Tasty Tuesday - Homemade Marinara and Meatballs

There are two things that I worry the kids don't get enough of when it come to food, veggies and iron.  I'm anemic and the kids are borderline anemic. We tried doing iron supplements with Brooke, her levels were low enough they wanted to do a full blood panel, but she gagged and spit it up as soon as the liquid hit her mouth. So much for that.

As you might know from our pictures on here and Instagram(justjm03), we do lots of popsicles and smoothies. All of their popsicles and smoothies are laced with either kale or spinach in hopes of keeping their iron levels high enough. I definitely don't eat a lot of red meat, which means the kids don't either, but I'd like to incorporate more into our diets.  Enter spaghetti and meatballs.

For the first 6 years rob and I were married anytime we had spaghetti I always used Prego and would occasionally add some ground beef or sausage to it.  One day I was watching "Cooking Boss" and Buddy was making his eggplant parm.  He talked about making his own sauce from scratch and how easy it was.  I decided to look it up and try it.  It's so easy and delicious I haven't used canned sauce since.

I remember one time Rob decided to make meatballs and he wanted to experiment. The mixture wound up containing balsamic vinegar, peanut butter and Pepsi. They weren't disgusting, but they weren't great either. From then on out I've made meatballs myself on the rare occasion we have them.  I'm not a huge fan of sticking my hands in raw meat and eggs, but you have to get it thoroughly mixed. For the same reason I don't often make meatloaf.

Below you'll find the recipes for both Buddy's Marinara Sauce and Italian Meatballs.  An added bonus to meatballs, they are a great way to sneak veggies into your kids mouths.  There's an entire bell pepper and 1 cup of spinach in the recipe below.

Marinara Sauce

2 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic thinly sliced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 .6 ounce package fresh basil

Instructions

1. Heat a dutch oven style pot over medium heat.  Add oil.  Once oil is warmed add garlic and cook until lightly golden and fragrant.  

2. Add tomatoes, salt and 1 spring of basil.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.    

3. While the sauce simmers, chop remaining basil.  Add basil to the sauce after 30 minutes of simmering. Serve immediately or freeze once cooled.  

Notes: This recipe yields enough for approximately 3 meals.  I always freeze two portions and use one immediately. 

Meatballs

1 pound ground beef

2/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

2 cloves minced or pressed garlic

1 cup frozen spinach

1 bell pepper

12-15 1/2" mozzarella cheese cubes (optional)

Instructions

1. Mince bell pepper and spinach.  The smaller the pieces the better. 

2. Mix all ingredients, except mozzarella cubes, by hand in a large bowl. Make sure all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. 

3. Roll mixture into 2"-3" balls. If you want to add mozzarella cheese, cover each cube with meat mixture making sure to pack it tightly into a 2"-3" ball.  Place balls on a baking sheet. 

4. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, flipping meatballs halfway through.  Meatballs should be fully cooked and lightly browned when done.  

Makes 12-15 meatballs

Notes: I make my meatballs with the mozzarella.  No matter how tightly I roll the meatballs, I always have a little cheese leak out.  I used 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 orange pepper in addition to the spinach. Carrots, zucchini, squash and kale would all be great substitutes.  If you're concerned about fat content, use lean ground beef or turkey.

Brooke wanted just the meatballs and Harrison got down on everything.  Success!

Happy Cooking!

More Summer Fun

Here we are in mid August and I've crossed off just about everything off my summer bucket list. I would still like to get to Cedar Point before they close for the year, but that could even be a fall trip.  I've heard their haunted houses for Halloweekends are pretty intense.

This past Saturday was the John Mayer concert at Klipsch Music Center Deer Creek.  As always, he put on an amazing show.  I like his music, Continuum is definitely a top 5 album, but seeing him live is an entirely different experience.  The highlight of the show for me was seeing him tear up an electric guitar solo during "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room," then transition into "Neon" on the acoustic, then tune to drop D by ear for "Your Body is a Wonderland." I really can't stand the last song, but the sequence of the three really highlighted his skills.

One of the great not so great things about lawn seats at Deer Creek is the constant waves of smoke. Cigarette smoke and then once it gets dark, lots of pot smoke.  I of course got a headache and spent the last 45 minutes of the concert laying down and wearing my sunglasses.  Thankfully that kept a migraine at bay.  I consider that a win.  Even laying down and just listening to the music, it was still a blast.

On Sunday we got a quick visit from some of our STL family.  Pat, Phil, Alex and their sweet dog Dash stopped in on their way home from spending the weekend at the lake.  I wish we would have been able to spend more time with them, but the brief time we did have was nice.  Harrison took to Pat right away. Amazing, right? There was no crying at all which is a rarity these days.  It took a little googling to figure this out, by Alex and H and B are second cousins once removed.

One added bonus about visiting family from St. Louis, gooey butter cake from McArthur's Bakery. This stuff is so rich and delicious.  If you're ever in the area, you have to stop and get some. They also ship via UPS.

This week Amanda, or Panda as Sophie calls her, is headed back to school.  This was her first summer working at the daycare, but hopefully it won't be her last. Harrison has a little crush on her and can't wait for her to come back over break.  Kara was kind enough to throw a little get together for all of us girls this evening to send Amanda off.  I am so fortunate to have an amazing group of girls that work for me. All of our kids are starting to get along well too which is an added bonus. There used to be some stare offs between the twins and Sophie.  It was pretty intense.

