Meal prep turkey meatballs (gluten-free)
These meal prep meatballs are the perfect high-protein healthy snack to add into your day. They make an awesome protein boost and can help you hit your protein macros if you’re tracking them. Here’s the quick and customizable recipe.
Hey friends! How are you? I hope you’re having a lovely week so far. Don’t forget to check out this week’s Four Sigmatic giveaway here, and I’ll have a new episode up on the podcast tomorrow morning. 🙂
For today, let’s talk about meal prep, now that I’m finally getting the hang of cooking again after our move.
(they don’t look pretty, but they taste awesome)
One of my LEAST favorite things about meal prep is eating the same things all the time. When I see pictures on Instagram of five Tupperware containers of rice, chicken (or worse: tilapia), and broccoli, I can’t help but gag a little. I’m definitely a creature of habit, but I like to change things up a bit each day. Meal prep for me is more about variety or creating pre-made staples of foods I can mix, match, or completely transform according to how I feel that day.
These little meal prep meatballs have made it easier to add more protein into my diet. I find that when my meals are more balanced (carbs, fat, and protein), I’m much more energized and far less likely to hit an energy slump. The best part about these meatballs is that you can customize the flavors depending on your preferences. You can make a big batch and eat them every day but make them a little different each time.
I personally prefer to keep them a little on the bland side (just salt, pepper, garlic and herbs) so that I can get crazy with sauces and flavors later.
Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy these meal prep meatballs:
-With marinara sauce on a tortilla pizza (I’ll add marinara, fresh basil, goat cheese and olives)
-With Banza chickpea pasta + a favorite sauce (butter sauce, marinara, or even just a huge sprinkle of parm)
-With marsala sauce atop zucchini noodles
-In an egg scramble, topped with Primal Kitchen Ranch, blueberries, and a piece of homemade sourdough
-With BBQ sauce on top of a baked sweet potato with feta on top (it sounds weird, but I promise it’s amazing)
The possibilities are endless!
Here’s the quick and easy recipe if you’d like to give it a try.
Meal prep turkey meatballs
A delicious and healthy way to amp up your protein. Make as part of meal prep, or enjoy as a quick dinner.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
Ingredients
- One pound of ground turkey
- 1/2 cup oats (can grind into flour if you don’t want oat-y meatballs)
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Optional: 1 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, splash of Worcestershire sauce
- Wine, broth or water to deglaze the pan
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients using your hands.
- Using a melon ball scooper, roll into 16 meatballs.
- In a large saucepan, heat a bit of olive oil and bring up to medium or medium-high heat. Brown until cooked through (I like to use a meat thermometer to make sure), about 7-10 minutes.
- Add a splash of wine to the pan and deglaze (you can also use broth or water). Scrape the bottom of the pan and allow to heat for one more minute.
- Enjoy immediately, or allow to cool completely before freezing.
Notes
- Meal prep: freeze these and reheat when you’d like to eat!
(Nutrition stats for 1 meatball: 55 kcal // 2g carbs // 1.6g fat // 8.2g protein // 2 WW smart points)
What’s your favorite meal prep staple?
Can you eat the same thing every day or no??
xoxo
11 Comments
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Yes I can eat the same thing every day — and I do for lunch! It’s just easier for me to be a creature of habit, and I have yet to get sick of it. 🙂 My lunch staple is roasted sweet potatoes. I meal prep on the weekends (cut into thick coins, roast at 400 for 15-20 minutes) and package up in containers for work. I reheat them at the office and then add cinnamon and enjoy. My coworkers don’t even know what to think of me, and I don’t envy their “where should we go for lunch today?” conversations, complaints about bad service/food, or fast food runs.
I can absolutely eat the same thing every day. I’m not someone who minds eating “leftovers” and since I consistently meal prep I feel like almost everything I eat is leftover! As Amanda said in her comment, my life is easier being a creature of habit. My favorite meal prep staple is a stir fry of ground chicken, riced broccoli, asparagus, kale, peppers, celery, carrots and onions. I’ve yet to get tired of it.
I do LOVE meatballs though so I’ll be giving this recipe a try!
For a long time I ate the same things over and over again because I was scared how my body react to new things. It took me a long time to build trust with my body to venture outside of my comfort. This is something I now help my clients with because I’ve walked in their shoes.
I eat the same things pretty much every day during the week for breakfast and lunch, but mix up dinners. I work full-time (and have 2 kids), so I make my lunches ahead of time – they’re typically ground turkey, a ton of oven-roasted broccoli, and a small portion of potatoes with butter. I usually eat that for 3 or 4 days and then eat the same thing but with chicken sausage the other days. It makes my life much easier and when I serve it with sauerkraut and mustard it’s actually quite delish!
Turkey meatballs are one of my fav meal prep options! The ones I do are in a crockpot with crushed tomatoes though. I’m going to try these so I can mix them in other things where I might not want sauce 🙂
I usually plan 4 meals/week and enough for leftovers 1x from each meal. I can’t eat the same thing more than twice in a week or I’m the same as you – I get sick of it. If there ends up being more than that I put it in the deep freezer and re-visit it in a few weeks.
Turkey meatballs are one of my favorites too!
My “beef” (pun intended) with meal prep is that I actually like to cook! I do prepare my breakfast ahead (either an egg bake or overnight oats). I generally cook dinner most nights and since it is just the hubby and I, our lunches the next day are leftovers. So I eat the same thing for two meals, but that’s it.
love this post. i’m so the same about those Tupperware with same thing on them!! I have to change it up!!
thanks for the wonderful ideas. I LOVE turkey meatballs!!
Excited to listen tomorrow morning 🙂
These look great! I have a recipe for mini turkey “meatloaf” which is basically 1.5 pound of ground turkey mixed with sautéed onion and garlic (cooled before mixing), an egg, and spiced such as salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme. I bake it in muffin pans and it’s great for freezing.
I can definitely eat the same thing every day which is bad because my husband can’t!
Yummy