Easy Homemade Baked Italian Meatballs
These homemade Italian meatballs are flavor packed with lots of healthy additions and then baked making them super easy to make. You’ll want to make a double batch of these and freeze the extras so you always have them on hand.
I don’t know what it is about meatballs but they seem to be a magical food for kids. I’ve seen many picky eaters gobble these down and it always makes me happy.
Plus, they can be used in a variety of ways. My kiddos love to eat them just straight off the cookie sheet (shoot, so do I!) but they are also perfect for Italian Wedding Soup or Meatball Sub French Bread Pizza.
These meatballs also have lots of smart swaps and good for you extras like zucchini and carrots added to the mix. Kids don’t seem to notice them especially since there are plenty of spices and cheese in the meatballs as well.
Kids also love helping roll meatballs. I’m not sure if it’s the actual act of rolling or the funny feel of the meatballs but most kids seem perfectly content to help roll meatballs.
So make sure to get them involved in making these. Bonus, the more helpers the faster it gets done!
For more tips on how you can get cooking with kids, check out my resource guide!
Ingredients you need:
- Ground turkey
- Eggs
- Milk
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Oatmeal
- Onion
- Zucchini
- Carrot
- Frozen spinach
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Dried basil
- Salt
- Ground pepper
These meatballs are not as dense as you might be used to because of all the extra goodies in them. They NEED the egg to help bind the meatballs together.
If you forget the egg, not all is lost! They will just be a bit crumbly but still very tasty.
How To Make Baked Italian Meatballs:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Beat together eggs and milk in a large bowl.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the egg mixture and mix gently with your hands.
- Form into small bite sized meatballs or use a cookie scoop.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.
Tips and Tricks
Use a food processor
Whenever I need to shred a bunch of ingredients I turn to my food processor because it makes quick work of the shredding process.
I would recommend shredding the Parmesan cheese first, if you are shredding your own, and add that to the bowl. Then, shred the onion, zucchini, and carrots.
If you do it the other way around the cheese gets wet and it becomes harder to remove from the food processor bowl.
Use a cookie scoop
Cookie scoops are my secret weapon in the kitchen. They help to ensure even sizes which means even bake times, plus they help speed up the process of making them.
I usually use a medium size cookie scoop for meatballs but if you are making them for toddlers or babies I would use a small cookie scoop.
Remember, if you are using the small size cookie scoop the meatballs will cook much faster. A meat thermometer is your best friend for ensuring meats are cooked to the proper temperature. For these ground turkey meatballs, you want an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
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Easy Homemade Baked Italian Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1 small onion grated
- 1/2 zucchini finely shredded
- 1 carrot finely shredded
- 5 oz frozen spinach thawed and given an extra chop
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 Tbsp basil
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Beat together eggs and milk in a large bowl.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the egg mixture and mix gently with your hands.
- Form into small bite sized meatballs or use a cookie scoop.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.
This is just the perfect meatball recipe for those super busy weeknights. Its perfect with zoodles or thin spaghetti.
This has become our go-to meatball recipe. They are so easy to make, and my kids can’t stop eating them at dinner time! That is a serious win!