Heavenly Inspired Turkey Meatballs Over Rice

     I believe in angels.  I believe in an after life. I believe our heaven will be more of what we learned to love on earth. I love to cook and feed people.  Sometimes I will dream whole scenarios where I am cooking for someone.  While I am cooking, I believe, I get divine intervention from all of the wonderful cooks in my family who have passed on. I call them my Cooking Angels.  
     Last night I had a dream where my niece called and asked me to pick up her boys and take them home and feed them because she had been delayed.  THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE.  So it caught my attention.  Not knowing what they like to eat I made the meatballs that are described here.  I have never made these meatballs.  I am sure though that I have read about them and maybe even eaten them. I asked her this morning if her boys liked meatballs. She said they did. So here is my version of these meatballs.  If you know my cooking you will immediately see my additions. You can omit the addition of veggies and proceed through the recipe without them.  It's just my tricky way I got my kids to eat more veggies.  So here you have my.....

Heavenly Inspired Turkey Meatballs Over Rice

In a saucepan bring 2 cups of water to a boil. When boiling add 1 tsp of salt. Add 1 cup of white rice. Lower heat to a simmer and put on lid.

1 TBSP cooking oil in a skillet. Put over medium  heat.


Meatballs
Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey (could use beef)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 TBSP milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs seasoned
1 TBSP grated zucchini (I used the middle sized holes.  In the one pictured, I did not.  I used the largest.)
1 TBSP grated carrot  (See note above.)
1 TBSP grated onion    (See note above.)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper (In the more adult version I added red pepper flakes and kale.)
For the one I made tonight I also sliced 1/2 of a bell pepper, 1/4 of an onion and 1 zucchini. I garnished with the  canned pineapple chunks.

parsley to garnish

1. In a  bowl, whisk the egg and the milk and add the ground turkey. 
2. Using your fingers lightly mix in the rest of the ingredients. 
3. Form into a ball smaller than a ping pong ball. If the mixture feels too wet add a tsp. of breadcrumbs at a time to get meatballs to hold their shape. 
4. Without overlapping place meatballs in skillet. Brown meatballs. This will take about 5-6 minutes.

Sauce
http://www.facebook.com/cindy.peck.5Ingredients
1 cup of grape jelly (In the one I made tonight,  I didn't have grape jelly so I used 1 TBSP guava jelly, 1 TBSP Boysenberry jelly,  1 TBSP lime juice  and 2 passion fruits.)
1 cup of catsup (Can also add chili sauce.  Apparently Heinz makes the one used in the original recipe.)
In the more adult like version I used 1/2 cup of red Zinfandel wine and 1/2 cup of juice from the can of pineapple. I also added 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar because it was just too sweet for me.)

1. Put the ingredients over a medium heat. Stir until jelly has melted.
2. Pour over the meatballs. Stir to coat the meatballs. Simmer for about another 5 minutes. Now I would put a spoonful of rice on the plate and add pineapple rings and green pepper rings that I would have cooked in the sauce after the meatballs had browned. But as is, this is a pretty tasty dish. I would also use brown or a combo of brown and wild rice instead of the white but it takes lots longer to cook brown rice.  
3. Parsley to garnish if you're  feeling fancy.