Spaghetti and Meatballs

One thing I particularly enjoy when cooking is to take an "old standby" meal, and veggie-fy it. Tonight, we had spaghetti and meatballs, but not just regular old pasta and meat.

delicious leftovers for lunch another day

I make up turkey meatballs and freeze them (cooked), so that they are available when we need a quick meal. We use whole grain pastas, and store-bought sauce (gasp!) so it really is a fast meal to throw together. Tonight I added a bunch of rainbow chard to the pasta water just before the pasta was cooked. Then I added "Florentine Spinach and Cheese" pasta sauce (although any kind would do), and some fresh garlic. I also made roasted baby eggplants.

For the eggplant, I started off with this recipe, but only did the roasting part. We just scraped them out of their shells (with a grapefruit spoon) and ate them with our pasta. Because I did not really follow the recipe, below is what I did.

Roasted Baby Eggplants

Cut in half, brush with garlic olive oil (a clove of garlic crushed into maybe 1-2T of oil). Bake at 375*F for 15min. Remove from oven, brush with garlic olive oil again, and return to oven. Broil for 3-4 minutes, or until they "look done". They should puff in the middle, and start to get caramelized areas. Sprinkle with salt, and serve. They were delicious- so creamy and smooth. 

Next time, I will salt them earlier, I think, but otherwise they were wonderful.

I greatly enjoyed this meal, and am very excited that I have leftovers for two more lunches.