Steph's Mom's Chicken Marsala

I'm so mad at myself right now! I do all my menu planning on an Excel spreadsheet. Each week when I do my new plan I make a copy of the previous week's worksheet, delete that week's plan, and then make my new one. Apparently this week I forgot the step where I put the copy on a new worksheet. Sigh. And now because my two kids have somehow sucked away any sort of memory (and intelligence) I used to have, I can't remember what we even had to know if there was anything worthy of posting. I don't think there was...I got in a cooking funk at the end of last week and was just burned out on making dinner.

Anyway, on to this week I suppose. We had some friends over last night for dinner, and I had originally planned on making Baked Pesto Chicken, but then I realized yesterday afternoon that making that would require a trip to the store with both kids after nap/quiet time. So instead of having to deal with that potential catastrophe (no, my kids are both good at the grocery store, I just hate having to take them both for only one item) I went looking for something else I could make. I pulled out my cookbook compiled by members of a parenting message board I belong to because I knew my friend Benah had a balsamic chicken recipe in there that I'd wanted to try. Unfortunately it required overnight marinating which wasn't going to work since this was roughly three hours prior to our friends' arrival. I kept flipping through the chicken section and finally arrived on this chicken marsala recipe submitted by my friend Steph. Her caption under the recipe (which is titled Stolen Chicken Marsala in the cookbook) says, "Shh! Don't tell my mother! I had to steal it--it's SO GOOD!!" Worked for me, and I had everything on hand and figured it would come together quickly.

Steph's Mom's Chicken Marsala

2 pounds chicken, pounded even
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp oregano
1 cup marsala wine

Mix all ingredients (except chicken and marsala). Dredge chicken. Heat 2 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp butter in frying pan. Saute meat and chicken about 1 minute until brown. Place chicken pieces in a baking dish. Add 1 cup marsala wine to frying pan remains and deglaze the pan. Pour over the chicken, and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

*****

See, totally easy! I made my own breadcrumbs by throwing a couple pieces of whole grain sandwich bread into my food processor with some Italian seasoning. For the flour I used whole wheat. I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out as I've never used whole wheat flour for dredging, but I didn't think you could even tell it was whole wheat in the finished dish.

This chicken was amazing and fantastic and yummy and amazing and fantasic. Everyone really liked it, even the kiddos ate all of their portions. These are generally all ingredients I have on hand, so this will definitely go into my repertoire of "Akkk!! What am I going to make for dinner?!" recipes. There was one piece of chicken left last night, and after our guests left I was so tempted to eat it because I loved it so much. I was glad I had some self control because it made for a tasty lunch today!



I had to take a picture of the only piece left in the pan.

Rick Bayless' Chipotle Meatballs (Sandwich Style)

Oh man...words do not express how freakin' excited I am to try this dinner tonight!!! Months and months ago when I was holding the Rick Bayless Mexican Everyday cookbook hostage from the library I saw this chipotle meatball recipe in it. Sounded good and then I thought, "Hmmm...you could probably make a Mexican version of a meatball sandwich with those." And then the idea just had to sit in my brain for a long, long time. I don't know why I haven't made this sooner given my excitement for it!!

So, first I'll post the recipe from his cookbook and then how I'm doing my sandwich take on it after the recipe.

Rick Bayless' Chipotle Meatballs
Copyright 2005, Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday

3 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled (divided use)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs (3/4 cup if they're the coarse-textured panko)
Salt
1-1/4 pounds ground pork
1/2 cup (loosely packed) coarsely chopped mint leaves, plus extra leaves for garnish if you wish
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice (preferably fire-roasted)
1-2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo, stemmed and seeded
1-2 Tbsp chipotle canning sauce
1 tsp dried oregano, preferably Mexican
About 1-1/2 cups beef or chicken broth

Turn on the oven to 450 degrees. In a food processor, combine the bacon and 1 garlic clove. Process until finely chopped. Add the eggs, bread crumbs, and 1 teaspoon salt. Pulse several times to combine thoroughly, then add the pork and mint. Pulse the machine a ew more times until everything is well combined--but not at all processed into a paste. Remove the blade.

