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A Life From Scratch.

A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

Chicken parmesan meatballs

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Mmmm comfort food. It just seems to make everything better. Well maybe not everything, but it definitely takes an edge off. The past few days in Chicago have been pretty gloomy. (Three to be exact, but felt like forever). We went from a solid two beautiful weeks of a perfect Fall scene to some serious doom and gloom. But that’s ok. It sure makes the sunshine feel pretty darn special when it chooses to come out again.

In the meantime, these mozzarella stuffed chicken parmesan meatballs did the trick. I whipped them up during the day for a little lunch and had plenty to rewarm in the oven for dinner. Love recipes that stretch like that and are easy to reheat. I ended up keeping the whole pot in the oven for everyones various dining times. Worked like a charm and we had zero leftovers because, again, these are MEATBALLS STUFFED WITH MOZZARELLA. 

Exactly.

CHICKEN PARMESAN MEATBALLS (stuffed with mozzarella!) 
Recipe from What’s Gaby Cooking

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cups flour
bocconcini mozzarella balls (or any small mozzarella, you can even tear up some)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 jar marinara sauce (I used Rao’s yummm)
handful of basil leaves, torn

DIRECTIONS:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the chicken, parmesan, breadcrumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley and red pepper flakes. Carefully combine everything with your hands until the ingredients are evenly mixed.

Form the ground chicken mixture into small meatballs, each the size of a golf ball.

Insert a small piece of mozzarella in the center of each meatball, taking care to reform the meatball around the cheese once it’s been inserted. You don’t want any of the cheese to show.

Dredge each meatball in the flour to lightly coat it and gently tap off any excess flour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add half of the meatballs and sauté for a 3-4 minutes, turning every so often to brown the outside. Remove, and then repeat with the remaining meatballs.

Once all meatballs are browned, add the tomato sauce to the skillet and place the browned meatballs on top of the sauce.

Transfer the skillet, meatballs and all, into the oven and let the meatballs continue to bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

Remove the skillet from the oven and dusting with salt, pepper, freshly chopped basil and extra parm if desired. Serve immediately. (Or, serve over the course of the day like I did).

Italian sausage and vegetable soup

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We are in that sweet spot people. Post baseball. Post football. Pre…..well, nothing as of now.

Of course stuff will start to pop up. The big guy wants to give basketball another shot (pun, intended). And there is always training for baseball going on but right now we have a pretty open calendar. 

And it’s glorious.

I used to be all OMG WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO IN THESE DARKER COLDER DAYS but now that my kids are older and not clawing on my legs it actually just feels nice to be home and chill. Having the basement complete helps a ton too. We have the room to spread out and the boys have an indoor space to run around.

This past weekend we got a pretty good taste of the slower life. I think it was around 11:00AM on Saturday. The boys and I were still in pajamas. Round two of breakfast was happening (bacon, obviously) and this Italian sausage soup was simmering away on the stove for a chillier Sunday to come. 

I can not tell you how wonderful it all was. There are very few things that make me happier than all being home and stuff cooking on the stove and no where to rush off to. It’s rare so when it happens, it’s cherished.

Not to mention, this soup was THE MOST AMAZING thing to warm up after a chilly baseball game. Hearty, healthy, and it makes a ton which is perfect for leftovers or a friend. Get it going on a free day, I promise you won’t be disappointed. 

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup
Recipe from Imperfect Polish

INGREDIENTS:

olive oil
2 lbs sausage, casings removed (I used sweet for the family but spicy would be delicious)
2 large carrots, diced
4 celery ribs, diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
15 oz canned cannellini beans or any you like, drained and rinsed
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
8 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons dried oregano
optional: 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
optional if you have it: Parmesan rind (some stores sell them or just cut off the one you have)
to serve: kale (optional but so good, I used baby kale (found at Trader Joes)), grated parmesan, 1 1/2 cups small cooked pasta (I used a elbow macaroni)

DIRECTIONS:

Place a large pot medium high heat. Add two glugs of olive oil, then the sausage. Brown and cook the sausage until cooked through, breaking up into small pieces as you go. When done, turn off heat, remove sausage from pot and place in a bowl.

