I LOVE spaghetti and meatballs. It's a meal I could devour until it came out my ears. It just doesn't get any better than homemade sauce, savory meatballs, and al dente pasta smothered in fresh Parmesan cheese. Growing up in my house, Sunday night was spaghetti night. Mom would make a giant bowl and we'd dip in. All you can eat. Spoons and forks clanking, napkins folded into shirts, the sound of thin spaghetti noodles being slurped up, and honestly, the familiar chatter it brought about between kids and adult.
--Excerpt from Today:
I've recently learned it was a maternal family thing. My cousins and I recently reminisced about it, apparently, the tradition held true in their households as well. That's cool.
--And now back to our story.
Fast forward to marrying my husband and Sunday Spaghetti came to a screeching halt. He doesn't like "red sauce" dishes. Almost grounds for divorce right there. STOP THE TRUCK, BACK UP. There has to be a way around this. No way. I can't go without it. But I did. Spaghetti Sunday was lost, an ancient ruin in the memory of comfort foods. I learned to eat it when I could find it. Make it in small batches when he wasn't home. Buy... gulp... canned sauce just to get my fix. Then one day, I learn he like lasagna, and then it's baked ziti. Oh the joys! I can have something similar to spaghetti, at least. It's a glimmer. Small hope that maybe someday Spaghetti Sundays could be back in my life again. But alas, these escapades with sauce are still few and far between.
Along comes baby #1. Maybe I will have a partner in red sauce love. Maybe I can raise this one as my own. Perhaps she too, will share my love of this blessed meal. Alas, no. She's too smart for me. She overhears the husband one night complain that I've made one to many baked zitis lately and he doesn't like red sauce. And I hear from the kitchen table... "Mommy, I don't like red sauce!" Nooooooooo... what have you done!? I didn't hear that! It's can't be true, it shan't be true!!! But it is. So begins my life with child #1 not liking "red sauce" and even pizza is ordered sans sauce.
Along comes baby #2. Could it be this time? I'm not getting my hopes up. I can't come crashing down like that again. No, I won't let it. I introduce it slowly. Making spaghetti one night as butter/garlic only, I toss a batch of red sauce to the side for me and offer it with no other option to child #2. And? No hesitation! We have a winner!!! Angels sing, the people rejoice. I have a friend in red at last!
Being the stubborn mother than I am, do you have ANY idea how frustrating it is to have a 6 year old that doesn't eat pizza with sauce? Go to a child's birthday party, what's served, pizza. Sorry kid, too bad. So my never ending attempt goes on. "Try it" "Try it" "Try it" Which brings me to tonight's post. I'm forever looking for ways to ease child #1 into red sauce. I KNOW she likes it. She's just being stubborn. WHO DOESN'T LIKE RED SAUCE!? (Oh right, my husband, but I digress.)
So tonight. Tonight's dish is semi-homemade and done in ONE pot. That's the best part and reason I'm really blogging. One pot dishes are the best, easier to clean up, quick meals. Watch me play.
Ingredients
1 box pasta, pick your favorite shape
1 lb ground beef
Broccoli
1 pkt Knorr's Parma Rosa sauce mix
1 T butter/margarine
1.25c milk
Water
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| Boil pasta to almost desired tenderness, add broccoli finish boiling, drain, let sit |
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| Return pot to stove and brown beef |
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| Add Milk, Butter, and contents of Knorr packet. |
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| Follow directions to boil for 4 minutes |
Dump pasta/broccoli into pot and stir.
So Jenn. What does this have to do with red sauce and child #1?
Well... Parma Rosa... hello, red sauce! She ate it.
Gobbled it right up, like it was going out of style and even had seconds!!
Tasted like tomato sauce but lighter in color
Genius.
Score one for mom.
Maybe Spaghetti Sundays aren't too far off in my future to return....
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