With wet hands, form the meat into 16 plum-size spheres, spacing them out in a 13x9 inch baking dish. Bake until lightly browned (they'll be browned more underneath than on top), about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, combine the tomatoes, with their juice, chipotles, canning sauce, oregano, the remaining 2 garlic cloves (cut in half) and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth puree.

When the meatballs are ready, spoon off any rendered fat from the baking dish, then pour on the tomato mixture, covering the meatballs evenly. Bake until the sauce looks like tomato paste, 15 to 20 minutes.

Microwave the broth for about a minute to heat it (or heat in a small saucepan). Divide the meatballs among four dinner plates, leaving most of the sauce behind. Stir enough broth into the sauce to give it an easily spoonable consistency. Taste and season with additional salt if you think the sauce needs it. Spoon the sauce over the meatballs, decorate with extra mint leaves, if you wish, and serve.

*****

My mouth started to water a bit there while I was typing out the recipe. Rick has yet to do me wrong, so I cannot wait to try this! The only substitution I'm making is to use ground beef instead of pork. I have 1.5 pounds of ground beef left in my freezer, and I gave the husband a couple options that I could do with it, and this is what he chose. We're trying to get back to no (or very little) red meat, so we won't be having anything like this for awhile.

So, now my sandwich take on them. These sounded really similar to meatballs in marinara my friend Laura makes and then uses for meatball sandwiches. So I thought why couldn't I do a Mexican version, using this sauce instead of marinara, and queso fresco instead of mozzarella. So that's what we're having for dinner tonight! I was telling my friend Jen about these last night when I talked to her, and she thought they sounded awesome, too. She suggested putting avocado or guacamole on them, too. I do have an avocado that needs to be used up, so I might try that and see how it is.

I can't wait to report back to you on how these turn out!!

*****

Oh man...oh MAN!!! I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Rick Bayless is a god among men, or at least when it comes to food. These meatballs were AMAZING. The sandwiches were so-so, but I think that's mostly because I forgot to toast or somehow heat up the sandwich rolls before assembling. Oops. They were so filling, too. Neither of us finished the sandwich.

I ended up using one chipotle pepper and a few spoonfuls of the canning sauce because I didn't want it to end up too spicy. I figured better to start with less and then go from there if I needed to, but I think that was just the right amount for our taste. Smokey with a little heat but not overpowering.

I loved the hint of bacon and mint in the meatballs. The flavor was fantastic and captivating. The smokey sauce really added to them as well. This is something I will definitely make again, although since we're giving up ground beef for awhile I may try them with ground turkey, or I'm hoping to get a food grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer for my birthday, so if I do I could grind up a lean cut of pork and make them that way. As it was I used 93% lean ground beef, and they turned out fine. Oh, my food processor was not going to be big enough to add the meat with the bacon/bread crumbs/egg/garlic mixture, so I added the mint in with all that and then combined that mixture with the ground beef in a bowl and mixed it by hand.

Just thinking about them makes me want to go over to the fridge and have one cold!

(I took pictures, but they're on my phone, so I'll upload them later.)

Tuna Cakes with Dill Tartar Sauce

Two cans of tuna were on my list of ingredients I had to work with this week without going to the grocery store, and I found this recipe on a Weight Watchers recipe website I turn to fairly often when I'm doing WW. I had everything on hand, so it sounded like a great addition to the meal plan.

Tuna Cakes with Dill Tartar Sauce

Tuna Cakes With Dill Tartar Sauce
4 Points per Serving

Vegetable cooking spray
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons light process cream cheese product, softened
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
dash ground red pepper
1/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dried whole dillweed
1 9-1/4-ounce can 60%-less salt tuna in water, drained
1 egg white

Dill Tartar Sauce (see recipe)

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium-high heat until hot. Add celery and onion; saute until tender. Remove from skillet, and place in a medium bowl. Add cream cheese and next 3 ingredients; stir well. Add breadcrumbs and next 3 ingredients; stir well. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a 2-1/2-inch cake.

