Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs for Healthy Eating

[no dialogue].
Today I'm going to talk about how to make a common entree
into a more healthy option.
Today, over half the United States is either overweight
or obese, so we need to think of ways to try and increase
our fruits and vegetables, to increase our fiber, and
to lower the fat content and lower the calories,
really look at our portion sizes that we're taking here.
So what I want to do today is, you know, let's look at
what we're used to eating.
I have over here an entree.
It looks like a usual entree, it even looks smaller than
what you would get in a restaurant.
It's about four ounces of spaghetti, six meatballs,
which is twice the serving size of a standard, a standard
serving size is 3 ounces or about the size of your palm.
And I also have 3/4 cup of sauce.
If we look at the calorie content here we can see that
it's almost 1100 calories, and it has 100% of your protein
for the day, so it's really all packed in there.
So what we're going to do today is try and find a way
to adjust this recipe to make it a little more healthy.
So what I want you to do first is go to your local grocer,
go to your favorite grocery store, and pick up
a couple of things.
First you are going to want to grab whole wheat whole grain
pasta, I have some here.
Try to get the whole wheat whole grain because compared to
the regular kind that you would normally get in the store,
it's going to have more fiber and less calories.
Also, go ahead and grab your favorite meatless sauce.
This is the kind my family always gets, so this is
the kind that I've got here, the Newman's Own.
But go ahead, since we're making meatballs, we don't need to
pair it with a meat sauce, so grab a meatless one.
Also, grab some vegetables.
Today, I'm going to be using an orange bell pepper, mushrooms,
garlic, and zuccini.
If you want onions or any kind of squash, that'll work
just as well, anything that will saute well and mix well
with spaghetti and meatballs.
Okay, so, how else are we going to cut the calories.
We're going to look at our meat here.
I have 93-7 ground turkey, so it's 7% fat.
And what that does, obviously, you're going to
decrease your fat content.
Ground chuck, for example, has about 21 grams of fat
per serving whereas this has 8 grams of fat per serving,
so it's a better option, it has less saturated fat.
You can get 93-7 ground beef but, again, with the saturated
fat, the turkey is a better choice.
If you even want to go lower fat, you can get the
1% ground turkey and that will work just as well.
So what we'll go ahead and start doing is we'll
go ahead and start to make the meatballs.
So just go ahead and cut open your turkey
and place it in a medium-sized bowl.
Alright, and then we're going to add about a 1/2 cup of oats.
These quick oats you can use instead of bread crumbs,
they're also going to increase your fiber content.
And in here, I have about a 1/4 cup of grated parmesan.
I have leftover mushroom stems from when I chopped up my
mushrooms and sauteed them for the meal today,
and about a tablespoon of dried onion.
We're going to add an egg, it kind of
holds everything together.
If you want to use an egg white, that's fine,
you'll cut your calories that way.
Make sure I don't get any shell in there.
We're also going to add a little bit of Italian seasoning.
Okay, so, what you're going to do for the next part,
the fun part, mix it altogether with your hands.
Make sure that you have defrosted turkey because
sometimes the center stays cold and it can be kind of hard.
Okay, well, what this is going to do, it's a pound of turkey
breast, or ground turkey, so it's going to make four
4-ounce servings, or 16 meatballs.
So you're going to go ahead and make it probably about the
size of a golf ball, about this size, and go ahead and
put it on a cooking sheet with parchment paper.
Roasting meatballs is a better idea than frying them
just because when you fry them you're going to be
adding oil or whatever to try and do that, and
that's just adding extra fat.
So this way if we roast them, we can actually drain
the fat off after they're done cooking and we're
not increasing our calorie content.
Okay, like I said, we're going to make 16 of them,
you get the idea.
While those are cooking, you're going to want to put them
in an oven at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes.
While they're cooking go ahead and start to boil your water
for your spaghetti and go ahead and start cooking your pasta.
It takes about nine minutes to cook.
Heat your sauce and go ahead and saute your vegetables.
All you need is a skillet and about, well just a little bit
of cooking spray, about two bell peppers, and I'd say
two zuccini and an 8-ounce carton of mushrooms and
that will get you your four servings.
Okay, so while all of that's cooking and getting started,
I've already prepared some, so I'm going to go ahead
and show you what that looks like.
Now the portion size today sometimes gets a little
out of control.
So what I have done here is prepare a plate that kind of
shows what portion somebody should have, a suggestion.
So about half of your plate should be fruits or
vegetables--today, obviously we're going to do vegetables--
a 1/4 meat and a 1/4 of your carbohydrate.
So let's go ahead and put our food on here.
This is the zuccini, pepper, garlic, mushroom.
See, it takes up about half the plate.
We're going to have our pasta which is only about two ounces
of pasta, but notice how well it fills up the plate.
Our four meatballs...and, of course, our sauce.
To make it look a little nicer you can add some
parsely flakes on the top, too.
But you can see how that all evens out for each section.
Now, of course, you don't need to leave it sectioned off
like this, you can mix it up, that's what I'd rather do.
But it kind of gives you an idea of portion size and
how to control that.
So, that's the recipe for today, I hope you've
enjoyed it, and I hope you've learned a little bit
about portion sizes, about getting more fiber in your diet,
adding fruits and vegetables, and I hope you've enjoyed it.
Thanks.