H and B hanging on the couch with Amanda.

She is so close to crawling.  She'll be on the move any day now.

We are definitely enjoying the last few weeks of summer.  I can't believe the kids will be 15 months this week.  More about that later.

Blog Changes

My blog was started as a way to keep friends and family up to date on my pregnancy and the twins.  That is still the purpose of Our Little Miracles, but the blog is starting to get a lot more page views from Pinterest, largely due to my Tasty Tuesday posts.

If you're a follower of my blog, you'll notice some layout changes over the next few days.  I want to make it easier for people to find what they're looking for when they visit.  Thanks to some wonderful error messages from Blogger and the kiddos ever changing nap schedule, the changes will be taking place over a couple days.  Also, I'm not an expert in HTML code, so I'm figuring it out as I go.

Thanks for bearing with me, and there will be a new, finished look soon.  Thanks to everyone who follows our adventures, and I hope you like the new look.

Dinner with Entertainment

When trying to decide where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner, I kept thinking I wanted to have the kids come too so we should go somewhere they'd enjoy.  I love adult time, but I love spending time with H and B above anything else.  I thought going to a hibachi restaurant, Takaoka,  would be something they'd enjoy, and boy did they.  They loved the show and one of them really enjoyed the food.

Harrison ate some of my salad, shrimp, chicken, steak, veggies and of course sherbet for dessert.  Brooke only ate fried rice and sherbet.  She was more interested in drinking Rob's water and playing with the fork.  They definitely enjoyed watching the food be prepared and all of the hoopla that went along with it.

Before dinner Rob and the kids gave me cards and a few gifts. My birthday card from Rob is too funny not to share.  It's amazing what a well placed # can do.

Another Year Older

Today I turn 31. Another year older. I wasn't a fan of birthdays in my late 20s. There were always fun dinners, or a week of dinners as was the case when I turned 26, and trips to Chicago, but infertility was always looming overhead.  Every birthday was a reminder that we weren't pregnant and that it was becoming more difficult to get pregnant.  I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about.

I thought for sure I was going to hate turning 30, but I didn't.  I finally felt like my life was where it was supposed to be.   I had Rob, the daycare, the best dogs on the planet, ok that might be a stretch, and the two most amazing presents I could ever have imagined.  Life happened how it was supposed to despite my plans for it to have worked differently.  The big 3-0 was just another day and 30 has been the best year of my life.

There are no huge plans on my birthday this year, just cupcakes from DC, a work meeting with my girls and spending the day with my little loves.

There are fun plans later in the week, but today I'll just relax and reflect on how fortunate I am and what a great last year I've had.  Cheers to 31! I can't wait to what the next year has in store for me.  

Beer, Beer and Babies

Our weekend started off with homemade pizzas on Friday evening.  The babies' godmother joined us for the evening. This was their first time getting to eat pizza.  They mostly picked off the toppings and ate the crust.  Not as successful as I hoped, but at least they were willing to try it.  

After dinner I tried making Summer Shandy Cupcakes.  They were a disaster.  Overcooked, not sweet enough, just bad all around.  The icing turned out great though.  

The next morning I made vanilla blueberry cupcakes to accompany the delicious lemon cream cheese frosting.  So much better.  The cupcakes helped us kick off "The Best Day Ever."   

We have been dubbing this day The Best Day Ever for months now.  BrewHaven was Saturday and it was as wonderful as we had hoped.  Great company and more beer than I could ever drink.  

There were more than 300 varieties of beer available and I bet we tried about 30.  There was also a cheese table, best idea ever, where we sampled awesome spicy cheeses and meat sticks.  

It was a great day and I learned two important things.  1. Don't wear a full length dress to a beer tasting.  The bottom will get covered in beer, spit and water.  2. After the 5th IPA sample they all taste the same.  Every brewery brought an IPA and by the end of the day I was cursing IPAs.  I am already looking forward to next year's event and spending another great day with some wonderful ladies.  

Sunday started off with us just chilling around the house.  The kids decided to raid my underwear drawer and wear Victoria's Secret capes.  Who am I to tell them they can't be underwear superheroes?

  

We ran a few errands between naps and then went out to dinner in the evening. Salvatori's is a great local Italian restaurant that's just around the corner from us. The kids had their first tast of alfredo sauce.  H liked it and B just picked at it.  They've both decided sippy cups are overrated and they want to drink out of our cups.  We had quite a few people comment on how well behaved the kids were which was much nicer to hear than the usual, "You must have your hands full."

The evening of course ended with popsicles and messy babies.  Once the kids were in bed, Rob and I sat down to watch some Walking Dead.  We've already watched it through once, but we're watching it again.  I can't get enough of this show.  I am kicking myself for waiting so long to watch it.  At least now the wait for the new season is only a  couple months.  

I hope you all had a great weekend.  

Hello August

Welcome to August, the best month of the year.  August has always been my favorite month.  When I was younger it was because my birthday is in August. Now it seems that August is always full of great things to do, plus birthdays are still pretty great. I get to cross off most of my summer bucket list in the next few weeks, and I'm excited for all of it.

As we say hello to August, we say goodbye to July. You were a good month, but I'm glad to see you go. Here are a few pictures of the kiddos from last week.

I love these two so much and can't wait to share another month with them.  We have a lots of fun planned, things with them and adult stuff too.  I have high expectations for you August, don't let me down.