Turkey Meatball and Zoodles

Lately I've been having a lot of epic fails in the kitchen... I hit a few bumps in the road with coconut flour and knocking things over. A pinch of confusion with a dash of clumsy.

I bought my veggettie (such a weird name in my opinion) from Bed Bath and Beyond for $15 -- cheap and worked pretty good in my opinion, but this is my first time making ZOODLES (zuchinni noodles... theres quite a few names for it).

I've heard of much better "noodelizing" devices. Yes I definitely just made up that word. But it works right?

Anyway, use whatever you like... Ive seen a noodle machine and I've seen people use julianne peeler), but this whole dinner was SUPER easy in my opinion for how good it tastes... my boyfriend and I both had seconds and I didn't feel one bit guilty.

I mean how can YA?! Its zucchini, turkey and yummy sauce. SO! Onto the goods...

This is in 3 Parts -- 1. Zoodles 2. Meatballs 3. Sauce Voila.


Part I: ZOODLES 

Rinse and dry off completely... cut the hard end off and insert the zucchini in the vegettie (or look up other ways to noodelize your zucchini) -- it will spiral out naturally. Drain in a colander -- the water will naturally drip down. You don't  want soggy noodles!

I added a bit of salt to give the noodles some flavor... this is optional but it tasted amazing. I used Pink Himalayn salt.

Set aside and move onto the meatballs...

 Part II: Turkey Meatballs

You need:

• ground turkey (2lbs)
• 2 tsp of dried oregano 
• 2 tsp of Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp of rosemary
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• salt to taste (a pinch)
• 1tsp of crushed red pepper
• 3 tsp of garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of mozzarella 
• 4 packets (2 cups) of quick oats *you can use 2 cups of bread crumbs, but I have oatmeal for days here and find other ways to use it)

Combine ground turkey and ingredients, mix well. I used a spatula. Get aggressive ladies.. its already dead. Make sure your spices are evenly distributed.

Make 1 inch meat balls and place in a large skillet/pan.. add about 2tbsp of olive oil to cook them. Put on medium heat. When the bottoms have cooked half way (when you only see grey colored meat vs pink colored) flip the meat balls and cook the other side.
*be careful not to overcook them, the mozzarella keeps them soft. (amazing)

Set aside and move onto the sauce...

Part III: The Sauce

You Need:

• 1 6oz can of tomato paste
• 2 10.5 oz jars of tomato puree 
• 6 oz of water 
• 3 tsp of garlic (minced)
• pinch of dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. 
• Chopped fresh basil (I used a small pack from walmart) 
• *I know some people like to add a little sugar to their sauce (which tastes amazing too) but I wanted to keep it as healthy as possible! 

Combine the ingredients in a pan and simmer on low. Grab the zoodles then heat them on low with a little EVOO -- sautée to the consistency you like. I didn't want them to get too soggy so I simmered them on low for about 3 minutes.

Finally, pull all your ingredients together and place in a bowl, everything should be relatively warm still but you may need to heat it up. 

When I say this was easy, I'm not kidding! If you're not a great cook and you're looking at this like WOAH 3 parts?! Thats a lot! Each part took just a few minutes to do. The longest process is the meatballs.

Ok so in regards to 21 Day Fix Containers -- you can easily place the zoodles in the green container.. so whatever you have left that day (if you're lucky and have 3!) then you're dinner may be a bit bigger! I used about 3 meatballs in a red container.

Zoodles = however many green containers you have left/want to use for dinner (this is different for each person based on their meal plan and how many containers they're allowed)
3 meatballs = 1 red
Sauce = 1/2 green container 

So just give it a shot, let me know what you think and enjoy!