Happy Monday! Today I’ve got two things to share with you: A recipe and a giveaway–details at the end of this post!

Over the past few years, I’ve been challenging myself in the kitchen to make foods that used to intimidate me. Basically, this means meat, since I spent so many years only eating it in restaurants, so that explains why you’ve seen more of it on this blog in the past year or so. That night I had to give myself a pep talk to shell a lobster tail did not make it onto these virtual pages, mostly because the results were hardly photogenic, though delicious.

Well, it dawned on me recently that at almost 30 years old, I had never even attempted to make meatballs from scratch. As a woman of Italian descent, this is pretty much the most disgraceful thing ever. So, when the folks at Redpack offered to send me some of their canned tomatoes to play with, I decided to take it as a sign to get over my meatball fear.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion, divided
• 1 cup parsley
• 1 lb ground turkey
• ¼ c breadcrumbs or 1 slice whole wheat bread, toast and crumbled
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg

Directions: 

1. Dice half of the onion and mince 1 cloves garlic. Set aside.
2. In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and add the diced onion and minced garlic Cook until soft.
3. Add tomatoes and oregano and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low.
4. Meanwhile, in a food processor, process the other onion half, 2 cloves garlic, and parsley.
5. Combine parsley mixture with breadcrumbs, cheese, turkey meat, and egg. Mix well with hands and form into meatballs and place on a large plate or cookie sheet. You should end up with 24-28 balls.
6. Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Cook meatballs 4-5 minutes on each side.
7. Add meatballs to sauce and simmer another 20 minutes
8. Serve hot over pasta or steamed greens. Top with more cheese if desired.

Redpack wants you to win some tomatoes! One lucky winner will receive a kit containing 1 28-oz can of Redpack crushed tomatoes, 1 28-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, 1 28-oz can of diced, 1 6-oz can of tomato paste, plus recipes.

To enter, just leave a comment below telling me your favorite thing to make with canned tomatoes. There are also more giveaways going on at the Redpack Facebook page.