Turn heat back up to medium under pot and add in carrots, celery, and onion. Sauté until onions start turning translucent and carrots jut begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add wine and scrap the bottom of the pot to get all those good bits. Simmer until wine is reduced by about half, about 3-5 minutes.

Add in beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, oregano, crushed red pepper/parmesan rind if you are using either of them. Add the sausage back in. Season with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Stir to combine well, turn up heat to high and bring to boil. Then lower heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes.

Turn off heat and skim some of the oil/fat from the top of the soup if you want to lighten it up a bit. Then taste soup for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

To serve, ladle in bowls and place a few leaves of greens in each bowl to wilt, along with some noodles, then pile on the freshly grated parm.

Post season Cubs baseball.

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We are in October people and it’s post season baseball with the Chicago Cubs and I legit can’t do it again. I actually don’t think I am fully recovered from last October. I think I need therapy to discuss all this, actually. I’m going to look into that.

Our family can’t handle it. CAN NOT handle it. You would think some of the pressure is off with, you know, winning the World Series last year. But that does not seem to be the case. It’s just as intense. As Mike so perfectly stated, ‘I just don’t want it to be over.’ 

Exactly. We are a baseball family. It’s what we do and love and watch and cheer for. With our boys not currently in season, all that baseball energy has been funneled into the Chicago Cubs. And boy is there a lot of it. Not to mention, they sure don’t make it easy on us. How about just nicely winning a series, does that even happen in post season baseball? Get a nice lead, keep the opponent off the bases, and win. No no, not the Cubs. They are totally pulling it off, but oh my Lord can it be painful to get there. We are losing games we should have won. We are winning games without our best hitters hitting. I don’t understand how it’s actually working. But I am oh so happy that it is. 

Mike read somewhere it all feels so intense because we are just not used to it. October baseball is so rare in Chicago. We aren’t ‘seasoned veterans’. I don’t know if I buy into that. I’m pretty convinced even if we were here every year it would feel exactly like this. Yet this is coming from someone that can barely handle my five year olds rookie baseball game. Apparently I have separate issues that need to be addressed.

I can actually relate it best to watching a horror movie. I literally have my entire head under a blanket with one fourth of one eye sticking out hoping that somehow that will get the blessed third out and keep the opponents bases loaded from scoring. Again. And there is my eleven year old, who should have gone to bed hours earlier but this is a ‘once in a lifetime experience’ (we aren’t short on the dramatics here) so up he stays and basically thrashes around in my lap (all 115 pounds of him) the entire game.

We also have this thing where Logan and I secretly check the score ahead of our recorded game. Do not tell Mike, and do not judge us. We are not strong people in this manner. We are okay with this. We even have a code: if I rub his leg that means something good happens if I whack him (his idea, not mine) something bad. The problem with this system is that pretty quickly we catch up to the live game and Logan is all frantic with his eyes “MOM TELL ME SOMETHING GIVE ME A SIGN” and I’m like dude, we are live. We are in this together now. I am here for you. Please stop making our system so obvious so that your father does not divorce me. Goodness child.

I’m too old for this. I wake up sore. I wake up exhausted. I wake up with a legit clenched jaw. I am unable to chew gum. I worry about members of my family actually having a heart attack, myself included.

And now we have to do it all again against the LA Dodgers.

I don’t know what’s to come, but I know it won’t be easy that’s for sure. That I have learned. So I provide the only go to comfort I know that I can control. What is that you ask?

Food.

For twenty blissful minutes pregame we enjoy a little peace and comfort in something absolutely delicious. In my head, this is all helping everyones nerves and keeping things calm. In reality, we are all completely freaked out. But we are well fed freaked out.

Need something to help get you through the LA Dodgers series aside from the obvious answer….excessive alcohol? These stuffed shells are actual real pure magic. (I ate four, but wanted to eat fourteen). Not to mention they lean a tad healthier than your grandma’s original version. Well, as healthy as pasta and cheese can get of course.

Let’s do this Chicago Cubs! I’m so behind you. Gray hair and all.

