TASTY TUESDAY - MEATBALL SANDWICH & OVEN BAKED FRIES

I think I mentioned on my last TT (tasty Tuesday) post that hubby likes his pasta, etc.  With this in mind I set out to make a yummy sandwich with oven baked fries that would be a whole lot more healthy and just as satisfying as full calorie sandwiches.

The first thing to do is to make the meatballs.  This can be done well in advance and frozen.  I use chicken NOT turkey.  I just do not like ground turkey, I think that ground chicken has a much better texture and flavor.  Having said that you certainly could use ground turkey.

Meatballs Recipe

Preheat oven 350°

1# ground white meat chicken
1 large egg
1/2 to 1 sweet onion, small dice (depending on onion size)
1/2 cup plain panko bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
salt
pepper

Roll into the desired size and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  Remember this is chicken and they will be white meatballs so they may not look done but at 25 minutes mine were perfectly done - you don't want to overcook and dry them out.
 

Mix together all the ingredients.  This will be very sticky because with only an egg and 1/2 cup of panko not much binder.  If you prefer a meatball that is more like Italian sausage you would add Parmesan cheese, some fennel seeds, garlic and parsley.  I wanted the meatballs to have a more universal appeal so that they would have broader usage.

From the one pound the yield is 14 meatballs.

While the meatballs were cooking I sliced half of a bell pepper and the other half of the onion and caramelized them in a non-stick pan with 1/2 tsp olive oil. 

For the fries, I took half a well scrubbed potato and sliced into fry shapes and put them on a Silpat mat covered cookie sheet, sprayed one side with olive oil spray and dusted them with salt and pepper and put in the oven under the meatballs.  At about the halfway mark I pulled them out and turned them over and by the time the sandwich was ready the fries were perfect.

 

You can see in the background what the meatballs look like when they come out of the oven.  I put four of the meatballs in 1/2 cup of Rinaldi (tomato basil variety) prepared sauce in the pan and added the warm meatballs and turned them a few times. You can use any prepared sauce or make your own, I just like the mild, yet tasty flavor of the Rinaldi.

 While the meatballs are absorbing some of the sauce take a mini-banquette loaf and scoop out as much of the bread as possible.  I weighed the bread after scooping out the inside and it was 2oz of bread.

Take some of the warm sauce and place on one side of the bread then add the four meatballs, cover with the onion and pepper mixture and the top with the sauce coated top.

TaDa - reduced calorie, high protein meatball sandwich with oven roasted fries.  If you cannot stand to make a meatball sandwich without cheese you could use the 45 calorie, thin sliced Sargento provolone. My test pilot was very happy with the sandwich and said cheese not necessary.  He asked for it again the next day so I guess I can say hubby approved.

Nutrition

Oven baked fries 6oz  130 Calories and 3 grams of protein

Chicken meatball sandwich (large) 504 calories, 16 grams of fat and 28 grams of protein.

Using the example of 14 meatballs per pound each meatball would be 52 calories, 3 grams of fat and 6 grams of protein.

When I had the sandwich I made one with just two meatballs so the calories were half and I still had 14 grams of protein.  

The meatballs are good with some sauce on zoodles too (noodles made from zucchini).

Looking around I found all different calorie counts for meatball subs and realized just how careful you have to look.  The 6" meatball at Firehouse subs was 1,220 calories but that was without cheese and mayo, etc.  I was very careful to account for everything on this sandwich, including the 1/2 tsp EVOO, that the veggies were cooked in and I rounded down not up with the amounts of calories, fat and protein. 

Thank you for stopping by.