Reciepe Review: Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs

I love spaghetti; it's relatively inexpensive, simple to cook, and versatile; one pot will feed a large family. Although both spaghetti and the meatballs originate from Italy, the way we combine them in the U.S., with large servings and rich tomato sauce, is a dish that was developed by Italian Americans in New York communities.  

 

Spaghetti might not have been the top pick for our family; it was definitely at the top of the list in my house. We enjoyed goulash, spaghetti with meatballs, spaghetti with meat sauce, spaghetti with only regular tomato sauce, and a lot of canned Chef Boyardee.  

 

This recipe offers a unique twist on the classic spaghetti and meatballs. The recipe baked in a casserole dish piqued my interest; I have never eaten this popular meal cooked that way. The recipe includes some basic ingredients along with a few additional flavor mixes. 

 

I followed the recipe as closely as possible, except that instead of using beef meatballs, I used frozen turkey meatballs, and I omitted the pork meatballs. I should also note that I had never used nutmeg or known anyone who had. The preparation process was a bit intimidating because the list of ingredients was long, but it proved to be surprisingly simple.  

 

The finished product looked almost identical to the photo that accompanied the preparation instructions. This casserole version filled the house with a familiar and pleasant aroma. I received good reviews from my family members. My wife and my oldest daughter are vegans, so of course, they were careful to only taste a small portion from the top. Overall, the baked dish was good; I will definitely try it again. 

Ingredients

• 12 ounces spaghetti
• 3 cups marinara sauce, homemade or store-bought
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

For the meatballs

• 8 ounces ground beef
• 8 ounces ground pork
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ¼ cup Panko
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

 

https://damndelicious.net/2016/01/29/baked-spaghetti-and-meatballs/ 

 

Recipe Review: Goulash

 I absolutely love pasta, anything with a good noodle and red sauce will find a happy place in my stomach. I have been eating goulash all my life, its been a family meal since I was just a little kid up in Michigan. so I decided that today I would try to make it for myself and I was not disappointed by the outcome!

The recipe today calls for:

• Hamburger meat
• diced tomatoes
• diced onions
• Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper
• minced garlic
• Italian bullion
• Bay leaves
• and lots of tomato juice

The recipe starts off easy by placing minced garlic, onions and hamburger in a bowl, mashing it all up to brown and cook. I was really nervous pouring out the portions of the ingredients as I haven't made any pasta style foods in years and I was concerned on watching that while making sure everything was cooked through properly as well. After that cooked through enough I add in the salt and pepper,  Italian seasoning, bullion and fire roasted diced tomatoes and stir soak up more flavor! My mom said to mention a tip to be extra careful with your bullion because its so salty, that even a little is quite a lot.  While the sauce was cooking up I set the noodles in a stock pot to boil up to softness and added in the tomato juice to the sauce mix. While I made this dish in about an hour my mom said you can treat it like chilies or stews, the longer you leave it to simmer and soak up flavors. 

I wasn't very confident going in but afterwards I like to think it was a great first time with the dish! 

The meal afterword was worth the effort! such a savory and powerful blend of flavors without any being to overpowering and controlling of the spoonful's as I ate, a wonderful mix of well spiced and seasoned tomato and onion soaked nice into a crispy and well cooked through hamburger mix with nice soft flavor soaked noodles to tie it all together!

I plan to make this again for sure! I think next time I'll add another step and transfer the goulash into a oven pan and add some cheese on top to bake into a ziti of some kind.

Recipe Review: Chicken Tacos

 

I Tried Making Chicken Fajita Tacos (Like My Dad Used to), and honestly... Not Bad!

So, I have this core memory from my childhood: my dad standing over the stove, sizzling up chicken fajitas while the whole kitchen smelled like peppery heaven. He didn’t need a recipe. He was the recipe. Every time he made them, it felt like a special occasion, even if it was a random Monday night.

Fast forward to today: I’m older, slightly wiser, and still wildly unqualified in the kitchen. But I came across this recipe on Tasty, and it looked simple enough. Plus, it felt like the right time to finally attempt the sacred fajita tradition on my own, no dad supervision, no backup, especially since I am moving out soon, so I got to be able to provide for myself out here.

Spoiler alert: I survived. And the tacos were actually...not bad

I gathered everything I needed:

• Chicken breasts

• Red bell pepper

• Onion

• Fajita seasoning

• Tortillas

• Orange Bell Pepper

Simple, right? Except I spent 15 minutes in the store arguing with myself over which tortillas to get (pro tip: don’t overthink it, just grab some and leave).

This next part was... mildly terrifying. I don’t know how people make slicing raw chicken look graceful, but I looked like I was performing surgery with dull tools. Eventually, though, I got it chopped. Then came the pepper and onion.

I threw the chicken into a hot pan with some oil and let it cook until it started looking less like something you’d avoid and more like food. Then I tossed in the veggies and some fajita seasoning. The smell? Amazing. It immediately took me back to sitting at the kitchen table while my dad flipped fajitas like a pro.

I loaded up some warm tortillas with the sizzling mix. Added some lime. And... it was. Like, pretty solid. Were they exactly like my dad’s? Not quite. But they were close enough that I was proud and full.

Would I make these again? Absolutely.
Would I change anything? Maybe go a little lighter on the seasoning next time. The chicken had a strong kick to it, for some people, that's ok, but I'm a lighter kind of guy. Also, next time I think I’ll add some more cheese and a bit less salt. Or better yet, invite my dad over and make them with him. Maybe even show him a couple of moves I learned.