Coat skillet with cooking spray; place over medium-high heat until hot. Add 4 cakes, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove cakes from skillet; set aside, and keep warm. Repeat proceudre with remaining cakes. Serve with Dill Tartar Sauce.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 cakes and 1 tablespoon sauce).

Dill Tartar Sauce
1 Point per serving

2 tablespoons reduced-calorie mayonnaise
1 tablespoon plain nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon peeled, finely chopped cucumber
1 teaspoon dried whole dillweed
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients; stir well.

*****

I was really intrigued with this and thought it might go over well with the boy because he really likes tuna salad. So how did it turn out? It didn't. We ended up going with my universal dinner back-up plan of Little Ceasar's pizza. Everything mixed up fine, but the darn cakes would not stay together when I went to flip them. I don't know if they needed more breadcrumbs or egg or what, but out of the eight patties, only three held together. I had one the next day for lunch on a sandwich roll, and as a sandwich it was decent, but I don't think this is one I'll be trying again.

Chicken Parmesan

So, did you miss me while I was gone? I realized that I forgot to post before we left. The kids and I just spent a week in Orlando with my mom and aunt, celebrating my mom's 60th birthday! We had a great time--spent two days a Sea World and one day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We went to St. Augustine for a day and met up with my friend Nanci who I hadn't seen in a really, really long time. Her daughter is a year younger than my oldest, and they totally hit it off! They were adorable together, and he was so sad when it was time for them to head back to Jacksonville.

There wasn't really anything spectacular we ate on our trip. Orlando seems to be the land of the chain restaurant. We did eat at an awesome restaurant in St. Augustine--The Bubble Room. They had these amazing homemade potato chips covered with cheese and bacon. Yeah...they were freakin' awesome! Thankfully they were sitting at the other end of the table from me, so I didn't have that many. I had a really good veggie sandwich, but everyone's food looked fantastic. We debated going back for dinner before we left to try their signature Bubble Bread and get some desserts, but we didn't. We also ate at BB King's Blues Club that was pretty good. I was debating between two things for dinner and asked the waiter what he suggested, and it turned out one of them was his favorite thing on the menu. So, I went with that...chicken fried chicken with caramelized onion gravy and white cheddar macaroni and cheese. The whole thing was tasty, but the macaroni and cheese was amazing. It was probably the best mac and cheese I have ever had--and I've had a lot of mac and cheese! I need to do some Googling and see if I can find the recipe on one of those copycat recipe websites.

While we were gone my friend Amanda left me a note on Facebook that she was making my chicken parmesan recipe for dinner one night. I realized we hadn't had it in quite some time, so I mentally added it to my meal plan for the week. I'm excited--we all really like this, and it's easy and healthy! Thanks, Amanda, for reminding me of it!

Chicken Parmesan

I'm going to make homemade tomato sauce to go with it. This way I can freeze the rest of the sauce and use it one night next week for something. I'm going to boil up some spaghetti to go with this and steam some kind of frozen vegetable.

Stuffed Eggplants

I had originally slated a vegetarian moussaka recipe in my meal plan for Sunday night, but then after reading it again I decided it didn't sound very good. I had already bought the eggplants for it, so I needed to find something different so they didn't go to waste. I was looking at my cookbook shelves and saw one of my great aunt's cookbooks called Healthy Heart, so I thought I'd give that a try. I had all the ingredients except mushrooms, but since I needed to go grocery shopping anyway that wasn't a big deal.

Stuffed Eggplants

One 1-pound eggplant
Kosher salt for sprinkling
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
i garlic clove, minced
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, chopped
2 plum tomatoes, diced
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 to 3/4 tsp dried
1/8 tsp kosher salt, optional
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup multigrain bread crumbs
1/2 cup egg substitute

Trim off the stem and cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Make slits in the flesh and salt the halves. Place in a colander and allow to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse, then wipe off all salt and moisture. Leaving a 3/8-inch shell, remove the flesh with a small paring knife or grapefruit spoon and dice.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the onion and saute for 3 minutes. add the diced eggplant, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are cooked through, about 15 minutes. When the vegetables are soft, stir in the bread crumbs and egg substitute until well incorporated and the eggs are cooked.

