Meatballs

Healthy comfort food.  It sounds like an oxymoron, but you can have a healthy meatball sub by simply making a few substitutions.  Choose whole wheat spaghetti or cut down your portion size of regular pasta, and you can have Spaghetti and Meatballs, also guilt-free.  Either way you serve them, meatballs are very filling, so pair them with a small salad and you're good to go!


Almost every culture has its own version of the meatball.  There are dozens of different spices used in different places around the world, and an array of cooking methods.  Here in America, we've adopted a mostly Italian version.  With so many meatball recipes floating around the Internet, it's difficult to know if you've chosen a good one.  Try this recipe with confidence:
Meatball Subs
Meatballs:

• 1 lb. lean ground beef or venison
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 T minced onion
• 1 T minced garlic
• 3 T extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 T chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 1/2 sliced whole grain bread
• 2 T milk
• 2 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Tear bread into small pieces, place in a small bowl and add milk.  Make sure all bread is saturated, and set aside.  Place olive oil in a small sauté pan, add onion and cook over medium heat until soft.  Add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes more.  Strain the oil into a 13 x 9 baking pan and spread around to coat the bottom.  In a large bowl, combine the meats, onion, garlic, parsley, soaked bread, egg whites, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.  Mix well with your hands, then form the mixture into about 30 meatballs, placing them into the baking pan.  Sprinkle tops with garlic salt.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the middle of the meatballs is no longer pink.
Sauce:

• 1 jar Barilla Marinara
• 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 1 T dried oregano
• 1 t garlic salt
• 1 t onion powder

Combine sauce ingredients in a saucepan large enough to hold the sauce and the meatballs.  Cook the sauce over medium low, just until hot.  When the meatballs finish cooking, add them to the sauce. Serve on whole wheat rolls with black olives and jalapenos (if desired), or over hot cooked pasta.
To lower the fat content of this recipe even further, discard the drained olive oil, and either spray the baking pan with nonstick cooking spray, or place the meatballs in the pot with the sauce, and cook over medium-low until they are no longer pink in the center.  If you're not calorie conscious, top the meatballs with shredded mozzarella, provolone, or parmesan cheese.