asian-inspired Sweet and Sour soup broth. Add browned meatballs in 10 min before serving.

Italian Wedding soup