Porcupine Meatballs

This recipe is a combination of two recipes. The ingredients for the meatballs have been adapted from "Sophie-Safe Cooking" by Emily Hendrix.
Our family does not eat beef, so we use ground turkey in its place. Onions would probably be good as well!
Also-you may want to play around with the spices a bit...every family has different tastes. I made this last night for dinner-the sauce has a bit of a bite to it, which surprisingly went over very well!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice, uncooked
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (reg. vinegar works as well)
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tbsp basil
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1 egg (optional)
one 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped with juice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cooked rice

1. Put the tomatoes, oregano, basil, pepper, salt and bay leaves into a pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, cover and reduce to simmer.
   
2. Combine the turkey, egg, uncooked rice, vinegar, and mustard. Squeeze together with your hands to really mix the ingredients together. Shape into balls.
   
3. Heat olive oil in frying pan. Brown the turkey balls (if time is an issue, you can just skip this step and place balls into sauce, cooking on simmer for 25 minutes)
   
4. Add the meatballs to the sauce, cooking for another 10-15 minutes. Remove bay leaves.
   
5. Serve over rice.