garlic herb turkey meatballs

I’ve been on a quick dinner binge the last couple weeks. I don’t know if it’s because it’ already dark outside when I get home from work or that I just haven’t felt like spending two hours in the kitchen every night.

Last week was the worst. My fiance and I had just returned from a week of snowboarding and were exhausted, sore and tired of eating out. I was also trying to catch up with a week worth of design projects and missed emails from my real world job, plus laundry, cleaning and giving my dog some extra TLC. So takeout and labor intensive dinners were out of the questions.

So what happened… I basically made a variation of these meatballs three out of the five nights. And then the wonderful people at Simply Organic contacted me and asked if I’d like to enter a contest where I make a delicious, quick dinner – a weeknight win is what they’re looking for.

So I grabbed their garlic herb kit, mixed it with some organic ground turkey, an egg and ground almonds. I’ve been subbing in ground almonds instead of breadcrumbs lately to cut out an extra unwanted carbs. I also stuffed these babies with shredded zucchini. Such an easy way to bulk up a meal or protein while also sneaking in some extra veggies.

The Steam Gourmet kit was super simple, I simply put six meatballs in each bag, tightly sealed them and let them cooked for about 20 minutes. What came out were the juiciest, most delicious meatballs. The seasoning kit had tons of flavor and these garlic herb turkey meatballs had the most amazing aroma.

While the meatballs were cooking, I whipped up a quick tomato cucumber salad and a greek tzatziki sauce. So easy – and it adds another level to the dish. Once done, you just let cool 5 minutes and then throw your meal together.

I went with butter lettuce, topped with the tomato cucumber salad, a meatball or two and some tzatziki sauce. You could easily put these meatballs in a pita pocket, add to a salad, or throw onto a crusty Italian baguette. Seriously, so versatile!

So part of Simply Organic’s deal was to create a Weeknight Win recipe that would be voted on for fun prizes. So if you’d like to go vote for my recipe (and I would be forever grateful) follow this link here. Voting lasts for two weeks, you can vote once per day and I really want to win, mostly for bragging rights but there’s also a cool spice rack I have my eyes on too.

Ingredients

garlic herb turkey meatballs
1 box Simply Organic Steam Gourmet Garlic Herb Parchment and Seasoning Kit
1 lb organic ground turkey
1 large egg
1 cup ground almonds
1 large or 2 small zucchinis, grated
tomato cucumber salad
½ cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
½ cucumber, diced
½ small red onion, diced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
greek yogurt tzatziki
1 – 8 ounce container greek yogurt
½ cup diced cucumber
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 head butter lettuce, washed

Instructions

garlic herb turkey meatballs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, seasoning kits from Simply Organic Steam Gourmet, egg, ground almonds and zucchini. Stir together until all ingredients and mixed throughout.
Form mixture into 12 medium size meatballs, placing 6 meatballs in each parchment bag with seam side up. Fold over twice and seal tightly.
Place on a baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes or until turkey meatballs ready 165 degrees F on a digital thermometer.
Allow to rest 5 minutes before opening parchment bag.
tomato cucumber salad
While the meatballs are cooking, in a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Gently toss and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
greek yogurt tzatziki
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
Refrigerate 60 minutes before serving.
to assemble
Take one leaf of the butter lettuce, add a spoonful of the tomato cucumber salad and top with one to two meatballs. Top with greek yogurt tzatziki sauce and serve.