I got up this morning and started dinner. Yes, dinner. It’s a teaching day, so I decided maybe the crock pot is the solution instead of cold salads every Monday and Wednesday through mid-August. I know Mr. Gray will appreciate this new idea. Since I’m home, I can modify crock pot recipes some from total stick-it-in-and-forget-it practices (I know that’s the point of a crock pot).
For today’s menu, I decided on spaghetti and meatballs. Because I wanted to test the feasibility of doing this in one stick-it-in-and-forget-it step, I started with just the meatballs (unbrowned) to see what would happen.
So far, they’ve been in there about forty-five minutes, and they smell amazing! I’m going to flip them at an hour and then add sauce and pasta to simmer until this afternoon (assuming it doesn’t smell so good I try to eat it for lunch).
I’ll post the recipe if this dinner turns out to be any good. I borrowed from a Pioneer Woman recipe, but changed them to an Italian-style meatball. My sauce is cheater HEB sauce I can just throw in the crock pot on top of the spaghetti and meatballs. (I soaked the spaghetti noodles in room-temperature water first since they wouldn’t boil in the crock pot.)
Now I’m off to finish up my backwards day; so far, I’ve cooked dinner and baked muffins for breakfast. My plans for the day include washing clothes, reading, relaxing, and then going to work (backwards, backwards, backwards).
UPDATE:
I checked the meatballs at an hour, and it wasn’t necessary to flip them. They’re cooking very evenly. I drained and blotted the spaghetti noodles before putting them on top of the meatballs and covering with sauce. The lid is back on and dinner is cooking!