Healthy Zucchini Parmesan Meatballs! Baked in less than 30 minutes and freezable. These meatballs are perfect for meal prepping, a quick weeknight dinner or serving as an appetizer. Gluten Free + Low Calorie
I have a serious problem with meatballs lately. As in, I made three versions of them in one week. To say I’m obsessed is an understatement. In my defense, I was making them for other websites so I had to make them. Okay, so they’re really super EASY for throwing together a last minute dinner, and I’m all about making cooking easy!
I often see these incredible recipes on other sites that I want to try. Then I read the instructions with a million steps and lose all my willpower to eat healthy. Whenever a recipe’s too complicated I refuse to cook and end up eating chips and salsa for dinner (P.S. salsa mixed with Greek yogurt is so good). Not the healthiest dinner, but you need to know your weakness and mine is patience.
So yes, EASY, simple meals is how I stick to healthy eating! Like these yummy Zucchini Parmesan Meatballs.
Shred the zucchini in a food processor, toss it in a bowl with ground turkey breast, parmesan and spices, and roll, roll, roll them into meatballs. That’s my favorite part! Then drizzle with a little oil and bake them to perfection in the oven. That’s all!
P.S. Why do people still grate zucchini by hand? I never understood that when you can shred it in two seconds pulsing it in a food processor.
Oh, and here’s a meal prep tip. Prep the meatballs ahead of time and freeze them. That way you can take them out and bake them whenever you need them. Score!
When I was making these Zucchini Parmesan Meatballs, the guy asked what I was making. That’s his way of checking if dinner is going to be my food or frozen pizza. He’s such a picky eater! When I told him meatballs, his response was meatballs again???
Funny thing is I made this exact recipe with carrots instead of zucchini a few weeks ago and he never knew he was eating vegetables. There’s hope for this picky eater of mine! If there’s hope for him, anyone can learn to love healthy food.
More Meatball Recipes To Try
Breakfast Meatballs
Crockpot Turkey Sausage Meatballs
Asian Salmon Meatballs
BBQ Meatballs
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Zucchini Parmesan Meatballs {GF, Low Cal}
Ingredients
- 1 lb. lean ground turkey or any lean ground meat
- 1 medium zucchini ~3/4 cup
- 2 tbsp. grated parmasen
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
- 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, shred the zucchini by pulsing several times.
Transfer the zucchini to a large mixing bowl and add remaining ingredient.
- Combine the ingredients with a spatula or you hand until they are mixed well.
- Use an ice cream scoop or tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop out the meat and roll into 16 equal balls.
Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet. Spray with extra virgin olive oil.
- Bake at 350 F 15 minutes then flip and bake another 10 minutes.
- Serve with marinara sauce over rice, zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice.
Recipe Notes
- Recipe makes 4 servings, 16 meatballs total or 4 large meatballs per serving.
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
- More meatball recipes to try: Breakfast Meatballs, Crockpot Turkey Sausage Meatballs, Asian Salmon Meatballs, BBQ Meatballs
Meal Plans
Get a meal plan designed to meet your weight loss goals.
What I Used For The Recipe
ha ha that’s funny about him not knowing – he will learn to fully inspect all food just like Mr. Hungry -I can’t wait till we all get together they can bond over how weird it is to date a healthy food blogger!
He claims he knows there’s things in there, but he really doesn’t. Yes! We need to get together sometime. Maybe after you move in?
omg yum! what a great way to sneak in extra veggies too and i bet these would TOTALLY be great to prep in advance and freeze! pinned!
Glad you’re excited about them! They’re goodies.
I’m very excited to have another way to use zucchini at this time of year when everyone is giving us extras from their gardens! That being said, I’m pretty sure most of them are not considered medium sized 🙂 Do you have an estimate of how many cups you used in the meatballs?
I just updated the recipe card with it. Thanks for pointing that out!