Spaghetti and stuffed meatballs

This is the spaghetti and meatballs recipe from the TV show, Sandra Lee's Money Saving Meals on the FoodNetwork channel. She said this has a price-per-serving of $1.62.

I really liked her show. She goes rather fast for the foodie-challenged, but her recipes are geared for families on a budget.

Meatballs:

2 slices bread (regular white bread, soft.) Slice it into small bites
1/4 cup milk
1 lb of 80% lean ground beef
1/2 of an onion, diced (go ahead and dice up the whole onion, but use 1/2 of it for the meatballs, reserve 1/2 of it for the sauce)
1 egg
1 TBSP garlic, diced (she dices up her own in a food processor, says that saves a lot of money to do ahead in bulk)
1TBSP Italian seasoning
2 mozzarella cheese sticks (the cheese snack type...cut them into little slices)

Mix the beef with the bread, milk, egg, garlic, and Italian seasoning. Blend with your hands. But don't blend too much, it makes the meatballs tough. Form the beef into mini patties, then place a piece of the cheese in center then roll it up, so that the cheese is inside the meatball. The meatballs should end up being about 2-3" across before baking.

Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until heated through to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

TIP: If you put water on your hands, it will make it easier to shape the meatballs without it sticking to your hands so much.

Sauce:

Set 2 TSBP olive oil on medium heat in saucepan.
1/2 onion, chopped
2 TBSP basil
2 TBSP parsley
1 TBSP garlic
Diced tomatoes (looked like the large sized can)
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer this 10 minutes.

Get a package worth of spaghetti cooking in boiling water. Cook spaghetti for about 9-10 minutes or according to package directions.

Set the meatballs into the sauce to absorb the liquid and get more flavor. Drain the spaghetti, then put it out on a serving platter. Place the meatballs first on top of the spaghetti noodles, then gently pour the sauce over all.

Easy Way-You-Want-It Spaghetti Sauce

If you want to save a little money on pre-packaged spaghetti/pasta sauces, here is a good one to try. An extra benefit is that it won't have the preservatives or chemicals that a jarred spaghetti sauce would have. This is a recipe I created/modified from a lasagna recipe, which I also recommend.

This is meatless, but you can cook 1/2 lb to 1 lb of ground beef or ground turkey for a meat version, then add the following:

1 12-ounce can tomato paste
1-2 cloves garlic chopped (or 1/2 to 1 tsp garlic powder to save time)
2 cups water
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar* (optional)

Mix all together, heat. Just like you would do with something jarred like Ragu or Prego, brown ground beef, drain, and mix with this sauce.

If your family is used to the premade-jarred sauces, they usually have sugar in them. That's why we must love them so much, eh? So you can put in a bit of sugar if you want, increase it or decrease it, based on what your family likes.

The consistency of this can be adjusted by the amount of water. If you find the sauce a little too thick for your liking, add water, or you can put a lid on the pot for 10-15 minutes. The condensation will make the sauce a little thinner. If you find the sauce too thin, then turn up the heat and leave top off to let the moisture evaporate from the sauce.

This costs about .80 cents or so to make. A jar of spaghetti sauce in the store will cost $1.50 on sale to over $3. It really is a no-brainer and takes very little time to make.

If you have them on hand, you can add chopped up green peppers or even carrots diced up very small. Just make sure you cook those along with the meat so they will get tender.

Easy Meatball Parm Hero

This is a recipe from Prego, but of course you could use any brand of traditional Italian style sauce for this!

Easy Meatball Parm Hero

Prep time 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Makes 4 sandwiches

2 Cups Prego Traditional Italian Sauce
16 (1 oz each) frozen cooked meatballs (or see our recipe for homemade meatballs!)
4 long hard rolls, split
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Heat the sauce and the meatballs in a 3 quart sauce pan over medium high heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

Serve meatballs and sauce in rolls. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.