I'm back...

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. It's been a whirlwind of fun activities the last few days, with more visits to the pumpkin patch, trunk or treat, shopping and the like.

First, some recipes.



Vegged-up Spaghetti and Meatballs

I used this sauce recipe as inspiration, but I really changed most of the recipe, so I think I can call it my own.

I sauteed most of a sweet onion, a handful of chopped baby carrots and one whole zucchini (chopped in pretty small chunks so some might "accidentally" make it into Big Girl's mouth) in two tablespoons of olive oil until tender.

To the veggies I added 2 garlic "ice cubes", 1 big can petite diced tomatoes, 1 8 oz can tomato sauce, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of paprika, a few good shakes of Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon or so of salt, and 3 bay leaves.

I let it simmer while I made the meatballs. I halved the recipe, and it made 2 dozen smallish (party-size) meatballs.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't care for meatballs (really, anything made with ground beef). I tasted one and thought they were okay. Derek and Big Girl really liked them.

I cooked them in the simmering sauce for 40 minutes or so. There was enough meat mixture left over for me to freeze some meatballs for another meal.

All in all, the meal was good. We all liked the sauce, they liked the meatballs, and some vegetables were unknowingly consumed by our little meat-and-starch eater. Next time, however, I will reduce the amount of added salt in the sauce, because the chunks of zucchini ended up really salty.

Okay, I thought I'd do more than one recipe in this post, but I'll be back with more later...