August 23 - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Who would not want pasta and meatballs. Even my kids will gladly welcome a serving or two.

But there was a time that I could not even serve a simple marinara sauce to my kids. They did not like any colored things on their pasta. They would eat the pasta but pass on the sauce. As for me, I do not like meat on my pasta. I prefer the garlic and olive oil kind. So there were many dinners that I had to serve pasta in different ways and taste.

Recently, my kids have learned to like their pasta with marinara sauce. I serve it with meatballs on the side. That made our pasta dinner a little simpler.

Meatballs
Ingredients
3 lbs ground beef
2 cups 1% milk
2 cups Italian crumbs
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pepper

Preparation
Mix all ingredients. Let it stay in the refrigerator overnight.

Cooking Time (1 hour)
Set the oven to 400 degrees. Make 15 big meatballs. Place the meatballs on an oven broiler pan (put water on the bottom pan) and bake for an hour.


Marinara Sauce

Ingredients
6 cups crushed tomatoes (or two 28 oz. cans)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 large onion, minced
1 large red sweet pepper, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp salt
6 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp minced fresh basil
2 tbsp minced fresh oregano
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley



Cooking Time (1 hour)
Put all the ingredients in a large pot. Cook in medium to low heat for an hour. If desired, use a handheld blender to puree the sauce before serving.

Serve with any kind of pasta (my kids like spaghetti and ziti). Serve with freshly ground pepper and parmesan cheese.