Spaghetti and Meatballs Filed under ( beef, cheese, main dishes, meat, meatballs, pasta, sauces )

Do you ever make a dinner, that's so good that you feel like the household culinary champ of the world? It's not too often that I make a dish that every single person in my family not just likes, but absolutely loves, sending them back for seconds. This was that meal for us, and I know that it's nothing fancy and new, but let me just tell you about these meatballs.

I had made meatballs in the past, and was totally turned off by them. Since I browned them before baking them, I felt like I was basically eating spaghetti, with big hunks of burger on top, and it wasn't very good. So, I didn't make any for a while. But when I got my Newman's Own Spaghetti sauce, I thought it might be fun to give meatballs another chance.

I found a great meatball recipe on recipezaar. Nothing fancy, just your regular meatball ingredients. But I didn't brown them this time, instead, I rolled them into balls and placed them on a cooling rack, on top of my baking sheet, which was covered in foil to catch all the fat that the meatballs rendered off when baking. The result were soft, flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth meatballs that my family couldn't stop eating. They were also wonderful as sandwiches in your favorite marinara a few meals later. These are a definite new favorite at our house.


And the Newman's Own sauce? Not bad! I'm normally not one for jarred spaghetti sauces, I always feel like they are too sweet and lacking a lot of flavor, but this stuff was much more robust and full of great flavor. I still added a bunch of minced onion and garlic, but I just can't help myself there! I also used some of it for a Shepherd's pie that I'll post soon. I'm all about the classics right now baby!

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Adapted by Recipezaar

Ingredients

Hot cooked spaghetti noodles
Newman's Own Spaghetti Sauce, or preferred Spaghetti Sauce
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 lb ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 dash pepper

Directions

1. Cover a large baking sheet with tin foil and place a cooling rack on top of that. Preheat oven to 375.

2. In a large bowl, blend bread crumbs, beef, eggs, cheese, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on top of baking rack. Bake for 15 minutes, or until cooked through.

3. Assemble spaghetti, meatballs and sauce, and be sure to have lots of napkins!

Blogtastic Eats Filed under ( blog finds, bread, coconut, fruit, meat, meatballs, nuts, turkey )

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the best things I've made have come from other people's food blogs. I mean, you guys really know your food! The tragedy is that there are SO many great bloggy dishes, and only three meals in a day, I never feel like I'll be able to try them all. But even if I don't, rest assured, your pictures and descriptions always leave me drooling, and hungry! Here are two great finds that I recently tried, and must be shared.

I found these fantastic meatballs over at Gina's Weight Watchers blog. And while I'm not quite as strict on the diet as I should be (ahem), I still really try to eat delicious but healthy foods like this. Have you ever tried the potstickers from Costco. No, not the ones in the freezer, the fresh one, made with chicken, yeah, those! Aren't they awesome? These meatballs taste A LOT like them. They even come with a similar tasting sauce. They are juicy and full of flavor and were a hit with the whole family. You can find the recipe here.

Thanks Gina!


The second thing we made was Coleen's Pineapple Banana Bread. This was a bread that I just couldn't get out of my head, and I'm so glad I didn't! It's like summer in bread form. With the combination of banana, pineapple and coconut, it's the closest you'll come to eating a Pina Colada. Definitely try this, especially if you are buried in three feet of snow and need some sunshine in your house! The recipe can be found here. Thanks Coleen! And here's a picture of my daughter when I told her we were going to make banana bread.


She gets excited.

Is anyone else out there having a snow day? Not only is my girl home from school, but my husband is as well! I have to tell you, waking up to a lazy weekday morning, and having aebelskivers with my husband is not a bad way to start the day, although I'm not quite sure about having the deal with the snow everytime. Stay warm my friends, and keep cooking up those wonderful dishes!