Hearty, Healthy, Summer-y Pasta

I will interrupt your regularly scheduled vacation updates for a little meal I conjured up recently. I'll call it Meatball, Zucchini and Squash Delight. I'm proud to say that I dreamed up this little recipe on my own. Now that Fred Meyer is no longer in my backyard, it's a lot less convenient to go pick up ingredients for a meal each night. I realize that the grocery store is still like only a mile or two away, but with all the stoplights and pedestrians (and the fact that I had already put on scrubby clothes), I try to be inventive with what we have in our cupboards.

So what did I have to work with? I had to use up a package of ground turkey breast, but burgers didn't sound appetizing. I also had some zucchini and squash - I often pick it up with no idea of what I'll do with it, but it's an easy veggie to incorporate into a meal. With a couple eggs (for meatballs), a half of an onion, random spices, garlic, breadcrumbs, pasta, chicken broth and parmesan, it came to me: I'm going to make homemade meatballs.

I won't kid around and pretend I know how much of each ingredient I used for the meatballs*, but I'm sure you can find another recipe like this one. I decided I would boil half reduced-sodium chicken broth, half water and drop the meatballs in for awhile to give them a little extra flavor and cook them all the way through. Then, I drained the liquids and just pan fried them for awhile, until they were lightly browned. (I realize I could have baked them, but that would have been too easy, huh?) At the same time, I was boiling pasta and sauteing the squash. Then I put it all together in a big pan with a little olive oil, sprinkled a little cheese on top, and found myself with Meatball, Zucchini and Squash Delight.


*I did put in too many onions, which made some of the meatballs fall apart since onions take away from the sticky meat/egg factor. Lesson learned.