Spinach Meatballs

"This recipe provided by Texas Beef Council. It is lean and packed with iron. Baked, not fried and can be frozen.Update: 03/13/2010 Elainemae, a reviewer suggested we use infant's rice cereal instead of breadcrumbs and it serves a dual purpose - increase the iron content. Great idea! :)"
 
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photo by Ms B. photo by Ms B.
photo by Ms B.
photo by Chef shapeweaver photo by Chef shapeweaver
Ready In:
1hr 25mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, spinach, egg, onion powder, garlic powder, bread crumbs, salt & pepper.
  • Mix all ingredients well and form into small meatballs.
  • Place meatballs on jelly roll pan and place into preheated oven; bake for 40-50 minutes (depending on size of meatballs).
  • While meatballs are cooking, prepare pasta according to package directions, drain and keep warm.
  • In a large skillet or sauce pan, pour jar of prepared spaghetti sauce.
  • When meatballs are fully cooked, remove from oven and place in sauce.
  • Simmer on medium heat 6-8 minutes.
  • Serve meatballs and sauce over cooked pasta.
  • Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Questions & Replies

  1. what is the best to freeze raw or cooked ?
     
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Reviews

  1. I made these to have in sub rolls with provolone cheese on top and then baked in the oven till the roll was crunchy and the cheese was melted. We woofed them down and DH says they are a winner so I will certainly make them again!
     
  2. First of all I have to say I dislike spinach very much,but I was looking for a way to try to get it into my diet.I did a search and came across this recipe and decided to try it, and boy I'm glad I did. :) This recipe was made on 6/28/12. Except for using a 12 ounce package of spinach and a 20 ounce jar of sauce, the recipe was made exactly as it was written. The taste and texture was exactly what I expect in a meatball. Thank you for posting a recipe that has me enjoying spinach for the first time in my life. :) I " WILL " make this again. " Keep Smiling :) "
     
  3. I will second what ms_bold said. These meatballs are great and I loved the spinach in them. Nice, easy way to get the kids some extra veggies. I also used Quick Pasta Sauce and thought they worked great together. We will be having these often. Great recipe!!
     
  4. This recipe was a total failure for me. I used fresh spinach, which made the meatballs look like grass fed cow patties. I cooked the meatballs for 40 minutes as the recipes states, and I had to pry them off the sheet pan. I think the meatballs will come out much better if the spinach was sautéed.
     
  5. I've made these four times now. When I do make them I double and sometimes triple the ingredients. The first I made them with the frozen spinach and found it clumpy and hard to work with. It was hard to get the ingredients to mix evenly. Second time I tried fresh baby spinach, washed and dried. Results were what I was looking for and they taste better. I made both large and small meatballs by doubling the ingredients. I used the large ones to make meatball sandwiches the next day. The spinach was the only change and I chopped it myself, spread out the ground meat and sprinkled it on and folded it in. Made it easy. I used a spaghetti sauce, Garlic and Herb that comes in a can and is less than a Dollar here but very good. Doesn't have all the sugar and tastes more Italian than the jar sauces. These take a little while to make but they are worth it and they can be frozen and then used in Spaghetti or as an appetizer. The larger ones also made a great diner with Penne Pasta and a small green salad.
     
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Tweaks

  1. If you are looking to up your iron content, try using infant rice cereal instead of the bread crumbs. It works just the same.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for&nbsp;it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love &amp; beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha &amp; my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I&nbsp;was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations &amp; a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree &amp; wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)&gt;&nbsp;</p> <p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&amp;R Block and worked simultaneously&nbsp;as a Supervisor in 2 offices&nbsp;for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry />&nbsp;All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba &amp; Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old &amp; used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted &amp; was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw &amp; from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p> <p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private&nbsp;bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic!&nbsp;<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket&nbsp;my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile />&nbsp;Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor &amp; the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p> <p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
 
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