Mound the stuffing in the 2 eggplant halves. Place in a baking dish and add just enough water to cover the bottom of the dish without touching the stuffing, about a quarter way up the sides of the eggplant. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the foil from the baking dish and cool for 5 minutes. Slice in half with a sharp knife and serve immediately.

*****

I had two smaller eggplants, so I went with those instead of one big one. And I just realized when typing this out that the mushrooms were to be chopped; mine were sliced. Oops. I also didn't feel like making breadcrumbs, so I just used some panko I had in my pantry.

These were pretty tasty, although I think I'd change a couple things. I thought some pine nuts mixed in would have given it a little bit of needed texture and crunch, and some parmesan sprinkled over the top would have been good, too. We all really liked them, even the boy at all of his filling! These were really easy to put together and a good dish to add to my eggplant arsenal. ;)

Stuffed Chicken Parmesan

Awhile back I saw a link somewhere to get a free coupon book from Eat Better America, so I signed up for it. A few weeks later I got a booklet with coupons and a bunch of healthy recipes. Sweet! This one struck me the first time I saw it, but then I forgot about it for awhile. Then I've had it on my menu for the past couple weeks but kept pushing it back for some reason. Well tonight was finally the night!! Thankfully I even found the recipe on their website, so I didn't have to type it all out--woo hoo!

Stuffed Chicken Parmesan
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 5 oz each)
1 box (10 oz) Cascadian Farm® frozen organic cut spinach, thawed, well drained
2 oz 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), softened
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup fat-free egg product
12 stone-ground wheat crackers, crushed (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup Muir Glen® organic Italian herb pasta sauce
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (1 oz)

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Between pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper, place each chicken breast smooth side down; gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick.
2. In medium bowl, mix spinach, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon basil and the garlic until blended. Spread about 1 tablespoon spinach mixture over each chicken breast; roll up tightly. If necessary, secure with toothpicks.
3. In small shallow bowl, place egg product. In another small shallow bowl, mix cracker crumbs, 1 teaspoon basil and the pepper. Dip each chicken breast into egg product; coat with crumb mixture. Place seam side down in baking dish.
4. Bake uncovered 20 minutes. Pour pasta sauce over chicken; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until thermometer inserted in center of chicken reads 165°F. Remove toothpicks from chicken before eating.

Nutritional Information (per serving):
Calories 290 (Calories from Fat 100); Total Fat 11g (Saturated Fat 4 1/2g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 100mg; Sodium 450mg; Total Carbohydrate 10g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 3g); Protein 38g

*****

The chicken breasts I used were pretty big; I cut them each in half and had just enough filling for all of them. The only thing I changed was using some homemade Italian bread crumbs I had in my freezer instead of the crackers. Oh and I used garlic powder instead of real garlic. I had some stuff for sale on Craigslist, and someone responded to one of the ads, and it turned out she is a fire fighter. We went to drop off the stuff to her at the fire station where she works, and we ended up getting a private tour of the fire station and the fire engine!! Pretty cool! But, they were out on a call when we got there, so we ended up getting home late because we had to wait a bit, which meant I was scrambling to get dinner going because I hadn't thought to take out the chicken breasts before we left. Oops.

Anyway, I'm writing this after we've eaten, so I'll let you know that it was super tasty. I LOVED it. The boy ate every bite on his plate (that doesn't happen very often). The husband said he liked it but he thought it was too much spinach. I told him next time maybe I'd cut back on the spinach and increase the cream cheese. I would definitely make this again!

Oh, and I took a picture, but the one from the website sure looks a lot nicer, so I'm just putting that in here. Cheating, I know, but it does the dish a lot more justice than my pic.

