Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs

I pretty much love sweet and sour anything. I saw a slow cooker recipe for sweet
and sour meatballs, but it called for frozen meatballs and a store-bought sweet and sour sauce. Instead, I was inspired to cook it all from scratch and I am so glad I did. Even my father, who puts his nose up at brown rice and ground turkey, loved it! Needless to say, there were no leftovers and I will be making this again soon.

Ingredients:

1 package of ground turkey (mine was 1.25 lbs)
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 cup brown rice, prepared
1 package of frozen stir-fry veggies (peppers and onions) or about 1 lb. fresh peppers and onions
20 oz. pineapple chunks or tidbits (reserve the juice)
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

To make the meatballs: Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the egg and combine the ground turkey and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Form meatballs, about 1-inch thick (about 25 total), and place them on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Cook for about 15 minutes and flip the meatballs. Cook for an addition 10-15 minutes, or until cooked through. The internal temperature should be 165*.

For the vegetables: Take the peppers and onions out of the freezer and place them in a colander, rinsing them under warm water. Place them in a skillet or large pan and cook for about 7-8 minutes over medium. (I didn't need to add oil to the pan because of the moisture from the veggies, but if you are using fresh veggies you may need a tablespoon of olive oil.) About halfway through the cook time, add the drained pineapple. Once the vegetables are tender, remove from the heat and set aside.

For the sauce: In a small mixing bowl, combine the pineapple juice (if the juice does not equal one cup, add water to make up for the difference), water, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch. Pour in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring consistently until sauce thickens. This took about 7 minutes for me.

Mix the meatballs, vegetables, and sauce. Serve over brown rice and enjoy!