Nan's Meatballs:
6 slices wheat sandwich bread (light and fluffy—not dense bread)
1/2 cup fat free milk
3 large egg whites
1-1/4 cups minced sweet onion
1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon salt
2 pounds ground chicken breast
olive oil spray
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, soak the bread in the milk. Let the milk absorb into the bread, then using a fork or your fingers, tear the bread apart. Add the egg whites and beat the mixture with a fork until the bread is torn into small pieces and the eggs are lightly beaten. Add the onion, parsley and salt and stir them into the mixture until they are combined. Then add the chicken, mixing until all of the ingredients are well combined.
Spray a medium, non-stick baking sheet or baking pan with olive oil spray. Using a meatball scoop or 2 tablespoons, shape the meat mixture into 2-inch diameter meatballs and place them side by side in a single layer on the prepared sheet or pan.
Transfer the sheet or pan on a lower oven rack and allow the meatballs to cook for approximately 12 minutes or until they are no longer pink inside. Remove the meatballs from the sheet or pan with a spatula, transferring them to a large serving bowl. Pour Nan's sauce over the meatballs and serve them hot.
Makes approximately 32 2-inch meatballs.
Each Meatball of has: 51 calories, 8 g protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, trace saturated fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 130 mg sodium
Nan's Spaghetti & Meatballs (2-inch meatballs plus 3/4 cups sauce plus 2 ounce (dry) serving pasta) has: 373 calories, 26 g protein, 62 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, less than 1 g saturated fat, 33 mg cholesterol, 6 g fiber, 628 mg sodium
Traditional Spaghetti and Meatballs have: 503 Calories, 36 g protein, 41 g carbohydrates, 24 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 158 mg cholesterol, 8 g fiber, 2044 mg sodium
Devin Says:
I recommend using an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to help quickly portion the meat.
If the mixture starts sticking to your hands, making it difficult to form the balls, run your hands under cool water after shaping every few meatballs. They'll be much less sticky and you'll be able to shape perfect meatballs.
These meatballs are also great for soups and sandwiches if made smaller. I often make 64 1-1/2 inch meatballs instead of the 34 larger ones.
If you have trouble finding ground chicken in your grocery store, don't despair ... and don't substitute ground turkey. The moisture content in ground chicken in much different than ground turkey, so using ground turkey will yield dry meatballs. Instead either ask your butcher at your local grocery store to grind chicken breasts for you or cut them into cubes and pulse them in your food processor until they resemble ground chicken. It takes only minutes.
