No Excuses 30 Minute Spaghetti and Meatballs... FROM SCRATCH!

Uh huh, you read that right.  Spaghetti and meatballs...from scratch...in 30 minutes.  Well, with the help of boxed noodles and canned tomatoes.  But still delicious and easy!  I told my husband last night after making this meal that I will NEVER buy canned spaghetti sauce again.  I love the light taste of this recipe.  

I am sick of the excuse, "I don't have time to cook!"  So the family is packed up to go out to eat or something is delivered.  And, more than likely, what is ordered is not very healthy.  More money spent and unnecessary calories consumer.

It's called MEAL PLANNING! 

Every Sunday after church, Hubster and I sit down and plan our meals for the week.  I pull up Pinterest and he looks at the flyers.  We score deals on food on sale and plan meals around that.  And now that I am home during the day, we try to plan meals that will roll over into lunches for the kids and I.  Last week, I spent less than $50 on groceries.  Yep, it was fabulous!  We had healthy, full meals all week.  Lots of fresh fruit.  (And of course I don't remember what they were...).  We have a small whiteboard with the days of the week that is on the fridge.  We write out each meal with the assigned day.  It has saved us time and money!  I know what to make for dinner.  We don't go out to eat.  And if Hubster feels like making dinner, he knows what to make.  I. Love. It.  

Ok, back to the recipe.  Simple.  Light.  Filling.  Healthy.  Serve with a crusty baguette and a simple salad to round out the meal.

30 Minute Spaghetti and Meatballs
Based off the Martha Stewart recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 c. finely shredded parmesan, plus more for serving
1/4 c. bread crumbs
2 T. Italian seasoning
3-4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 lb. ground beef
1 T. olive oil
1 large can whole peeled tomatoes (I used my home-canned tomatoes and sauce, so I don't know what the cans weight are from the store)
1/2 can tomato sauce
1 T. sugar
1/2 T. garlic powder
3/4 lb. spaghetti

Directions:
1.  Mix together the parmesan, bread crumbs, 1 T. Italian seasoning, minced garlic cloves.  Add in ground beef and egg.  Mix together until everything is incorporated, but do not overmix!  Form into 16 meatballs.  (I use the Rachael Ray method.  I even the meat mixture into a flattened ball.  Score the meat into 4 equal sections.  Each section will become 4 meatballs.)  

2.  In a large sauce pan with tall sides, add olive oil on medium heat.  Once warm, add meatballs.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, flipping occasionally.  Add in tomatoes and sauce, breaking up whole tomatoes.  Add sugar, 1 T. italian seasoning, and garlic powder.  (Sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes.  You might not need this.  Taste test it prior to adding sugar.  My tomatoes were canned by myself with no salt.  They needed a bit of sugar!)  Add salt and pepper if needed.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until meatballs reach 165F and sauce is reduced.

3.  While meatballs are cooking, boil water and cook spaghetti to al dente.  Once pasta is done, take out 1 c. of the pasta water.

4.  With a pasta spoon or tongs, take noodles out of pot and put directly into simmering sauce.  Add in some of the reserved pasta water to help bind the tomato sauce to the pasta.  Let it all cook together for a minute or two.  

5.  Serve and enjoy!  I plate my family's meals in the kitchen, so I sprinkled a bit more parmesan on top of everyone's serving.  If you want, put into a serving bowl and sprinkle with more pasta to serve family style.

So, what is your favorite quick and healthy meal?

-Lynsee

Tomato Cage Turkey

Hold on!  I know Halloween was 2 weeks ago, but don't put those tomato cages from your ghosts away just yet!  Why, you ask?  How about this...tomato cage turkey!

I came up with this idea this summer but had no idea how to do the feathers.  Thank goodness Hubster is pretty smart.  "Cornstalks on a trellis," he said as I discussed the idea with him in the car one day.  DUH!  Such a great idea!

I slacked on putting this together as it was my daughter's birthday last week, so I had a hard time finding cornstalks.  Someone answered a post of mine on a local Facebook garage sale page.  She had some leftover from her garden that she was willing to give to me!  THANKS!  I picked them up today and as soon as the boys went down for a nap, Sassy and I got to work.

Supplies:
1 tomato cage, upside down
2 yards of brown felt
scraps of white, black, red, and orange felt (I had leftover sheets from the craft section at Joanns)
Hot glue gun and glue
Wooden trellis (mine is 6 ft tall)
Zip ties
Cornstalks
Scissors
Flexible measuring tape

Directions:

We are going to create a slip cover for our tomato cage.  After this, you'll have the measurements needed to make all sorts of slip covers for your tomato cage!