HEALTHIER(ISH) STUFFED SHELLS
Recipe adapted from The Burlap Kitchen

INGREDIENTS:

1 box jumbo shells (go whole wheat, if you can find them)
3 teaspoons oil (olive oil, coconut or grapeseed)
1 pound italian sausage, casing removed (I used chicken)
Few big handfuls of fresh spinach, chopped up roughly 
3 garlic cloves
1½ cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
3 cups pasta sauce
1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
freshly grated parmesan, for topping

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook shells for 9 minutes, drain and set aside to cool.

While shells are cooking heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Saute garlic for 2 minutes until fragrant.
Add sausage and brown, breaking up with wooden spoon. Season generously with salt and pepper.

While sausage browns, mix ricotta and eggs in a mixing bowl. Once sausage is browned, add in fresh spinach and cook another minute until slightly wilted.

Add cooled sausage/spinach mixture to ricotta mixture and mix well.

Pour 1 cup of pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

Stuff 24 shells with about 2 tablespoons of ricotta sausage mixture and place in prepared baking dish.

Pour remaining 2 cups of pasta sauce over shells and stop with mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes.

Slow cooker smothered pork chops

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It was time.

I had been on a serious health kick. We were eating light, full of veggies, and minimal carbs. Think lots of lighter soups. I could eat this way every single day but I could tell Mike was getting a little, well, over it.

Enter slow cooker smothered pork chops.

My mom recently made these for my dad and raved about them. With only a few simple ingredients and the slow cooker doing all the work of making the glorious gravy, well, it wasn’t exactly a hard sell.

I thought this would be the perfect Cubs play off opener meal. Things get…..well…..tense in our home so was hoping a heartier home cooked meal would calm everyone down.

It didn’t, just an FYI. But it sure was delicious.

Go Cubs!

SLOW COOKER SMOTHERED PORK CHOPS
Recipe from The Country Cook

INGREDIENTS:

4 bone-in pork chops
1 oz packet onion soup mix
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup, low sodium (I used cream of mushroom, Amy’s Organic brand)
1 oz packet dry pork gravy mix
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper

To thicken gravy:
3 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cold water

DIRECTIONS:

In a 5-6 quart oval slow cooker, combine onion soup mix, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and pork gravy mix.
Whisk together until combined and there are minimal lumps (or none).

Season both sides of the chops with a little bit of garlic powder, and a little salt and pepper.

Place pork chops into the slow cooker. Do your best to spread them out and cover with the gravy mixture.
Cover and cook on low about 4-6 hours.

Just before the pork chops are done – whisk together the corn starch and cold water in a small bowl. Once it is smooth, pour it in with your pork chops in the slow cooker and stir gently. Cover and switch the slow cooker to high and cook for another 30 minutes (until gravy has thickened.)

These would be awesome with mashed potatoes but I served mine with roasted and some green beans on the side.

Slow cooker vegetable barley soup

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One of the best things about fall, in my opinion, is that it is officially SOUP season! And while the weather at times would suggest otherwise, I’ve totally given in. Keeping things light and super healthy is a great way to transition. We can leave the heavier stews and cream filled soups for ten degree days.

This slow cooker vegetable barley could not be healthier for you. Packed with seven vegetables, spices, and barley, there is not one ingredient that is bad for you. Bonus that is makes a ton, so lunches for the next few days are done. I actually ate this for three days straight, but I’m a soup addict like that.

Try it out for your family this week! (A note, this version makes roughly 11 cups of soup. Because my slow cooker is so large and I wanted to share with friends and have leftovers, I doubled the below recipe)

SLOW COOKER VEGETABLE BARLEY SOUP
Recipe adapted from Cookin Canuk

INGREDIENTS:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, cut into 1/2-circles
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups frozen green beans
3/4 cup pearl barley
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (chicken is fine, too)
2 cups water
1/4 cup minced flat-leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS:

Prep all ingredients and place in your slow cooker. Cook on low, roughly 7-8 hours, until the barley is tender. Top with freshly chopped parsley. A little parm won’t hurt you either.

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