Cheap Ground Turkey Recipes You Can Prep Quickly & Easily

I am sharing a few cheap ground turkey recipes, which I use in our family's debt-free journey to pay off over half a million dollars of debt. Using ground turkey is one of the frugal things we do to get there faster. Our frugal living journey includes a lot of meal planning and ways to make getting meals on the table faster and easier.

Meal planning

Meal planning encourages us to eat at home more, which saves a ton of money. Today we're going to be doing a little batch cooking. Last week I did a grocery haul showing you everything I got from Walmart to make ground turkey, meatballs for spaghetti, meatballs for meatball subs, and then also turkey burgers. Now, I'm going to show you how you can batch-cook it.


You'll make it all at once for the meatballs, for both the subs and the spaghetti and the burgers. I'm also going to show you how you can even pack it away, freeze it, and then I'll show you how to make the meals as well.

Making yurkey meatballs

Making turkey meatballs

I have a large bowl here so that I can triple the recipe for the meatballs. It's the same recipe for the burgers as well. Anytime you cook something, double it and have leftovers the next night. I'm tripling the recipe so that I can make three dinners at one time.


I'm setting aside a third of it, and I will use that to make the turkey burger patties and put them in a bag to freeze them. The other two-thirds will all be meatballs. I'll put those in two separate bags, one for the meatballs for the subs and one for spaghetti. 

Freezing turkey burgers

Now our burger patties are ready for the week.


If, for some reason, we don't eat them, they'll be frozen and ready to go anytime.


Ready for the freezer

Here's the batch of meatballs for the meatball subs.

Freezing turkey meatballs

We'll fill up the last bag with the meatballs for spaghetti, and then you can freeze them.


If you know you're going to make them that night or in the next three to four nights, you could just put them in the fridge and leave them there. If you're going to keep food for over four days, pop it in the freezer so you can avoid anyone getting sick. You can usually freeze meat anywhere between four to six months.


Making batch cooking like this and putting everything in bags and freezing it to have later is so helpful. If you are super busy, you don't have a lot of time for prep.


This would be awesome for people that are expecting. Right before you know you're going to have the baby, you could batch freeze a lot of stuff when you're in nesting mode and just stock your freezer and be ready to go with meals after the baby comes.


Meatball recipe

Now that I have shown you how you can easily batch all this turkey for several meals throughout the week let me show you how to make these cheap ground turkey recipes. Below is the meatball recipe:

Cheap ground turkey recipes

Turkey meatballs ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • ¼ red onion, finely chopped
  • ¼ cup mozzarella, shredded
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • ⅛ cup basil, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper


Instructions:

In a large bowl, add all of the meatball ingredients: turkey, garlic, red pepper flakes, onion, cheese, eggs, basil, salt, and pepper. Next, using your hands, mix until combined.


Shape the mixture into a round shape and divide evenly. You can get 10-12 1½" meatballs or more for smaller-sized meatballs.

Cooking turkey meatballs

For the meatballs, you're going to just add some olive oil to a hot skillet and sear the meatballs for about ten to 15 minutes, turning them every which way until they are completely done on each side and throughout.

Meatballs for spaghetti and subs

Meatballs for spaghetti and subs

Add your favorite marinara sauce and add those meatballs to spaghetti.


To make the meatball subs for the next night, you're going to add a little olive oil and some provolone cheese slices and then you'll broil for just about two to three minutes until the cheese bubbles and the bread is nice and brown. Then you'll add your marinara and meatballs for a super filling, super delicious meal that everyone will love.


Turkey burgers

Last but not least, similar to the meatballs, you will sear your turkey burger patties in the pan in a bit of olive oil for about four to five minutes on each side until they are cooked throughout. You can serve them on buns with all of your favorite toppings that you usually enjoy with regular ground beef hamburgers.


Cheap ground turkey recipes

I hope these cheap turkey recipe ideas were really helpful to you. I hope they motivate you to get in the kitchen and do some meal prep so that you can be encouraged to eat at home more often.


What is your favorite way to use ground turkey? Share your recipes in the comments below.

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