Homemade Healthy Meatballs {The Almost Clean Eating Meatballs!}

Over the last couple of weeks (okay maybe more like a week), Mr. Hunky and I have been doing our best to practice 'clean eating' as much as possible. At first, I was nervous - but it's really a lot easier than I imagined.

A couple of nights ago I was brainstorming what I could make for dinner and nothing sounded good. I was frustrated and all we had in our freezer in terms of meat was ground beef and chicken. Both of which I am terribly sick of. After I decided that I would be cooking with ground beef instead of chicken, I scoured Pinterest for some inspiration and came across several meatball recipes. After reading through more than my fair share of recipes I decided to just use my best judgement on the ingredients to include - especially since I was doing my best to keep this recipe as clean as possible.

Now here's a disclaimer. If you are practicing clean eating - this recipe is not entirely clean! So use your best judgement :)


The first thing I did to prep for this recipe was make homemade bread crumbs. The breadcrumbs will be mixed into your meatballs and act as a binder (and tasty addition). Making my breadcrumbs was simple. Toast 4 slices of wheat bread, place in your food processor, add a couple shakes of italian seasoning, and process! These breadcrumbs would have been considered clean eating, had I of used an approved bread, but instead I used what we had on hand (the wheat bread).

When I turned around to grab something off of the adjacent countertop, I was startled by the sound of the food processor turning on without me touching it! When I turned around I spotted Little Mister making the breadcrumbs for our meatballs! I couldn't resist this little helper so he assisted with making the meatballs too and poured in the dry ingredients for me! Get those kids in the kitchen mom & dad, maybe they'll be the next Food Network star!

I've only made meatballs once before and it was literally years ago, so this recipe was very experimental but I was excited to see how it turned out - I even measured for you guys! Are you impressed? You should be.

What You Need:

- 1-1 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef.
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 teaspoon dry basil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt OR sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
- Approximately 1/3 cup chopped green onions (more or less to taste, or sub for red onion)
- Approximately 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (homemade recipe above) (not in photo below)

What You Need To Do:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put all of your ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl and use your hands to thoroughly combine. Roll meatballs into balls about the size of a walnut and place onto a baking sheet. I put foil down on mine and sprayed with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes. 

I personally like a little crunch on my meatballs so at 10 minutes of baking time I used my silicone tongs to flip the meatball over and then bake for the additional 10 minutes. 

Once your timer alerts you that your meatballs are done, cut into one to be sure that it's cooked all the way through!

There are many ways that you can serve your meatballs whether it be with spaghetti or in BBQ sauce with a toothpick; these are sure to be a crowd pleaser!

I served my meatballs on a bed of quinoa with a side of zucchini!

And to tie it all together I also topped it with some tasty marinara sauce! I used an organic jarred sauce that I had on hand, but this recipe would be even more divine with some homemade sauce!

Enjoy!