Italian Seasoned Fries

These are the fries we had with the Italian Beef sandwiches last night. They were from one of my Southern Living cookbooks. They sounded pretty easy, and I had everything on hand for them. Double bonus!

Italian Seasoned Fries
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter/margarine
1 28-ounce package frozen steak fries
3/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt

Combine eggs and oil in a large heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Add frozen fries; seal bag and toss. Combine breadcrumbs and cheese; add to fries; toss well. Place coated fries in a single layer on a lightly greased large baking sheet or jelly roll pan; sprinkle with salt. Bake, uncovered, at 450 for 22 minutes or until browned and crisp. Yield: 8 servings.

*****

Again, I forgot to take a picture of them. Oops. These were okay. My fries weren't all that coated, so I think I'd either double the amount for the seasonings or cut the amount of fries in half. Probably the latter because the whole bag of fries made a lot. I'm actually not sure why I went ahead and cooked the whole bag--I don't normally cook the whole bag when we have fries as a side dish. Overall they weren't great, but they weren't bad.

Chicken Parmesan Pasta Toss

Rarely does it happen that I'm figuring out what to make for dinner at 5:00, but that's what has happened to me today. We're going out of town in a few days, so I was trying to make dinners this week that wouldn't leave a whole mess of leftovers in the fridge that would end up going to waste. Then I remembered that tonight we're hosting some kids from Wisconsin that are visiting our church; they're supposed to have dinner before we pick them up, but I thought I should make something that there would be enough of in case they were hungry. So that ruled out what was originally slated for tonight--that and the fact that I don't the right kind of cheese. Oops. I tried to rearrange my menu plan for the week, but everything else I was going to make had ingredients that I was missing. So I had to come up with something new.

I looked in the fridge to see exactly what kind of cheese I had and saw a bag of mozzarella (or Italian blend--I'm not exactly sure which it was), so I started to think about what I could do with that. I remembered this random recipe I had thrown together at one point and thought this would be good. Woo hoo!

Chicken Parmesan Pasta Toss
2 chicken breasts
2 egg whites
Italian bread crumbs
8 ounces (dried) rotini pasta
2 cups spaghetti sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Grated parmesan

Cut chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Place egg whites in a pie plate, place bread crumbs into a gallon Ziploc bag. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Put chicken pieces into egg whites and coat chicken. Transfer chicken to Ziploc bag and close bag. Shake to coat chicken pieces. Move chicken pieces to skillet with olive oil; cook until golden brown and cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water and drain when done cooking. Return pasta to pasta pot, add in chicken. Pour in spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan. Stir to combine. Serve.

*****

I have some pasta left in the fridge from the Chicken Cacciatore I made at the end of last week, so I can use up that and just cook up a little extra to go with it. I have some marinara left from the meatball pie and I saw an opened jar of Ragu in my fridge I can use up, too. The pasta I have in the fridge is spaghetti, and I have linguine in the pantry, so I'll be using those instead of rotini.

I think we'll just have some bread and salad with this. It's the Asian salad blend I bought last week, but I want to use it before it goes bad, so we'll just have to deal with an Italian dinner and an Asian salad. I'll just say we're continental. Yeah, that's the ticket...continental!

*****

This was only okay this time. It was more like spaghetti with chunks of chicken than I remember it being the last time I made it. It was decent, and it came together easily, so I can't really complain. However, the Asian Blend Fresh Express salad was super yummy!!! I will definitely get that one again. I could eat the whole bag on my own.

Onion Baked Pork Chops

Since Jen B. is keeping me honest about updating every day I thought I'd better post before I get an angry phone call from her after naptime. ;) I was trying to find some new recipes for this week--or even some older ones I hadn't made in a really long time--and came across an email full of budget friendly recipes someone sent me years ago. It's ridiculous the number of recipes I have saved in my email. Actually it's ridiculous the number of recipes I have everywhere. And it makes me sad when I think about how many of them will never be made. Sigh. Anyway...I had everything on hand for this except the pork chops, but they were on sale this week and I was planning on buying them anyway, so I thought it worked out well.

