Clean Eating Spaghetti and Meatballs

Mike and I both love pasta, and I especially love a good meat sauce. I have never actually made meat balls from scratch before, and so I was pretty excited to try something new. Who doesn't love a meat ball?

I came up with this recipe by adapting what I would use to make a hamburger. Basically I threw in the same things, just changing up the spices a little. You can also make this with ground turkey, but since we are trying to add more iron into our diet I used extra lean ground beef.

The meatballs:
-approx 1 lb extra lean ground beef
-1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning
-1 tsp crushed chili peppers
-1/2 tbsp garlic powder
-1 tsp onion powder
-1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
-1 egg white
-1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1. Mix together all ingredients using your hands.
2. Roll into 1-2 inch balls.
3. Bake at 425 degrees for about 7 minutes or until browned.


The sauce:
-1 jar crushed tomatoes with basil (no salt added, I use the Italian brands you can get at the grocery store)
-1 can no salt added tomato sauce
-1 tbsp garlic powder
-1/2 tbsp onion powder
-1 tbsp Italian seasoning
-t tsp fresh ground black pepper
-chopped mushrooms
-chopped spinach
-1 medium chopped onion
-1 zucchini chopped
-you can add in any other veggies you would like

1. Saute veggies, except spinach (you can use olive oil, I use my olive oil cooking sprayer).
2. Add in tomatoes, sauce, and all spices.
3. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add spinach in about half way.

Add in meatballs and cook for another few minutes until well combined.

Serve over pasta of your choice. I used Kamut spaghetti.

Delicious!