Di's (Heathly and Yummy) Turkey & Bison Meatballs

Tom's out golfing for the second day in a row, so I decided I needed something to keep me busy. Plus, I've not had an open Sunday for a long time. (OK, so tons of laundry needs folded and put away, but who wants to do that?!)

Last week at the grocery, I decided to look a little closer at the meat section as I'm about sick of chicken (and chorizo for that matter). I finally found ground bison, not that I've really looked very hard before, at Kroger. I picked that up and some lean ground turkey. Time to make mom's meatballs!

I decided to document with photos just for fun. I've been following a few food and mommy-blogs and wanted to give it a try just like them.

Here's what you'll need:

1lb ground bison
1lb 93/7 ground turkey (watch the fat content because it can be just as bad as ground beef!)
5 slices whole wheat bread torn into small pieces
1 cup water with 1 egg stirred in
1/2 cup dried parsley
1 cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

I decided to prep all of the ingredients  in advance for two reasons. One, you need to use your hands and don't want to be washing them a thousand times just to get out the salt. Two, the girls wanted to pretend we were on a cooking show. :)

I had my assistants tear the 5 slices of bread into small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil and spray them with Pam.

Mix together bison and turkey with your hands until it is all the same color. Keep as cold as possible.

Pour in water with the egg. Add bread pieces. Stir until mixed. Let stand until gluey.

Add salt, pepper, parsley and parmesan cheese. Mix.

Use a melon baller or spoon to put onto greased, lined cookie sheets. (I actually used a tablespoon measuring spoon which was perfect.)

Bake for 8 minutes then wiggle each meatball around so they don't stick. Bake for another 8 minutes then flip. Finally, bake another 6 minutes. (Total bake time 22 minutes.)

Remove from cookie sheet onto plates lined with paper towels. This will help soak up any little amount of grease on the meatballs. Although, since the meat is so lean, there really isn't much.

Once cooled, they may be frozen. Simply add to your favorite pasta sauce and simmer!

All in all, an easy recipe. Next time, I'll add more salt, maybe even garlic salt. And, I may add some crushed red pepper for a little zing. This made 54 pretty decent sized meatballs. Here is the breakdown per meatball. (I've added the counts for Rosina Italian Meatballs in italics just for comparison sake. Not to mention these are made with ingredients you can actually pronounce!)

Calories - 44/80
Fat - 2 grams/6.5 grams
Protein - 4 grams/5 grams
Carbs - 2 grams/2 grams
Fiber - less than 1 gram/less than one gram

I'm thinking we can make a pretty healthy dinner with these by adding some tomato sauce and whole wheat pasta! Or, you could put them in a crockpot for a party and make meatball subs.