Spaghetti & Meatballs

For as often as my family eats spaghetti (one of my kids' favorite dinners!) it's surprising that we had NEVER had spaghetti with homemade meatballs, until tonight. I usually put ground beef in my spaghetti sauce (whether making it from scratch, or adding to store-bought sauce) so we were essentially already eating the same thing, but since my more-picky kids have lately expressed a greater interest in meat, I decided to give these a try. They turned out great; we all loved them. I found the meatball recipe on allrecipes.com but tweaked it a bit.

Meatball ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef (I used 93/7)

3/4 c bread crumbs (I used store-bought)

1 T dried parsley

1 T grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 egg, beaten

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. I mixed it with a fork but then finished mixing it thoroughly with clean hands, just like I do when I make meatloaf. Shape into about 12 balls; if not using immediately then cover and store in the refrigerator.

Place meatballs in a glass or metal 8x8 pan; bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour an approximately 24-oz bottle/jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce into a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the sauce begins to boil, add the meatballs that have just partially cooked in the oven. Allow sauce to come to a boil again, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover, and let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.

While they're simmering, cook spaghetti noodles according to package instructions, in a separate pot. When noodles are tender, drain, and serve with meatballs & sauce on top -- and extra parmesan cheese. Yum!

• I doubled the meatball recipe; it was too much for my family but a single recipe wouldn't have been enough (because we all LOVED the meatballs)!
  

• I noticed that after all that simmer-time my sauce had thickened considerably, even though it had been covered. To thin it out I added about 1 cup of water to my sauce ~ this is fine to do because the liquid that has boiled away is just water, so you should add water (rather than tomato sauce, or something) to thin it back out to the right consistency.

• If you choose, you could omit the oven step and put the raw meatballs right into the sauce to cook. I liked the idea of browning them in the oven first. Either way, they should be cooked thoroughly after a 30-minute simmer.

Update: I just enjoyed the leftover meatballs & sauce for lunch ~ they would have been PERFECT on a hoagie roll! Thanks for the suggestion Amy; next time I'm making meatball subs!

Sloppy Joe Pot Pie

I read this recipe on Real Mom Kitchen, on just the day I needed it: I had no ideas for dinner, I had ground beef in the fridge that needed to be used, and I had the rest of the ingredients on hand. My kids were at first nervous because it was something NEW, but they all ended up loving it! It's very easy and made for a great dinner with a salad on the side. I agree with Laura's assessment (Laura from Real Mom Kitchen) that it would be better with more meat, so I think next time I will double the meat & sauce part and keep the biscuity-top part the same. Shown below are the original quantities. Also, I don't have an oven-safe skillet so I baked mine in a glass 8x8 and it was lovely... just pour the cooked meat mixture into an 8x8, then top w/ cheese and continue the rest of the instructions. Laura's picture is much better than mine so that's what I've used here. Enjoy!

Sloppy Joe Pot Pie

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 (15 oz) can sloppy joe sauce (like Manwich)
• 1 1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 c baking mix (like Bisquick)
• 1/2 c milk (skim is fine)
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 10-12" oven proof skillet, brown the beef & onion together until beef is no longer pink and onion is tender; drain. Add sloppy joe sauce to the meat and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with 1 cup of the cheese.

In a small bowl, mix together the baking mix, milk, and egg until combined. Pour over the beef mixture. Place the skillet in the oven and bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until golden.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 c cheese. Makes 4-5 servings.





A little tip: You can make your own Bisquick in a pinch. I didn't have any Bisquick on hand when I made this recipe, so I mixed 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1/2 T baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Then, cut in about 1/3 c shortening until mixture resembles fine crumbs. There's your "baking mix," so then just go ahead & stir in the milk & egg as directed.

Easy roast & gravy

I got this recipe from Real Mom Kitchen, except her instructions called for putting the roast in the oven and I opted for the Crock Pot instead. My oh my, this was easy and delicious.

1 medium-sized roast; any kind... I had one I'd bought a few months ago on sale for $4 that had been hiding at the bottom of my chest freezer and it was perfect!
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet brown gravy mix
salt & pepper

Sprinkle salt & pepper on both sides of the meat, put in crock pot. Turn on to low. In a small bowl, combine both soups (not diluted!) and gravy mix. Pour mixture over meat (it will be pretty thick). Cook for several hours until meat is tender. I made this Sunday and I had forgotten to start it before church, so I started mine at noon and it was done by five (although I had the crock pot on "high" during part of that time since I was worried about it being done).

