Farmstyle Spaghetti and Meatballs

This tasted great and seemed to be a family pleaser. We will be revisiting this recipe again. Thanks mom for the great meal idea!

Farmstyle Spaghetti and Meatballs

Note from the original recipe: "The sauce on this dish is not a thick and chunky sauce like many of you might be used to. It is a light, “soupy” sauce, which complements the seasoned meatballs and pasta perfectly, in my opinion!"



For the meatballs:
2 pounds ground beef
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used Italian bread crumbs and omitted the aditional Italian seasoning)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning


Using your hands, combine all the ingredients until well blended. Pinch off pieces of the meat mixture and shape into meatballs. Place in a large stock pot or dutch oven, then follow remaining instructions.


For the sauce:
1, 29 oz. can Tomato Sauce
1/2 of tomato sauce can of water
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 pinch ground cloves (don’t skip this… it is the “secret” ingredient)


In a large bowl, stir together sauce ingredients. Add to the stock pot with the meatballs and stir. Bring sauce to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low, place the lid on the pot, and cook until meatballs are cooked through. Depending on the size of your meatballs, this will be 30-45 minutes. (You can simmer this over low heat on your stove for a longer period of time, just remember to occasionally stir.).
Serve over 1 lb. thick spaghetti. Make sure to reserve a small amount of your pasta water and toss with your spaghetti after draining. This will help the sauce to stick to the pasta. Now, tuck your napkin in your shirt and enjoy! (I did notice that the sauce seemed really runny at first, but after I let it sit for a couple of minutes, the pasta soaked some of it up so it wasn't too bad)

45 Minute Bread Sticks

Another recipe from my mom, these bread sticks are perfect to get started before making a quick dinner such as spaghetti or soup. They come together really fast (hence the name) and are soft and chewy, plus they make a lot. I had enough plus leftovers when serving 6 adults and 2 kids (We had the spaghetti with them, and it was yummy!). You can also use whatever seasonings you want to on top. My mom used a garlic bread seasoning, but I just used garlic salt in addition to the parmesan cheese. I hope you enjoy them, too!

45 Minute Bread Sticks

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1 T yeast

1/2 t salt

3 1/2- 4 C flour

1/4 C butter

3/4 C grated Parmesan or mozzarella cheese (I used parmesan in the can)

Johnny's Garlic Seasoning (or seasoning of choice- I used garlic salt)

1. Mix the water, sugar and yeast together in a measuring cup or in the bottom of your mixer. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. Add the salt and the flour, one cup at a time, until it is well incorporated. Mix on high for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

3. Melt the butter and pour half of it into a jelly roll pan (large cookie sheet).

4. Place the dough in the center of the pan. Let it sit for 2 or 3 minutes. Letting the dough rest makes it MUCH easier to shape.

5. Spread the dough out flat onto the pan until it reaches all of the edges. Doing all of the spreading and cutting of these bread sticks, in the pan makes cleaning up your counter so much easier!

6. Pour the other half of the butter onto the dough. Spread it around with your hands. Sprinkle the Johnny's Garlic Seasoning all over the dough, and then the Parmesan cheese.

7. With a pizza cutter cut the dough into three rows lengthwise (I only made 2 rows), and then into about 12 little height wise rows.

8. Put the pan into a 170 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes. The breadsticks should rise about 1 inch.

9. Turn you oven up to 350 and bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

10. When they come out of the oven let them sit and rest again for about 5 minutes. Then redefine your cutting lines with the pizza cutter.

Monster Cookies

This cookie recipe came from one of my mom's good friends, Dana. Her boys are allergic to several things, one thing being wheat gluten, so she is always on the look out for gluten-free recipes. The original recipe makes A TON of cookies- in fact so much that even when I quartered the recipe, it made 7 dozen cookies! I made normal sized cookies, but there are instructions for the recipe for making cookies that are the size of a saucer. So just remember, the recipe I have below is 1/4 of the original recipe. The only other thing I want to add is that you could add in raisins or nuts, too, if you wanted. We hope you enjoy this recipe as it is now one of our favorites!

Monster Cookies

3 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. + 2 Tbl. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1-1/4 c. peanut butter (I used creamy, but you could use crunchy)
scant 2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. vanilla
4-1/2 c. oatmeal
1 c. plain M&M'S®
1 c. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)





In a very large bowl, mix ingredients in order given. Make sure the dough is mixed well. Drop on a cookie sheet about 5 cookies to a sheet with ice cream scoop and flatten. Or use a regular cookie scoop and flatten slightly for smaller cookies. Preheat oven to 350* F (175* C). Bake for 12 minutes for larger cookies and 9 for smaller . These burn easily so don't overcook. Makes about 20-30 saucer size cookies or 7 dozen regular size.





Note: This recipe does not call for flour.