Tuesday's Food: Apple and Turkey Meatballs

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine delivered a large bag of delicious apples from her family's farm. I immediately went to Stephanie O'Dea's website, A Year of Slow Cooking, to see what kind of recipes she had for apples. After seeing the basics (you know, apple oatmeal, caramel apples, apple butter), one that really caught my eye was her recipe for Apple, Cheddar, and Turkey Meatballs. I didn't follow her recipe completely, which is normal, but I wanted something I could cook ahead of time and freeze for later. Since I was making a TON of stuff with apples, I didn't want to overload my family all at once. This one worked great!  So check out the recipe and see if it is something you would be willing to try for your family.

Apple and Turkey Meatballs (original recipe here)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pound extra lean ground turkey
• 1 egg (I actually used 1 Tbsp flaxseed and 3 Tbsp water as an egg substitute) 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 apple, peeled and shredded (the original called for a green apple, and I will probably do this next time) 
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
• 1/2 cup raisins 

Directions: 

• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
• Form 1 inch balls and drop into crockpot (you can stagger stack the meatballs in the pot)
• cook on HIGH 4-5 hours or LOW 5-9. I let mine cook down pretty good because I like a little crunch in my meat. 
• NOTE: if you are going to freeze yours like I did mine, make sure they cool completely in the fridge before you put them in the freezer. You do not want ice crystals to form in your storage from the heat. This will give the meat freezer burn. 

I served mine with white and wild rice and cheesy broccoli. We seriously at this up. My husband is not a big fan of "weird" things that I make (although he gives them all a try), but this one he said it was really good. So...YAY!