Recipe - crockpot spaghetti and meatballs

Hi, friends! Happy Sunday!

We've been iced in for 60 hours now, and to say I've got a bit of cabin fever would definitely be an understatement. When the weather forecast first shows signs of an ice storm, I always get a little excited. It's fun to watch the storm roll in and see the sleet and freezing rain, and the first 24ish hours are nice- just hanging out at home with a fire roaring and lots of yummy food (and wine). But by the second full day, we all get a little crazy. I personally think its the lack of fresh air.

This time around, I decided to prepare for the worst and planned 3 hearty meals- chili, spaghetti and meatballs and tonight we'll have sloppy joes. And I think we've consumed 4 bottles of wine. Sorry I'm not sorry.

I'm here to share my spaghetti and meatballs recipe with you. It's so delicious and EASY! I originally got this recipe via And They Cooked Happily Ever After, but I have modified it a bit. Below is my modified recipe.

I recommend making the meatballs the night before, to let them chill in the fridge overnight. It helps to keep them from falling apart.

Ingredients
For the meatballs:
½ cup Italian flavored bread crumbs
2 eggs
¼ cup water
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. ground beef (at least 80/20)
½ lb. ground pork

For the sauce:
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
5 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, quartered
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 - 24oz cans of tomato puree (use San Marzano tomatoes if you can)
1 - 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (again, San Marzano tomatoes if you can find it)
½ cup beef broth
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cumin
2 tsp. brown sugar
fresh basil (4-5 leafs)

Instructions
Meatballs:
1) Preheat oven to 350°.
2) Mix bread crumbs, egg, water, cheese and spices together to form a soft paste.
3) Fold in ground beef and pork, turning to mix paste into meat. Do not over mix, as you'll toughen the meat.
4) Shape into meatballs (whatever size you prefer, I usually make about 20 golf ball-sized meatballs), and place on a cookie sheet.
5) Bake for 8 minutes, turn and cook on other side for another 8 minutes.
6) Place meatballs in a glass dish, cover and place in fridge overnight.

Sauce:
1) In a large pot, melt butter and oil on medium heat. Add onions and cook until they're translucent, not letting them brown (about 3-5 minutes).
2) Add minced garlic and let cook until just fragrant, not letting it burn (about 1 minute).
3) Add the 3 cans of tomatoes, beef broth and all spiced except the fresh basil, and bring to a slow boil over medium heat.
4) Layer the sauce and meatballs in the crockpot. You'll get about 2 layers of meatballs.
5) Cook on low for 5 hours. About 1 hour before they're done, remove some of the onions and add the fresh basil.

I serve this with spaghetti noodles, but you could easily just serve the meatballs with sauce, or even make meatball subs.

Enjoy!

Jacob's Christmas wish list

Hi all!! Now that the weather here in Texas is finally cold (like 30° with sleet...wowza!!), I can finally focus on Christmas!

Jacob is so much more fun to shop for this year, and its taking everything in me NOT to buy him every damn thing I find!

Josh and I are buying him 4 presents and Santa will be bringing him 1 large present. Our gifts will show up under the tree, wrapped, throughout the month, and Santa's gift won't arrive until Christmas morning (of course) and will be unwrapped. I'm hoping to continue this tradition in the future.

So, below are the items Jacob will be receiving...

ONE. Big Hugs Elmo. Honestly, this was kinda an impulse buy. Jacob watches Sesame Street daily and loves Elmo, and actually reached out and hugged this guy on a random Target trip a month ago. So I decided what the hell? It's cute and HUGE and Jacob actually picked it out! Hopefully he still likes it.

TWO. Ikea Play Tent. Jacob loooves crawling in things and "hiding", so I knew I wanted to get him a teepee or tent or something. And I love this option because it folds down and can be put away. We don't have room for something this big to be out 24/7!

THREE. Tonka Fire Engine. Y'all, Jacob is all boy. This kid loves everything that "goes", especially if it has lights and a siren. I cannot wait for him to open this, although I'm pretty sure the sirens will get old quick. Oh well!

