It’s been almost a month since my last post! I’m so sorry! Things have gotten really busy with school and working part-time. But now that midterms are over, I should have a little bit more free time and can blog! Although I haven’t been sharing my recipes, I certainly haven’t stopped cooking – a girl’s gotta eat! I’ve got tons of great recipes – so keep coming back to check what’s new! For today… I’ve got one of my favorites…

If I could pick one meal that I’ve made in the last month that is something I’ve never grown tired of pulling out of the freezer – it would be these meatballs and this sauce.

This meal meets my “clean eating” requirements, all of the ingredients are “real food” (aka unprocessed, cage-free, real foods…). The meatballs are subtly flavored, which means they will go well with whatever type of sauce you have on hand. I love this honey garlic soy sauce (that I actually made with a different meal and had leftovers of so have been using them with these meatballs!) but I’ve also used marinera/meat sauce and that is delicious as well!

Turkey Meatballs and Honey Garlic Soy Sauce
Recipes adapted from Cooking Quinoa and nlrockrecipes
Makes about 24, golf-ball sized meatballs and 1 1/4 cups of sauce

Ingredients:
Meatballs:
2 lbs organic ground turkey, cage-free
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 medium yellow onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup spinach leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce*
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
1 egg, beaten

Honey Garlic Soy Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1 cup honey
1/4 cup tamari sauce*
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

*tamari sauce is similar to soy sauce and can be found near it in the grocery store. It is a better alternative to soy sauce if you want to stay as close to unprocessed, real foods as you can

Directions:
1. Meatballs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking dish by coating in cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients until thoroughly incorporated (easiest in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment!). Using an ice cream scooper, take a golf-ball size of the meat mixture, roll into a ball and place in baking dish. Repeat with all of mixture. Bake for 35 minutes, turning them over halfway through the baking time. They should be golden brown when done baking.

2. Sauce: In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil and add minced garlic. Cook until garlic softens and then add the honey, soy sauce and black pepper. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, watching closely because it can foam up really easily. After simmering, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

3. Serve the sauce over the meatballs and rice.