Until then, I’m calling this a win.

My Rating: 8/10

Here is the recipe I tried following

Chicken Fajita Tacos Recipe by Tasty

Recipe Review: Meatloaf

 https://www.primaverakitchen.com/italian-turkey-brussels-spouts-meatloaf/#wprm-recipe-container-27308

Meatloaf has always been a classic in my girlfriend’s family, she has her own recipe and even experiments on it every now and then. Meatloaf has always been a favorite of mine, my mother used to make it back when I was still living at home, and I was missing the flavor. This specific meatloaf recipe gives me a healthier version without all the grease and extra sodium that usually accompanies the dish. I have never actually made meatloaf myself, so this was a little bit daunting, but I was excited.

In my book, ground beef is always a good sign of a great and flavorful recipe, the grease and fat that is reduced adds so much flavor, and the added seasonings put the cherry on top. Even mixing the onions into the ground beef before cooking them made my sinuses open up and get ready to smell the Essence of Lords (rendered beef fat). Making the actual meatloaf mix was not hard at all, the hard part was waiting for the loaf to bake in the oven for an entire hour. The mixture of anticipation and agony the aroma was unbearable. I found myself checking on the loaf every 15 minutes hoping that time would fast forward to when it was done, but boy, that wait was worth it. 

I was extremely proud of the end product, and even tried my best to make the pictures look like a recipe online. The ketchup crust on the loaf was immaculate, it blended reds, browns and yellows and not in a nasty looking way. It looked SO much better than I expected, and I am very proud of myself and my girlfriend for helping me out. She even decided to make a batch of mashed potatoes to go with the meatloaf because apparently you “can’t eat meatloaf without it”. 

This recipe… was divine. Nothing was needed at all; it was perfectly seasoned, extremely moist, and flamboyantly flavorful. The texture (which I am a big stickler of), was just chewy enough to satisfy my jaw, but just tender enough to not tire my jaw out either. It was very filling and left me with nothing else to want. I love this recipe and will definitely expand upon it in the future. Hopefully my girlfriend can give me a few tips as well, because according to her, there is so much more to discover with meatloaf.

Recipe review: Lasagna

Lasagna has always been one of my all-time favorite comfort meals. It’s that dish—the one I’d literally drop everything for. I would drive from Seguin to San Antonio just to have a plate when my mom texts me that it’s ready. No hesitation. That’s how good it is. It’s rich, warm, cheesy, and somehow tastes like home every single time. So for this assignment, I figured, why not try making it myself? It felt like the perfect opportunity to recreate a dish I’d been spoiled by for years—and see if I could actually pull it off.  

 Having watched my mom make lasagna over the years, I know it takes quite a bit f time. So I had to prepare myself for a cooking marathon.It was time to gather the ingredients. 

I made this yesterday but forgot to take a picture, this is the leftovers.

The recipe I used: 

World’s Best Lasagna – AllRecipes.com 

I chose this recipe because it closely resembled my mom’s version, but I wanted to switch things up just a little to make it my own. A lot of the ingredients were the same—ricotta, mozzarella, marinara, ground beef—but I added tomatoes and onions for extra flavor and texture. I also wanted to test whether this version could compete with mom’s lasagna, and maybe (just maybe) find a new favorite. 

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous going into it. The layering part was the most intimidating. I had all kinds of visions of slippery noodles sliding around or cheese falling off the sides in a gooey mess. And with everything happening at once—chopping onions, browning the beef, stirring sauce, boiling noodles—it felt like I had twelve arms going in every direction. Making lasagna is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. But once I got into the rhythm, it started to feel kind of fun. Like making edible architecture. 

 

I took my time layering: noodles, sauce, ricotta mixture, mozzarella—then repeat. At first, I worried I wasn’t spreading everything evenly, or that my bottom noodle layer would get all out of line. But I kept going. I trusted the process. And when I finally pulled the pan out of the oven, it looked like something out of a magazine. The top layer was beautifully bronzed, the cheese toasted to perfection, and the kitchen smelled like a cozy Italian restaurant.  

And the taste? Chef’s kiss. It was rich, cheesy, savory, and honestly better than I expected. The ricotta added texture that balanced perfectly with the herby sauce and hearty meat. I think I could’ve let the sauce simmer just a little longer to deepen the flavor, but it still turned out great. My mom gave me the nod of approval—the one where she didn’t even say anything, just raised her eyebrow and smiled. That felt like winning a medal. Like I had officially leveled up in the family food chain. 

But what really got me was how much my siblings loved it. My brothers and sisters went back for seconds—and then thirds. They told me straight up that I need to keep making this from now on. One of them even said it might be better than mom’s (don’t worry, I didn’t repeat that out loud). It was the kind of compliment that meant more than a letter grade or a gold star. 

 

Would I make this again? Without a doubt. I already bookmarked the recipe and made notes for next time—maybe adding a layer of spinach or using spicy sausage instead of ground beef. More than anything, this experience gave me a new appreciation for the meals my mom has made over the years. Lasagna used to be her thing, but now it feels like it’s mine too. 

So yeah… I guess you could say I found a new reason to stay home. Or at least, a reason for my family to start texting me when they’re hungry.