One type of meatball for many types of meals....

In my opinion, the secret to making homecooked meals when you're in a time crunch, is being able to make multiple meals from one starting point. Remember Sunday = Meatday? That's a perfect example of taking one main food, like chicken breasts, and using it to make cooking throughout the week easier.

Today I used the same idea with meatballs. Taking a large package of extra lean ground turkey, I made both small and large meatballs. Brandon used the large meatballs with tomato sauce in his dinner. I took the smaller meatballs and made an eggdrop meatball soup (super tasty....for the recipe see below!). We still have a bunch of meatballs left for the next couple of days - for Brandon's lunch he'll have meatball sandwiches and for mine, I'll put them on salads and in lettuce wraps loaded with veggies, sharp hard cheese and salsa. I also always save a few and freeze them in a ziploc freezer bag for those dinners when you run short on time!

One cooking and one clean up session that provides food for multiple meals - the only way to go in a busy family!

Turkey Meatballs (can also be made with extra lean ground beef/chicken)
1) Combine in one bowl: 1 package of thawed extra lean ground turkey, 1 egg, 1/3 cup of ground quick oats (I just throw my oats in the magic bullet until it is ground), 1 tbsp garlic powder, oregano (to taste). If the mixture is not mixing well, and is too dry add in some egg whites until it mixes well. If it's too wet, add some more oats!
2) Mix together until uniform.
3) Roll into balls that are approximately 1-2" in diameter (depending on what you want to use them for).
4) Brown them in a frying pan at med-high heat - depending on the size of the meatballs, this will take likely between 10 - 12 minutes.

Meatball Eggdrop Soup: 

Makes: 1 giant bowl :)

- 2 cups of chicken broth

- 1/4 cup egg whites*

- 1 tbsp grated parmesan

- 3oz of cooked meatballs

- 1/4 cup chopped leeks (the light green part) or green onion

1) Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium sized pot at high heat.

2) Add in leeks, meatballs and egg whites. Reduce heat to a simmer (low-med) and let simmer for approximately 10 minutes (until the egg whites have cooked and float to the top of the soup)
3) Put into a giant bowl and sprinkle liberally with grated parmesan. Delicious!

Calories: 228, fat - 7g, protein - 36g, carbohydrate - 7g

* rather than putting in rice/pasta/barley into a soup, a much more low-carb friendly option is to add in egg whites - when they cook in the soup they will help it to taste much heartier and give you a great extra bit of protein, especially when you are making a meatless soup