Meat Balls? Healthy or not?

Hello everyone again. I have a new question. Tommorow my mother is making a big meal for everybody. My brother came to visit. I am already skipping the Dinner Roll and Sasage. Can you believe right there is almost 400 calories?! Who knew!? My mom is making Spegitti, Meat Balls, and Sasages for dinner. My mom is also making a salad we can eat before the meal. Unfortuanally I have no control on what goes on the salad.......My mom always overdoes the Dressing....It's going to be Fat Free 1000 Island Dressing and some other liquid dressing. So I am getting a lot of calories from that already. Everything else seems okay in the salad...Anyways back to the subject. Like sasauge should I skip the meat balls? They are a pretty decent size. Are they healthy or should I just stay away from it and just have the Spaghetti? Spaghetti isent really all that healthy ether sence my mom puts a lot of butter and its not multigrain.. But my mom will get pissed if I don't eat this supper cause she already thinks I am starving myself because I messure out my cereal in the mornings. Pretty stupid aye? I KNOW how many calories I am eating okay!?!!? (Sorry random vent xD) So yeah should I skip the meat balls or is it okay? I had a cheat meal only a couple days ago so I can't have this as a cheat meal. Thanks in advanced.

Would your mother be offended if you asked her to set some salad aside for you before she adds dressing to it?  That way you could add dressing to your salad yourself and choose exactly how much dressing you want.

none of the food you've described is unhealthy.  there's absolutely nothing wrong with a small serving of spaghetti, two or three large meatballs, sauce, and a salad.

your mom is right.  eat your dinner.

I was wondering if you knew if she uses lean ground beef or the 75/25 stuff. That right there would make a big difference in calories and fat.  I too agree with mitchell, ask for some dry salad on the side before the dressing is added.  Then you can control the calories. Also agree with pgeorgian; eat small amounts of everything and enjoy! A little of each will not hurt you, especially if you can control the dressing; eat half a roll, half a sausage, a meatball or two and a small portion of spaghetti. Enjoy!

Mothers, don't you love em. Mine is the same, we go as a family to visit every week and she always does enough for a family of 10 not 5 that we are. (though she is getting better)

I would say it is inevitable that you will probably overshoot your target for calories for the day on days like this, (and other times such as meals out / work celebrations etc.) If there is a healthy option go for that, (heavy on the salad, light on the meatballs (though if you have the recipie your mother uses feed it into the recipe analyser on this site to see how bad it is)).

I would also look at avarages of calorie intake over a week and even out the bad days with lower intakes on otherdays when you know exactly what is in your food. (This helps with me those days when I am on late shifts so cant exercise and end up eating hospital food.) 

Also mybe burn off a few more calories on those days if possible.

Enjoy the meal, just don't overdo it.  Take a 5 mile walk afterwards.  It's when one gets too "health picky", they set themselves up for unneeded guilt and worry.

How healthy the meatballs are would depend on her recipe.  If they are made with fatty ground meat and fried, then of course it would have saturated fat.  If made with lean meat and baked, that's another matter.  If made with ground turkey breast, then it's sure to be low fat, low calorie.

Since you don't really know, just go ahead and eat the meatball. 

Remember that the Italians living in Italy are among the thinnest people in the world and they eat pasta every single day.  Also remember that the reason they don't get fat is that it's only a small portion, not a huge bowlful, and it's only one course in the meal

So, everything in moderation and you'll be fine.  The important thing is to enjoy the company without worrying about the food.

I sometimes eat pasta with meat (meatballs, sausage, veal, etc.) during the week, but ALWAYS have it on Sundays and I actually have never found it to cause weight gain (I'm not saying it can't, just that if you are sensible esp. with the pasta you'll be fine)....I usually have like a large scoop of the pasta and 1 piece of each meat (1 meatball, 1 pc of sausage, etc.) and a half a piece of bread and salad on the side

meatball wise, I know making them with turkey meat cuts out A LOT of calories and fat....to me they taste very similar, but some people won't eat them I know lol.....enjoy the meal....eat sensibly and maybe take a walk or something...don't obsess though...have fun...one meal will do NOTHING to you in the long run, trust me!

Thanks for all the replys! I did what a lot of you guys suggested. Small Portions of everything. Also the salad ended up not being all that bad ether so I didn't have to make my own. :] I still skipped the sasuage and the dinner roll though aha. I had half of the meat ball which I found out was made from ground beef. Oh well I only ate half! aha. Then I had a small portion of macoroni. Thanks for everyones tips again :D