Turkey, Ricotta & Oat Meatballs
a delicious, macro-friendly variation on my Nana's recipe
All of my meatball recipes are based on the flavor of the ones my nana used to fry up in her tiny galley kitchen in Carroll Gardens. It’s been 43 years since she died, and yet the memories of her cooking them in her pink speckled skillet, wearing her housecoat are clear as a blue-skied day.
Meatballs and I have been on a journey since I started tracking macros five months ago. Actually, the journey started long before that when I was mostly vegetarian, and created this lentil ricotta meatball recipe, back when Michael was still alive. It’s been through a few iterations recently, trying to find a balance between still tasting amazing, being tender, and also not racking up too much fat and calories.
What’s important to remember is that like most everything in life, eating is about finding balance in the choices we make. Finding the sweet spot between skimping and splurging, to find that “just right” balance takes a lot of testing, and retesting. It doesn’t matter if a food meets my needs for macros if it doesn’t bring me joy when eating it—just call me the Marie Kondo of cooking.
I’m confident if my nana were alive, she’d be proud of this meatball recipe, even with the two biggest deviations of using oats instead of breadcrumbs and turkey instead of beef. I highly recommend seeking out D’artagnan brand ground turkey. I get it at my local health food store but they also sell their meats online. It’s by far the best tasting ground turkey I’ve tasted, and actually makes me look forward to eating ground turkey.
Be well, be kind & enjoy! —xo, j.
The recipe related to this post is available to paid subscribers. Join hundreds of other subscribers now for only $5/month or $30/year (that’s eight months free!). Specialty e-cookbooks are an additional benefit of paid membership at no extra cost.