On Top of Spaghetti

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I don't really like spaghetti. It's always felt like one of those meals that I associate with being so basic it's boring kid food and therefore it gets relegated to that unhappy dinner category called Back Up Plans, as in  I don't have anything else in my cupboard tonight so I guess we'll have spaghetti.

Maybe I just ate too much spaghetti as a kid, but regardless it's one of those meals that I make every now and then and afterward I think, Yeah, that wasn't a very good dinner. Until I tried my friend Ashley's recipe for homemade meatballs. It's still a kid pleaser, but it is also a grown up pleaser too! At our house we save the leftovers for meatball subs and eek two meals out of this recipe. Bon Appetit!

Homemade Italian Meatballs

1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs 

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound Italian sausage

1 egg

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper (I did 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)

Parmesan cheese (I used ~ 1/4 cup)- Freshly grated is always best

basil and parsley (fresh or dried, 1 tsp dried/1-2T fresh)

* Jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

Place bread crumbs/crushed croutons, hamburger, sausage, and all other ingredients (except spaghetti sauce) in a larger bowl and mix  well by hand. Form into balls. I make mine somewhere between 1"-2". Place balls onto foil lined 9x13 pan. Pour sauce over meatballs, adding ~1/3 cup of water to the jar at the end to get all of the sauce out. Bake at 400* for 30 min then cover and bake another 20-30 min at 350*. 

* I usually double the recipe and freeze the uncooked meatballs that I am not using that night, leaving me with enough meatballs for 2-3 easy dinners. The frozen meatballs can be put directly into the foil lined pan and covered in sauce. They bake for the same amount of time (closer to 30 min for the second baking).