My Wednesday Pantry-Repeat Recipe for My Heath Goals

      I've shared my turkey meatloaf/turkey meatball recipe, or the way I make them before. My twist this week is I portioned to have easy numbers to do a calorie check with. I also used a combination pepper jelly and ketchup glaze for the sauce and I am hooked-especially served with steamed carrots as the sauce was delicious touching them as well. Bargain wise, you can't find a nice dinner much less than this. Had I jut made plain rice it would have been a bit lower in calorie and cost, but I had room to spare-plus the lingering rice mix in the pantry to use. Here's my dinner plate.

     I peeled and cut five medium sized carrots and steamed them without anything added. The rice dish was 240 calories a serving-2.5 servings per container,  so I had exactly 1 cup. The meatballs worked out to 87 calories a piece. I had three, and rounded up to 300 calories to cover the sauce. The whole meal was 600 calories-my second meal of the day, plus a mid afternoon snack. Earlier I had  leftover cottage pie (332 calorie portion, 1/2 c soup I was trying-ugh at 100 calories for so little, for snack, a small apple, and a hard boiled egg, totaling 592-under 1200 calories for the day and I felt I had eaten well. While I had room in my 1500 target, I wasn't hungry so any further eating would have been out of bad habit, not hunger. I did get 5 portions of fruit and veg in, but I'll try and boost that over the coming days, weeks, and months. 

Turkey meatballs

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder (about a tsp each)

     Combine all ingredients well, Form into 12 equal shaped balls (this is a loose mixture but because of so little fat, they hold their form and do not shrink much at all). I made earlier, so later I reheated with  the remains of a jar of pepper jelly, probably 1/4-1/3 cup, and a good squirt of ketchup, again about the same. DH had the same meal, but five meatballs and the rest of the rice dish, so 1 1/2 portions. 

• Carrots  $ .50
• Turkey $1.99
• Egg $ .10
• milk $ .13
• Oatmeal $ .40
• Rice side dish  $ .79

     Total for the meal $3.81 with four meatballs leftover. All ingredients were Aldi, but not in the same shop so prices may vary. Let me know if my tedious calorie and price calculations is  worth the time to share or if  quite frankly, duller than dishwater. I'll still do it for my own interest, so just want to know if you all want to know too. I may double or triple recipe next round and have a supply in the freezer as these would be easy to just pull out enough for dinners or lunches. Thank you for reading.