This was so good! Once the moisture & fat from the meat combines with the sauce it ends up making a great gravy consistency. I skimmed some fat off the top of it because it was a fairly fatty roast to begin with. Making the mashed potatoes was definitely the hardest part of this meal.

Our Christmas Menu

We hosted out-of-town relatives this year for Christmas, and I really wanted to cook a turkey since it had been a while since I last cooked one. I was in the kitchen all day but everything turned out delicious! I will share with you all the recipes I used this year on Christmas Day...

Emeril's Turkey I have made this a few times and love the flavor. I don't make the giblet gravy; just use the turkey part of the recipe. And, I always cook a bigger bird (17-18 lb) so I nearly double the other ingredients since this recipe calls for a smaller bird.

Gravy My Grandma makes the best gravy. However, I have not watched her do it so I know I don't do it like her... therefore my gravy doesn't turn out nearly as good :) But, in making the turkey recipe above, I am able to easily make a pretty decent gravy. After taking the turkey out of the roasting pan, pour all drippings into a large bowl or Pyrex glass 2 qt measure. Let it sit for a few minutes to allow the fat to rise to the top. With a large spoon, skim off several spoonfuls of the fat/grease and put it in a medium saucepan. Put it over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of flour and whisk it well. Let it cook for a minute, and keep whisking. While still whisking, pour two or three cups of the drippings into the pan. Allow it to come to a boil, and you can see how thick your gravy will be. If it's too thick, add more of the liquid.

Mashed Potatoes Pioneer Woman says not to use a hand mixer on mashed potatoes, but I always do. I do most of the work with a potato masher by hand, but I always finish them with a hand mixer to ensure ultimate creaminess.

Stuffing My mother-in-law's delicious recipe; yum!

Sweet Potatoes Super easy, and who doesn't love marshmellows on top?


Rolls I was assigned to bring rolls for Thanksgiving at my Grandma's this year and I made these, and to fancy them up I put a small pat of butter in the big end of each triangle before rolling them up. I also brushed them with melted butter before baking. However, I found that they actually turned out too buttery for me (and I didn't think there was such a thing as too buttery!) For Christmas dinner I made a double batch, and I melted one stick of butter to spread on them before rolling up. So for each rolled-out circle (each circle yielding crescent 12 rolls) I spread 2 T butter. I thought they turned out just right this way.

Peas I actually did not make this recipe because I ran out of time (the turkey was done! I hadn't made the gravy! The sweet potatoes had browned!) but I had every intention to. We did eat peas, just regular frozen cooked peas that I added a pat of butter to after draining.



... and we had cranberry sauce (whole berry) from a can. I had to simplify somewhere! Dessert was a Costco cheesecake. Today I'm loving the leftovers... my favorite part about a big turkey dinner! And then in another few days I'll take the turkey carcass out of the freezer and make some turkey soup.





I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Nicole's Meatloaf

I never had meatloaf growing up, and when I got married I never had any desire to try making it -- the very name of it sounded suspicious. But one day in the late 90's we were having dinner at my bro- & sis-in-law's house and they served meatloaf; it was delicious! I've been making this recipe ever since. I always serve it with mashed potatoes and peas; it's such a delicious & satisfying meal.


2/3 c milk
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 eggs
3 slices bread, torn into small pieces
2/3 c finely chopped onions
2/3 c finely chopped carrots*
1 c shredded cheddar
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey (you can use all beef instead, but the turkey makes it a little lighter, healthier, & less greasy)

Glaze:
1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c brown sugar
2 tsp mustard (prepared mustard; not dry mustard spice)

In a large bowl, beat together milk, salt, pepper, & eggs. Add bread pieces, onions, & carrots. Mash in the ground meats (raw) and cheese. The best way to mix it all together really well is with your hands! Put into two loaf pans and bake at 350 for 1 hr 15 min. For the glaze, mix ingredients together in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until bubbly (don't cook too long or it will get too thick). You can spoon some of the glaze over the meatloaf during its last 15 minutes of cooking, but I usually wait and serve the glaze at the table to spoon over the meatloaf & mashed potatoes on our plates. So good.


*A note about the carrots: I always grate them instead of chopping. Once I put chopped carrots in and they didn't cook enough so they ended up being hard pieces. Not good. You can leave them out altogether, but I always grate some in if I have them. Extra nutrition, you know.


Recipe courtesy of my SIL Nicole