FOUR. Ikea Play Tool Set. Jacob is also obsessed with doing whatever we do. He has a broom and loves "sweeping" with me, but I thought this would be a more manly approach to "doing what we do" instead of a vacuum or something.

FIVE. Ikea Play Kitchen and Gadgets. This is Santa's gift to Jacob. Like I said, he loooves doing what we do, and a lot of my friends with 18-month-olds to 2-year-olds say their kids LOVE their play kitchens, so this was a no-brainer for us. I didn't want another piece of plastic in our house though, so I originally started researching wooden play kitchen. Those suckers are expensive! No way I'm paying $250 on a play kitchen. Thankfully I found this awesome option! It's sleek and modern and cheap ($100!). Santa will also be giving him the pots/pans, baking set, cooking utensils and some play food. I'm hoping to give it a bit of a facelift before Christmas, too! (If I get around to that, I will definitely post a tutorial.)

For his stocking, he'll get a few new bath toys (replace the nasty ones he's been using for the last year and a half), socks, fruit/veggie melts, etc.

I also purchased a TON of new Christmas books for Jacob, which we're already reading over and over!

Jacob - 18 months

I realize I say this every month, but HOW ON EARTH IS MY BABY 18 MONTHS OLD?! A year and a half! Holy geebus!

Age: 18 months
Height: 34.5" (97%)
Weight: 30lbs (97%)
Milestones: He's really starting to talk more, although most of what he says is indecipherable, he babbles ALL the time and he really acts like he knows what he's talking about. He understands most of what we say, and follows instructions (i.e. "throw this away", "go get your milk", "where's Boo?". He's also learning animal names/sounds, shapes and colors, and just day-to-day stuff. I love hearing him talk, it's just too cute! He's catching on to different sports really well now- he loves golfing (uses his golf clubs and actually hits balls around the room), playing soccer (will kick the ball), shooting hoops, and throws a baseball pretty well. I know Josh is so excited about this aspect of his growth (as am I, of course).
Sleep: I'm not sure what the heck is going on with him, he's been waking up early lately (7am or earlier) and taking morning naps. So not like him. The other day he woke up at 6:30am and took two 2-hour naps! Crazy! But in general, he sleeps 12 hours at night and 1.5-2 hours during the day.
Eating: Mealtime is still my least favorite time of the day. He's just all over the place. One day he LOVES oranges, and the next day I can't get him to eat a single bite of orange. It makes meals kinda stressful!
Clothes size: 18-24mo in Old Navy and Gap, but otherwise he's in 24mo or 2T.
Diaper size: Size 5 Cruisers
Teeth: He finallllllyyyyy cut 3 of his 4 molars! So he has 11 total teeth.
Best Moment: Thanksgiving was infinitely better this year. Having a kid makes holidays a billion times better. He actually ate Thanksgiving dinner with us and had a blast! We also put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, and seeing the look on his face when he saw the tree for the first time...ahhh...I'll never forget that! It might trump the ongoing ornament battle we're currently facing. Ack!
Worst Moment: No bad moments.
Favorite toy: He still loves his lawn mower. He also just got the Little People nativity set and Santa's sleigh set, and he's loooving those! As I mentioned earlier, he also loves all his sports- golf clubs, soccer ball, basketball and baseball.
Looking forward to: Christmas. For sure.

Our Thanksgiving

I'm finally getting around to recapping our Thanksgiving. We had a really nice, relaxing break and didn't do much...which is mainly why it's taken me so long to recap it. Not much to say.

 

As I mentioned before, my mother-in-law hosted Thankgiving this year. So as soon as Jacob woke up on Thursday, we headed down to Cleburne. It's about an hour drive, not too bad.

Jacob spent the morning chasing her cat and wreaking havoc, haha! I helped cook a bit, and opened the wine (of course). We ate lunch around noon, and then Jacob went down for a nap shortly after.

 

Upon waking, we ate dessert, played outside for a little bit and then headed home.

 

Here are some cute pictures from the day.

 

 

My favorite part of the meal? My MIL's amaaaaazing bourbon chocolate pecan pie. Heaven.on.earth. Yum!! I might have taken all the leftovers and I might have eaten it for lunch numerous times. Might.

