Clean Chicken Meatballs

Happy almost Friday! Whew, I cannot wait for the week to be over so I can start my Hubs birthday weekend! Love the excuse to buy him stuff, see all of our family and celebrate him a little! One of our best friends shares the same birthday week so we always have fun plans to see all of our friends, too. We do a little drinking, lots of eating and in general fun is had by all.

Speaking of Hubs... For a couple of months now I have been making a batch of meatballs from Cassey Ho of Blogilates (she's a rockstar) recipe and loving them! They are high in protein, almost painless to make and keep well in the fridge. Insert one major problem: I always have leftovers and Hubs doesn't love them. In fact he may hate them due to the main veggie: green bell pepper.

So last weekend I decided I would get crafty with her recipe. I had already had the idea to make a more italian themed, but still 'clean', meatball. By taking out the bell peppers, tripling the basil, adding spinach and fire roasted tomatoes I have created a meatball that he loves. You would not imagine the joy it brings when he loves my healthy cooking, it's the little things, people.

Clean Italian Chicken Meatballs {22 servings}

3 lb. ground chicken breast (I find this at HEB!)
3 egg whites (9 tbp)
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped spinach, frozen, cooked and drained (I eyeballed this amount)
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large handfuls of fresh basil, torn or chopped (dried would work but fresh adds great flavor)
2-3 tbp nutritional yeast ( don't stress if you don't have this)
2 tbp salt-free seasoning
14 oz. can of fire roasted and diced tomatoes, juice drained and discarded

Per meatball: 96 cals | 110mg sodium | 4.6g carbs | 1g sugar | 1g fiber | 16g protein

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Cook your frozen spinach according to package directions and then press out the moisture with a paper towel or in a strainer. 

. Add everything but the ground chicken to a large bowl and combine well with your hands (gross but fun!) then add in chicken and combine until fully incorporated. You could add 1 lb. at a time bt I just dump it all in and get going!

2.  Form 22 large meatballs into 2 cupcake tins or onto 2 foil or parchment lined baking sheets. 

3. Place both tins/sheets in the oven for 45 minutes on 375 - ovens vary so just make sure yours are cooked all the way through. I know mine are done when are turning golden. 

4. Once they cool I remove mine and place 2 into 6 containers (on top of my greens for that week - for lunch for the week) and put the leftovers into a large tupperware. I also may eat one immediately. It's cool, I won't tell if you do. 

Enjoy!