1.  Measure around the bottom and top of your tomato cage to get the circumference.  Mine was 51" at the base and 20" at the top, around.  Then measure the height.  Mine was 42" tall.  I then divided my base and top by 4 and added 1" for seam allowance.
Bottom:  51/4= 12.75+1" seam allowance = 14 inches (I rounded up)
Top: 20/4= 5 + 1" seam allowance = 6 inches
I divided by 4 because I am cutting the felt for the body in two halves on a fold.

2.  Lay out your fabric and fold the long way.  So you'll be cutting 2 body pieces at once.  I marked on the bottom edge 14" from the fold.  Then I measured up the folded edge the height of the body, which was 42".  Then at the top, I measured and marked out 6 inches from the fold.  Then, with a white crayon, I connected my dots to create the outline to cut.

3.  Cut and unfold!  I kept my right sides on the inside.  Once cut, I moved it closer to my hot glue gun.

4.  Glue!  I kept the pieces of felt together and glued one side at a time.  I started at the top in the middle.  Peel back a bit of the top fabric, place glue about 1/4" from the edge of the bottom fabric (which will be placed on the 'right side'), and carefully place top piece back down, pressing down to adhere the glue.  I worked in about 10" sections.  BUT DON'T GLUE TO BOTTOM EDGE!  We are creating a slipcover to fit over the tomato cage, so leave the bottom open.

5.  While the glue cooled, Sassy and I worked on cutting out the eyes, beak, wattle (the red thing that hangs from their neck), and feet.

6.  Carefully turn the slipcover right side out and fit over tomato cage.  With the hot glue gun, carefully glue on eyes, wattle, beak, and feet.

7.  Gather cornstalks, trellis, zip ties, and scissors.  (I did mine in the garage.)  Lay the trellis down and then evenly divide your cornstalks.  I had 4 vertical sections on the trellis so I divided my stalks into 4 sections.  Then I took one section, bunched it up near the middle, and zip tied it to one of the vertical pieces on the trellis.  I did this to all for sections.  I had a few small pieces that didn't fit with the original bunches, so I filled in the bare spots and put the zip ties where they were needed.  Stand it up and shake it around a bit.  If needed, place a few more zip ties.  

8.  Assembly time!  Sassy and I put the trellis and stalks up against the house on the front step.  Then we placed the tomato cage turkey body right in front.  Voila!  The front step is ready for Thanksgiving!

I wish I had more cornstalks to fill thus in with. But, I'm happy with what I have since they were free!

Miss Sassy was very happy to help!

-Lynsee

My front entry

I've been working on perfecting our front entry since moving in 2 years ago.  

First I had a small bench with 2 storage cubes.  Worked nice for putting on shoes but was too small for the space.  Then I stumbled upon iheartorganizing.com and saw her front entry redesign.  I was inspired!  So off to Ikea I went!  

I originally bought 3 Besta cupboards just like she did.  We weren't sure what would fit.  We ended up only putting together 2.  Originally I wanted to put up the third but after living with it for a while, I realized 2 was perfect.  My grandma gave me some of her original blue Ball jars and I knew I had to display them here!  I filled them with fake flowers from Michael's and some butterflies that my father-in-law gave to my daughter.  The desk organizer we just had laying around.  It the perfect landing spot for Hubby's phones and iPad.  (I'm sure you noticed the cluster of cords there.  He has 2 phones and an iPad.  He's a geek.)

Inside the cupboards.  Well, you'll notice there isn't a picture yet.  There is a reason.  It's a mess.  I had it nice and organized when we first set this up last spring. But summer happened.  Then my daycare kids started.  And school started.  Both kids have a shelf for shoes (but you'll notice in the right of the picture that my daughter doesn't use hers).  We also all have a small basket inside for sunglasses, etc.  I'll get this perfected and put another post up later of the inside.  :)

The collage wall is just an inspiration from all I've seen on Pinterest.  I thought it was a perfect place to display the personalized wood carving from Hubby's great uncle that was a wedding gift, our house rules, a rosemaled cutting board from Hubby's great aunt, and our Valentine's gift from the kiddos last year.  

So far, this set up has been working great for us.  It easily becomes a landing spot for junk as we walk in the door, but it's small so easy to clean up.  

Have you checked out iheartorganizing.blogspot.com?  If not, you are missing out!  She has many great organizing tips and ideas!

-Lynsee