Easy baked turkey meatballs

Homemade ground turkey baked meatballs are perfect for feeding a crowd or freezing to have on hand for busy nights .

Hello from the beach! I hope you guys are having as great a week as we are!

We’ve been headed to the beach in the morning – building sand castles, zooming trucks around, splashing in the water – and then hitting up the pool in the afternoons – practicing our swimming, jumping it from the sides and just living it up. It’s been so great to have a week off (mostly) with these crazy kids. 🙂

And not to be short, but I’m ready to get back to it, so without further ado, here is today’s post!

I’m always tempted to buy frozen meatballs at the store. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up various brands and bags and thought I might cave and buy them.

But I can’t not look at the ingredient list, and every time I do, I think, I don’t really want to buy this. I don’t know what all of that stuff is. I’m sure I could make them better and cleaner at home.

So finally, I did. It took me a while because I kept thinking they needed to be complicated and involved. Wrong!

These baked meatballs are super basic, with wholesome ingredients and they couldn’t be easier. Mix everything in a bowl, roll up your meatballs and bake them off. Done and done.

And the flavor is crazy good! They are tender and perfectly seasoned and ready to be drenched in sauce and devoured.

The store-bought version has nothing on us!

A few notes for you on this recipe: 

• Grated onion is best, but I know it’s a pain in the butt. You can also finely chop the onion but do try to get it very finely chopped so you don’t have big onion pieces in your meatballs. (Guilty as charged: I’m lazy and frequently give the onion a basic small dice and call it a day. And the meatballs are still delicious but the kiddos are definitely more suspicious. Look at that, I rhymed!) 
• After you get these easy meatballs in the oven, start cooking some spaghetti noodles, throw together a simple salad and you’ll have dinner on the table in no time.
• If you want to use my easy homemade spaghetti sauce with these, like I do, just get the sauce going before you fix the meatballs and everything will be ready at the same time.
• Don’t stop at spaghetti! You can also use these baked meatballs for meatball subs, meatball pizzas, appetizers, meatball lasagna, meatball and veggie noodle bowls – anything you like!
• I use ground turkey but you could substitute ground beef.
• You can adjust the seasoning, too, to suit your family’s tastes. Add another clove or two of garlic to emphasize that or some extra red pepper flakes for spicy meatballs. You can increase the cheese to 1/2 cup to make them extra cheesy if you like.

Easy homemade baked meatballs. Some for now, some stored away in the freezer for later. I feel better already. 😉

(And I definitely packed a bag of these to bring down to the beach to make an easy spaghetti-and-meatballs dinner one night. We all loved it!)

Hope you do, too. Enjoy!

Easy baked meatballs

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Preparation 5 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Total Time 0:25

Serves 22-24 meatballs     adjust servings

Easy homemade baked turkey meatballs take just minutes to prep!

Ingredients

• 1.25 pounds ground turkey (see notes)
• 1/2 small onion, grated (or very finely chopped)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray for easy clean-up.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until combined. Be careful not to overmix. I usually start with a fork to get things somewhat combined and then use my hands to gently mix it together well.
3. Shape into 1-inch round meatballs and place on prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until done.

Recipe Notes

Serve these meatballs with pasta and marinara sauce, or stuff them into a hoagie for a meatball sub. Or serve them as an appetizer with toothpicks and sauce for dipping.
I use the 7% fat ground turkey; it’s lean but still has good flavor. You could also sub lean ground beef here, if you prefer.
You can easily double the recipe and bake extra meatballs to freeze. Cool then place the extra baked meatballs in a labeled freezer Ziploc bag and remove excess air before sealing. To reheat, just pop a batch in the microwave. Start with 1 minute then add time in 30-second intervals until they are heated through. You also can heat them on the stove in a pan as you warm up your marinara sauce.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
Amount Per Serving	As Served
Calories 55kcal Calories from fat 24
% Daily Value
Total Fat 3g	5%
Saturated Fat 1g	5%
Transfat 0g
Cholesterol 26mg	9%
Sodium 77mg	3%
Carbohydrate 2g	1%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Sugars 0g
Protein 6g

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

	Calories	2000
Total Fat	Less than	65g
Sat Fat	Less than	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g
Dietary Fiber		25g