Turkey Parmesan n' Spinach Meatballs

Over the weekend, I attended a fun little potluck with some friends of mine, and the theme of the night was Healthy Foods.  There was a lovely collection of fruits, veggies, vegetarian dishes, salads, and whole grain things.  I decided to bring these turkey meatballs because I'm always trying to prove that, in moderation and if done smartly, meat dishes can be healthy too. 

Ingredients:
-1 lb ground turkey (93/7 is what i used)
-1 tsp salt
-2/3 cup parmesan, grated
-2/3 cup italian bread crumbs
-1 tsp italian seasoning
-1 egg
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1.  Defrost frozen spinach in the microwave.  Drain the water and squeeze all the water out of it (as much as you possibly can) by squeezing globs of it in your fist.  These look hilarious, don't they? 

2.  Okay, so here is the turkey I used.

And the yummy parmesan.  Um, NO, i didn't sprinkle a large helping straight into my mouth as i was pouring it out of the bag.  What?!

Ooh, and the bread crumbs.  This, i for sure did not eat straight out of the container.  Cross my heart. 

Oh, i watched the movie Up for the first time this weekend, and every time the old man said "Cross my heart", i bawled my eyes out.  Have you seen it?  Oh my gosh.  I thought i was gonna lose it in the first 10 minutes of the movie.

Anyways.

Now throw in all the ingredients together and mix away! 

3.  Now, you'll want to form them into 1" balls.  Try to keep them to same size to ensure they cook at the same rate.

These were rolled by a very special sous chef of mine ;) 

Fantastic!  I put them on some wax paper until they're ready to go into the skillet.

4.  Heat a large skillet with generous amounts of vegetable oil.  Brown the meatballs by giving them a little shake in the pan. 

5.  Once all sides of the meatball are no longer pink, pour a little water (1/2 cup or so) into the pan and cover.  Lower heat to medium and allow to simmer.

6.  After about 5 minutes, break the largest meatball open to see if the inside is still pink.  If not, you're done!  Remove from heat.

Okay, at this point, you can either stick toothpicks in them and serve the way they are.  You can also allow them to cool all the way and freeze them for later use. 

What I did was to put them in a slow cooker with 2 jars of pasta sauce and set it on high for 45 minutes so that the sauce gets well-incorporated into the meatballs. 

They were so delicious that by the time I got around to taking pictures of the finished product...the meatballs were all gone!  So, by making delicious food that was turned out to be popular, I also screwed myself out of getting a final picture.  Oh well, such is life.  I demand a lot of myself as an academic, but as a food blogger, I'm not gonna stress out it :) 

Have a great Monday!  And may this week be better than the last (please please please). 

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.