Homemade Spaghetti Sauce & Turkey Meatballs

This makes a large batch! We usually jar up the extra for lunches and freeze any extra sauce.

Prep: 15 minutes 
Cook time: 60 minutes

Sauce:
1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 carrots, diced

1 cup water

1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes

1 can (6oz) tomato paste 

1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp dried basil

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf (optional)

Meatballs:
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 c rolled oats (I like to place in blender/food processor first but not required)
1 egg
1.25 lb ground turkey

Warm oil in large pot and add onions, garlic, and carrots. Saute to soften veggies. 

Then combine remaining sauce ingredients, except the can of diced tomatoes, in large pot on stove top. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes to soften carrots even more. That gives you enough time to make the meatballs. 

While sauce is cooking place all meatball ingredients in bowl and combine with hands. Roll into 1-2 inch balls (about 22 balls). Turkey meatballs are a little harder to get uniform than beef. Do your best ;-) 

After carrots are soft use an immersion blender (aka stick blender) to smooth out sauce, then add can of diced tomatoes. Be prepare things can get a little messy. 

Slowly add meatballs to sauce, gently stiring to make room for them all. Make sure sauce covers meatballs, cook for an additional 30 minutes stiring a couple times after meatballs have set, about 15 minutes. (If you stir too early the meatballs will separate.)


Meanwhile bring large pot of water to boil and cook whole wheat pasta of choice according to package directions.

Serve sauce and meatballs over spagehtti with a side salad or veggie of choice (gotta get your greens in!)

Fix count:
2 meatballs = 1 red
1/2 cup pasta = 1 yellow
1/2 cup sauce = 1 green

Optional: top with 1/2 blue of cheese of choice