Hungry Girl's Skillet Swedish Meatball Madness

I am so excited to tell you that Hungry Girl, Lisa Lillien, has a new book out.

It's Hungry Girl Clean & Hungry OBSESSED!

Mine was pre-ordered and arrived last week and I also had our local library purchase this so other members close by could check it out for free.

I've been waiting to find time to try one her her new recipes.

First, a quick word about Hungry Girl.

If you don't already subscribe to her daily newsletter I would highly recommend it!

She shares fantastic recipes, product finds and lifestyle tips.

In addition, she lists all the Smart Points for every recipe on her website.

If you buy the book you'll notice the points aren't listed.  This is for copyright reasons but you can easily find them by going to her website and clicking on the picture of her new book.

This will take you to another page where you'll see the option to click on a link that will list all the points.

This particular recipe is 5 points per serving.  Each serving is 5 meatballs with sauce or 1/4th of the recipe.


Ingredients

Sauce

2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

2 Tbsp whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 Tbsp light/reduced fat cream cheese

2 tsp whipped butter


Meatballs

1 lb raw extra-lean ground beef(I used turkey)

1/4 cup whole-wheat panko

1/4 cup whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs

1/3 cup egg whites(about 3 large eggs worth)

1/2 tsp garlic powder(I used 3/4 tsp)

1/4 tsp each salt and black pepper

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg


Instructions

To make the sauce, in a large bowl, combine broth, flour, mustard, and vinegar.  Whisk until uniform.

Bring an extra-large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat.  Add onion and mushrooms.  Cook and stir until slightly softened, about 4 minutes(I cooked mine about 10 minutes, stirring frequently).

Transfer to the large bowl.

In a second large bowl, thoroughly mix meatball ingredients.  Firmly and evenly form into 20 meatballs.

Clean skillet, if needed.  Re-spray, and return to medium-high heat.  Place meaballs in the skillet.  Cook and rotate until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium low.  Carefully add sauce, coating the meatballs.  Cover and cook for 10 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.

That's the whole recipe however I decided to also roast a spaghetti squash to enjoy with this.

I mean, doesn't this just look like it's supposed to go over pasta?

I also know myself well enough to know that alone will not fill me up.

So, I cut a spaghetti squash in half, seeded it and roasted it face down on a foil lined and sprayed baking sheet.

I baked it at 450 F for one hour.

When it was cool enough to handle I forked out a portion and ladled over my meatballs and sauce.

This was delicious!

Notes about cooking~  to be honest, it was kind of a pain to have to cook the meatballs in the skillet. 

Next time I'm going to try cooking them first in the oven and then add them into the sauce.  Even though I used a nonstick skillet and sprayed it with cooking spray they still seemed to stick and it was tedious to have to stand there and turn them each to brown on all sides.  It took a lot longer than she said it would.  I would also likely use some herbs in the meatball mix next time.  It just seems unnatural not to have herbs in that mix somehow.  :)

Those issues aside this recipe was great and has great potential.

My husband commented on how good it was but also how much food there was when I included the spaghetti squash.

So, give this a try and check out Lisa's new book!  It's sure to be another winner.  

Happy Cooking!