Meatballs!

After a week including 8″ of snow and the kiddos’ snow days that came with it, busy work deadlines during said snow days, and a teething toddler getting 8 teeth at once who will…not…sleep…I had used all our fresh foods for meals and forgot to pull anything from the freezer to thaw. Whoops. Let’s be real though–it happens a lot! So what to do for dinner? I was half tempted to order pizza . . .

I opened up the freezer thinking we’d be stuck with chicken nuggets, when I saw my meatballs from Ground Beef Night, yay! I figured since the “frozen blobs” were smaller than one ginormous brick I’d be able to cook them faster, and it worked.

Frozen Meatballs with Spaghetti and Sauce

Straight out of the freezer with absolutely zero thaw time.

I ran the bag under running water for just a few seconds until the meat separated from the plastic.

Because they were frozen, I was even able to place them into the pan without getting my hands dirty–bonus for me!

As the meatballs browned I gathered the ingredients for the sauce and put my pot of water on to boil for the spaghetti.

I flipped the meatball brick over and let the other side brown while I chopped the onion and garlic.

By the time I was done chopping the onion and garlic, the meatballs separated easily and I was able to brown all sides.

I added the sauce ingredients and stirred everything up–I actually didn’t drain enough of the diced tomatoes this go-round; if you need to thicken your sauce just add a can of tomato paste!

After letting the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes (by this time the water was boiling) I dunked the spaghetti in the pot.

Because I have a toddler, I cut the spaghetti in the pot once it softens slightly. I used to break it up before putting it in the pot but it would get EVERYWHERE. I even had time to clean up the kitchen and my prep dishes while I was waiting for the sauce and pasta to finish cooking.

I’d originally planned to throw these meatballs in the slow cooker and make my normal spaghetti sauce, but am pleased that this worked beautifully and was very quick!

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Ingredients:
Frozen Meatballs from Ground Beef Night
28 oz can of Diced Tomatoes
15 oz can of Tomato Sauce
8 oz can of Tomato Paste (optional)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
oil (I used avocado oil, but most people use olive oil)
salt & pepper to taste
spaghetti or other pasta

Directions:

1. Heat a small amount of oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat.
2. Hold bag of frozen meatballs under running water until frozen meat separates from plastic bag.
3. Place meatball brick into pan to brown first side (a few minutes), sprinkle meatballs with salt, and gather ingredients. Set water on to boil pasta.
4. Flip over meatball brick to brown other side, sprinkle with salt, then finish chopping onion and garlic if not done.
5. Separate meatballs gently, and brown all sides.
6. Add tomatoes, onion, and garlic into meatball pan. Let simmer for total of 15-20 minutes. Don’t forget to taste!
7. Add pasta to boiling water approximately 10 minutes before sauce is done, or however long pasta will take to cook.
8. Enjoy!