awww pascetti

My favorite food growing up was spaghetti. My mom is a wonderful cook and I will never ever match up to her awesomeness. I'm currently missing her pretty badly right now. Can you tell? :) My Mom learned her spaghetti sauce from her Mom and tweaked it and I did the same. I think I like making it because I never do the same thing twice. I play around with the spices or which kind of cans of tomatoes to add. It always turns out at least eatable. :)

The basics:

Brown in sauce pan with some onion. (I use the spice called "Chopped Onion" so that I don't have to cry every time.)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 tube of Italian sausage

In crockpot add:
1 large can of Tomato Puree OR crushed Tomato
1-2 small cans of diced tomatos - Nick prefers petite diced
1 teenie can of tomato paste
1 small can of tomato sauce
1-2 T Oregano
1 T Basil
some minced Garlic
Pinch of salt/pepper
browned meat from earlier

Stir together and cook in crock pot for at least all afternoon on low.

Sometimes I like the sauce thicker so I add more paste and less diced tomatoes. If you want it more liquidy less tomato paste or none at all. Have fun!

John Mazetti - Maternal Family Recipe

Since I have received requests from people for frozen dinners before baby arrivals, I thought this one was perfect. And can easily be made gluten free.

John Mazetti
1 lb. Ground Beef (Have thought about using ground turkey, but have not tried it yet.)
1/3 lb. bacon – i have switched to Turkey Bacon before and it tastes fine.
2 med chopped onions
28 oz diced tomatoes (Nick prefers petite diced)
8 oz med noodles
dash of salt and pepper
1/3 lb. cheddar cheese (I never measure it…just enough to cover the entire top layer of the pan you are using)

Begin boiling water for noodles. Brown bacon and drain. Cut up bacon into small pieces and set aside. Add noodles to boiling water. Brown beef in bacon fat (I don’t always do this due to health reasons) and add onions. Add seasoning, tomatoes, and bacon. Stir. Drain noodles and add to mixture. Place in dish and add grated cheese. (You can do one 9 by 13 pan or 2 smaller ones. If you do the smaller ones you can freeze one for later and have one for dinner tonight!)
Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.

Feta Chicken

I tend to have lots of chicken breast in the house. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com...

Feta Chicken Recipe

I did a horrible job of "pounding"...but it still rolled up ok. Plus i only had a rolling pin. I only used regular feta cheese and added some garlic salt and basil to the breast before I put the feta cheese on it. During the last 10 min I added mozzarella cheese and a tomato. Oh and I only used regular bread crumbs.

Nick and I enjoyed it! Hope you will too!!!