 

 

We also put up our Christmas tree and amazing Advent Calendar from the Naptime Diaries. I'm loving this new tradition!

 

 

 

I'll leave you with a few pictures from last Thanksgiving. I still can't believe how much he's grown!!!! Tear!

 

 

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving as well! Cheers!

Recipe - basic sugar cookie

Hey, y'all!!

One of my neighbors made the most delicious (and beautiful) sugar cookies last week, and I just HAD to try it. She has a Pampered Chef cookie press, which makes the cookies look 10,000x better and once you get it down, its super easy! Her recipe was so good too, so I decided to share it all with you today.

Ingredients
2/3 cup Crisco
3/4 cup sugar
sprinkle of nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
4 tsp. milk
--
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions
1) Combine first 6 ingredients (I put a little dash, so you can easily see the 2 steps) and mix well in a mixer.
2) Then add last 3 ingredients and beat together.
3) At this point, I recommend covering the dough and putting it in the fridge overnight or for a few hours.
4) After the dough is chilled and you're ready to make the cookies, pre-heat oven to 375.

If you're using cookie cutters:
5) Add a few more teaspoons of flour, so the dough isn't sticky and put tons of powdered sugar on your countertop, rolling pin and cookie cutters.

If you're using a cookie press:
5) Add a few more teaspoons of milk, to make the dough a bit more doughy.

6) Place cookies on greased cookie sheet and bake for 6 minutes.

A couple notes:
- Add sprinkles before you bake.
- Sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar right after the cookies come out of the oven.
- I had some trouble with the cookie press, but found it worked best after the dough sat for a little bit and got more doughy.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Family pictures 2013

Hi friends!! I hope y'all are all having a lovely Sunday evening. The weather here has been frigid, so we've been snuggled up inside, with a fire roaring for the last 2 days, eating and drinking entirely too much. But hey- that's what the winter is for, right?! I can't believe Thanksgiving is in a few short days! Holy COW this year has flown by!

Speaking of FLYING BY- we took family pictures last week. How on EARTH did we take family pictures again?? It seems like just yesterday we took these pictures. Remember them? Look how little and sweet Jacob is. Ohhh...be still my heart. He was 6 months old there, and probably at his chubbiest. I love his big cheeks and precious smile.

 

And I'm happy to report that his cheeks (which he most definitely got from moi) and smile are still just as perfect as ever.

Take a look at these amaaaaazing pictures, by the fabulously talented Heather King. I literally printed every single one of these, framed them, and re-arranged my entire gallery wall to showcase them all. Swoon.

And we got a few pictures of Josh and I in this photo shoot that I cannot wait to hang in our bedroom. I'm thinking of hanging them, similar to this room that I pinned a few days ago.

 

I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Recipe - Betty Freeman Casserole

I originally got this recipe from Fancy Ashley, and y'all- its good. It's the perfect casserole to make for friends with new babies or a death in the family- it makes a TON, can easily be frozen and it's easy!!! And, you probably have the majority of these ingredients on-hand already.

 

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped

2 cans tomato soup

1 large can tomato sauce

1 pound shredded cheddar cheese

 

Directions

1) Boil your noodles in a large pot (you will eventually transfer everything into this pot, so it needs to be BIG).

2) While your noodles are boiling, chop your onion and brown your ground beef WITH the onion (in a separate pot, obviously...). You want your onion to be nice and soft.

3) After your meat is brown, your noodles will probably be ready. Drain them, and transfer your meat/onion mixture into the BIG pot with the noodles.

4) Pour in the tomato sauce and soup, and add in all the cheese. Mix it all around really good on low heat.

5) Let it simmer on the low heat for a bit to get nice and melty.

6) At this point, you can easily transfer it to a disposable lasagna pan and take it to your friend. If you're making it at home, transfer it to a 9x13 casserole dish and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350.You can even add a little more cheese on top (that's what we do). If you're giving it to a friend, they can eat it as-is, or you can instruct them to heat it in the oven- its your call!

 

I serve this with French bread and salad. Yum yum and yum!!!

 

Enjoy, y'all!