Tasty Thursday: Best Ever Turkey Meatballs

One of my goals for 2012 is to cook more and utilize more crock pot recipes (in an effort to make it as easy as possible). To start, I went with my all time favorite crock pot meal -- turkey meatballs! They are incredibly easy and so darn delicious. The meatballs end up tender and the sauce becomes a meat sauce with bits of turkey in it. Yum!

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey (we use 85/15 since a wee bit of fat never hurt anyone)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

1 jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cans of diced tomatoes (we use the basil and oregano spiced kind)

Directions

Prep your crock pot by pouring in the spaghetti sauce, reserving about 1/4 of the jar for later. Next, stir in both cans of tomatoes.

In a separate bowl, combine turkey, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, egg, onion, and garlic. Here's the fun part -- mix with your hands (its just easier that way).

Pinch off chunks of mush and roll them between your hands to form 2" balls. Place meatballs into the sauce in a single layer.

This can get a little messy, but if you run out of room, gently push the meatballs around until everything fits. We have a 6 quart crock pot and can get them all in there. If yours is smaller, you may need to put them on top of each other in layers.

Once all of the meatballs are in, cover with the last bit of sauce.

Cook on high for 4 hours. I usually run home at lunch and throw them in so they are done by the time I get home. I've heard you can cook them for 8 hours on low, but I've never tried it personally. Enjoy!

On a side note, if you haven't tried Reynold's Slow Cooker Liners, you must! I hate cleaning the crock pot after something like this because the sauce can burn around top edge, so these are amazing. Look - I even found a coupon for you to try them out. :-D