Sunday Night Supper: spaghetti and meatballs

Tonight's supper was planned out last minute. I would've preferred to make a chicken dish but we had some beef in the fridge and I was lazy (more like exhausted). I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs. I was able to make meatballs and meat sauce with a pound of beef. 

Above are the ingredients I needed for my meatballs. An egg, Italian seasoning, parm cheese, red chili flakes and black pepper. 

Preheat oven to 400. 

Crack egg into medium mixing bowl. I eyeball all the ingredigents. Add italian seasoning, red chili flakes (since I have a toddler I can't make it super spicy so I only did a few), black pepper and parm cheese. Once all the ingredients have been added use a spoon to mix it together. 

Once the ingredients are mixed together add half of the meat of your choice. I suggest using no less than half of the meat to make the meatballs. Using your hands combine the meat with the egg mixture. 

Once your done combing the egg mixture with the meat. Roll the meat into little balls using your hands. 

Get a cookie tray (or whatever you prefer to bake the meatballs). I like covering a cookie tray with aluminum foil so there's less mess and an easier clean up. 

Place meatballs onto tray and put tray in oven. 

Cook for 20-25 minutes or until there's no pink. I suggest keeping an eye on it while you're making the sauce. My oven is ancient and sometimes things cook faster than said time and sometimes it cooks slower. 

It was really hard taking picture of raw meat. Raw meat tends to gross me out hardcore. 

To make the meat sauce I first like coating the bottom of the pot with olive oil, a few red chili flakes, Italian seasoning, black pepper and lots of garlic. Then I add the meat.

While the meat starts cooking. I like to start cutting up my veggies. We only had mushrooms and green pepper so I used those. I prefer using an onion but for some reason we didn't have one (ugh!). I'll start cutting up the tomatoes once the mushrooms and green peppers have been added. 

Once the meat is done cooking add the veggies. I also like adding more spices at this point. Especially garlic. 

 

While those veggies are cooking is when I'll start cutting up the tomatoes. I like having chunks of tomatos in my sauce. I could buy the canned kind but fresh is healthier and less sodium. 

Once you're done slicing up the tomatoes add them into the mix 

Once the tomatoes have been added. Pour in the pasta sauce.  

Fill up pot with water and add in whatever pasta you prefer. 

Check on meatballs and once they're done cooking add them into your pasta sauce mix and let them simmer in there. 

Sometimes depending on how the sauce is tasting I'll add a few more spices. Tonight's case I needed to do just that.

When pasta is done cooking. Strain.

`Add sauce onto pasta with a meatball and voila! Easy!

Above is a Charlie's sized dinner portion. He normally will eat half of a meatball. Tonight's case he ate more than the adults!

Sunday Night Supper: cheesy spaghetti

I decided to start "Sunday Night Supper" because Sunday is the one day I seem to want to cook and I get the most "creative" in the kitchen. I also have to include a little one year old who enjoys feeding himself so most meals have to be Charlie friendly. This is one of Charlie's favorite dishes and it also happens to be a favorite of my younger brother's. Today happens to be my brother's birthday and even though he lives 3000 miles away, I made this dish in his honor.

Chop up those veggies. Grocery shopping didn't happen in the house today so I used the vegetables we had. I normally love loading up on the veggies. 

I seasoned and cooked the beef first and added and seasoned the vegetables and then I added the tomato sauce. 

Pick your choice of pasta and start heating it up. Penne and Elbows are a hit in this house because it's easy for little one year old fingers :) Once the pasta is done cooking and the sauce is done to your liking, drain the pasta and mix it into the sauce. 

Add Mozzarella cheese on top and let the cheese melt and it's good to go! I'm not a fan of baked pasta (unless it's lasagna) so I prefer this dish. My super picky eater brother even loves this dish (so that really says something). He started liking it once we started to refuse to buy speghatti-o's. Don't get me started on what that kid got away with eating when we were little :)

A young Rachel & Jimmy circa 2001

Happy Birthday, little brother. My brother is special for many reasons. One of them being that "he never forgets". If you left him behind in the snow when he was five, he'll make it a point to tell you about it every single time your home. (hey! i had my reasons and i was stuck carrying the clunky sled) Jimmy, I love you and I'm so proud of you