Chicken Meatballs and Spaghetti

I am always looking for ways to add hidden vegetables to our meals.... Madeleine has been going through a rather long stage of not eating vegetables. It can be stressful, and of course we still offer vegetables at all meals, and suggest that she tastes them... And sometimes she will suprise us, but other times we have no luck at all!

For those nights where you have a little time on your hands to spend in the kitchen, this Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe is perfect! You can hide some extra vegies in the meatballs. (It's funny that Madeleine doesn't consider tomatoes a vegetable!!!) In the batch pictured, I have just added one carrot and no other vegies to the meatballs.

It's quite simple to make, actually, and it's even something that the kids can help cook - Get them in the kitchen with clean hands to roll the little meatballs for you. They will have fun!

To make the tomato sauce you will need:

1 onion
1 stick of celery
2 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of dried thyme (or a sprig of fresh)
2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes plus 800ml of water (just fill the cans with water once you've emptied them)
1 teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

and to make the meatballs:

500g Chicken mince
1 egg
3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of onion and garlic
1 teaspoon of worcestershire
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
For the vegies - I like to add half a carrot and half a zucchini but you can add whatever you like




To start the sauce, finely chop your onion and celery. Put 2 tablespoons of this aside to add to the meatballs.

Warm the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, celery and thyme and cook over a medium heat, stiring every now and then for about 10 minutes.

Then add the cans of tomatoes and the water to the pan. Season with the sugar, salt and pepper and then bring it to a simmer while you make the meatballs.




To make the meatballs, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. It's best to use your hands to combine everything. Then take small amounts of the mixture (about a teaspoon worth) and shape in to balls. If you wet your hands slightly, they will be easy to roll. You will need to put these aside as you want to add them all in to the sauce at the same time, so place them on a tray that you have lined with some baking paper.





Once you have made all the meatballs, you can add these carefully in to the sauce. They will need about half an hour or so to simmer.

We cook a 500g pack of pasta for this quantity of sauce, and it feeds us (two adults and a 3 year old who usually goes back for seconds) for two meals! It freezes well and you can just defrost when you need and reheat.

Don't forget some Parmesan cheese on the top!