OVEN PORCUPINES

Do you remember these? Your mom may have made them. Or your grandmother may have made them.

These are nice little meatballs with rice in them. They were most often served with green beans, a lettuce wedge with dressing and squares of pineapple upside down cake, of course made with Betty Crocker cake mix.

The nutrition information listed below is from what I am using from the grocery store and internet searches. It may vary depending on what you use. Watch your labels.

In interest of taste and preference, I’ve decided to turn this into three different recipes. 

• The first will be the old-fashioned original Oven Porcupine from the Betty Crocker recipe card library. If you have no need to alter it, enjoy the nostalgia of this dish just as it was designed in 1971.
• The second will be with 93/7 ground turkey. This option is for those who would like to have something with less fat and really need to alter their fat intake dramatically. 
• The third recipe will be made with half 80/20 ground beef and half 97/3 ground turkey. That way you still have the ground beef taste with less fat. It has some fat but less restrictive and allows for some leeway. Feel free to play with the combinations to see what works for you.

As you can see from the chart below, there is a big difference in fat and saturated fat for each version.

4 servings	Beef	Turkey	Both
Calories	321	180	210
Fat	22	3.5	8
Sat fat	9	1	5
Carbs	0	0	0
Protein	20	28	23

6 servings	Beef	Turkey	Both
Calories	214	120	140
Fat	15	2	5
Sat fat	6	1	4
Carbs	6	0	0
Protein	14	19	15

A question you might ask is … why didn’t you use 97/3 ground beef. That is an option, but it does have more fat and saturated fat than ground turkey. It just depends on how you like your meat.  I find that beef tends to be dryer the less fat it has where the ground turkey is moist at 97/3. 

You can you this to spur a cooking taste test with your family to see what is right for you. If you do your own challenge let me know how it went and what you decided on. 

Now the big question is does it taste any good. 

My lovely husband has been so gracious as to volunteer to taste these and give me his honest opinion. Brace yourself for his words. He tells it like it is.

Here is the original recipe from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library from 1971.