Onion baked pork chops
1 envelope Lipton Secrets onion soup mix
1/3 cup bread crumbs
4 pork chops
1 egg, well beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In small bowl, combine soup mix, and bread crumbs. Dip chops in egg, then in breadcrumb mixture, until evenly coated. In lightly greased 9x13 in baking pan, arrange chops. Bake uncovered 20 min or until done, turning once.

*****

I'm thinking I may cook them on a rack in a roasting pan so the bottom doesn't get all soggy. I don't know what we'll have with this. Maybe some kind of pasta side dish and frozen mixed veggies. The starch side is what's up in the air, which isn't too big a deal.

*****

Well, the pork chops were okay. I like my other pork chop recipes better, but they weren't bad. If I needed a quick dinner one night and had everything on hand, I'd probably make them again, but I don't think I'd plan on making them, if that makes sense. I peeked in the oven at one point and thought they weren't even cooking because the color of the breading looked like the raw pork chop. Turns out they were mostly cooked, but I did leave them in for probably closer to 30 minutes because the inside was still pink and the temperature on my meat thermometer wasn't high enough. The boy really liked them and ate his whole serving without having to be prodded along which was pretty amazing.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I heart spaghetti and meatballs. I heart it so much. We rarely had spaghetti when I was growing up because my mom doesn't like it. She claims she ate too much of it in college and can't eat it anymore. Same goes for macaroni and cheese, which is odd because personally I ate a TON of that in college (and my whole life really) and still could eat it multiple times a week. Who knows. Occasionally we would get spaghetti but we'd never get meatballs. I was so excited when I found out my mother-in-law makes meatballs and even more excited when she gave me her recipe for them.

For whatever reason, I don't make this all that often, even though I love it. Probably because we don't eat a lot of red meat, and soy meatballs just aren't the same thing. They'll work in a pinch, but they don't even come close to real meatballs. Originally I had planned on making just spaghetti sauce last Tuesday for the boy and me for dinner, but that's when our family crisis came to a head, and by the time the boy and I got home from my mom's house, I was completely drained and exhausted and didn't have it in me to cook dinner. So I figured I'd bump it to Sunday night dinner and add in meatballs since the husband loves them too. The meatball recipe is my MIL's, the sauce recipe is from a cookbook put together by members of a message board that I belong to. I've made it before and loved it.

Meatballs
lean ground beef – 2 pounds or more
Italian bread crumbs ( 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
chopped onion – 1 chopped fine
parsley (1 1/2 tab minced)
grated Parmesan cheese (3/4 cup)
eggs –2
salt/pepper
garlic powder

Mix ingredients for the meatballs (ground beef, italian bread crumbs, chopped onion, parsley, grated parmesan cheese, and eggs. Salt and Pepper. Shape into balls and fry in a little olive oil.

*****

Tomato Sauce
3 cans crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Fresh basil

Mince the garlic and onion. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add cans of crushed tomatoes plus half a can of water and bring to a boil. When it's boiling, turn the heat way down and let it simmer. The longer you let it simmer, the better it will taste. For three cans, let simmer about 90 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and oregano to taste. At the very end chop up some basil and stir it in (dried basil would work too).

*****

I forgot to add the parmesan cheese to the meatballs. I could tell something was missing, but the husband didn't say anything about them being off. They were still good, just not as good as they could have been. Also, my sauce turned out really watery for some reason. It was fine in the pot, but then once it was on our plates it was super runny. I didn't rinse off the pasta--which is what I always thought caused the problem--so I have no idea what happened.

Oh, and here's my fancy way of doing this. I cook the meatballs in the same pot I use to make the sauce. Then you get yummy little bits of meatballs stuck to the bottom of the pot. I deglaze the pot with some red wine, let it cook like that for awhile to get rid of the alcohol, then add in the sauce ingredients. Mmmmm...gives it just a little extra flavor that's super yummy.