When my friends and I went home for Thanksgiving break during our freshman year at college, each of us carried a little extra, um, padding thanks to cafeteria food, binge drinking, and late-night pizza. One of my roommates, wore this extra padding mostly in her face, poor dear, and upon entering her parents’ home was greeted by her mother screeching, “Ooooh, look at my spicy little meatball!” While she may be tracing many things back to this in future therapy sessions, I’m happy to say that this (very well-adjusted) friend (as well as the others – myself included) lost that college weight not too long after graduation.
That said, here’s a little turkey meatball recipe that will allow you to indulge in these tasty little morsels without turning into a little meatball yourself.
Spicy Meat-a-balls
Yields 32 little meatballs
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground turkey breast (I get mine from my Farmer’s Market)
- garlic clove, chopped finely (or garlic powder if that’s what you have)
- finely chopped/minced onion (just a little; half of a small onion)
- 4-5 dashes of Worcestshire sauce (the secret ingredient)
- 1 egg
- Italian panko crumbs (start with about 1/4c and add more as needed. You can always add more, but you can’t take too much away).
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, roll up your sleeves and begin to combine. Remember, you don’t want to mix it too much, just make sure the ingredients are fairly evenly distributed. If it feels to mushy, or doesn’t roll into balls, add more panko. If the meatballs fall apart in your hand, they will definitely fall apart in the oven. Once you’ve gotten to the desired consistency, begin rolling them into balls. For consistency, I use a cookie dough baller (not sure if that’s the official name).
With this, all of the meatballs will be the same size, and thus, cook more evenly. I put the meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked them for 20 minutes. They came out perfectly 
Enjoy!
