Mushroom and Meatball Pasta

What do you do when you have one person that would have a really hard time calling a dish a "meal" if it didn't have some sort of meat in it, and another person who would rather not eat meat at all?

Make mushroom and meatball pasta.

To make the mushroom pasta:

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute 2 packs of mushrooms, chopped, for about 5 to 7 minutes. Go for a walk on the wild side and mix up the types of mushrooms you are using. True, button mushrooms are the least expensive, so use one pack of buttons and then take your pick for the other ones. I used baby bellas...because they were the second least expensive.


Mushrooms are full of vitamin D and are immune-boosters. I heart mushrooms.

After you have sauteed the mushrooms for a few minutes, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of flour over them.

Let it cook out for about a minute, stirring constantly, and then (slowly) stir in around 2 cups of beef or chicken broth, depending on what meat you use for your meatballs (use chicken broth for poultry, beef broth for red meat.) Add some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. When you drop the pasta (see below), go ahead and stir in one box or half a bag of frozen chopped spinach into the mushroom mixture.

About 10 minutes before eating time, go ahead and cook up a box of whole wheat angel hair pasta, drain well, and stir into the mushroom mixture.

To make the meatballs:

Start with about a pound of lean ground meat of your choice. In my opinion, red meat works best in this dish (so use ground venison or ground sirloin), but if you prefer white meat go for the ground turkey or chicken breast. BUT be careful when getting your meat. Just because it is ground turkey or chicken does NOT make it "healthy" or lean. Make sure it is made from the white meat of the bird and preferably says "99% lean." Some of the turkey you can get is just as bad as greasy hamburger meat.

Take your rings off your fingers. Put them in a safe place (i.e., away from the drain in the kitchen sink.)

Put the meat in a large bowl. Add...
1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs (I actually used about 1/3 cup breadcrumbs, 1/3 cup wheat bran, and 1/3 cup oat bran; you could also use wheat germ, toasted oats, or another fiber source if you have it in your pantry. Pour a little milk in the breadcrumb mixture and let it soak for a minute before adding it to the meat.)
Your favorite herbs and spices...I used chili powder, garlic powder, and oregano.
A couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Mix it all up with your hands. Shape it into little meatballs. Mine were about an inch and a half or so in diameter; I made 26 meatballs out of one pound of meat. Place on a lightly oiled pan. Drizzle a teeny bit of olive oil on top of the meatballs. Place in 400 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes.


To summarize, here's the order in which I completed the steps:
1. Prep the meatballs and get them on the pan. Set aside and preheat the oven.
2. Chop and saute the mushrooms.
3. Add flour to mushrooms.
4. While the flour cooks out for one minute, put meatballs in oven.
5. Stir broth into mushrooms.
6. Heat up water for noodles.
7. When meatballs have 10 minutes left, cook pasta and also stir spinach into mushrooms.
8. After about 6 minutes, drain pasta and add to mushrooms.
9. Pull the meatballs out and eat!

Meateaters can add meatballs to their pasta to their hearts' content; non-meatlovers can avoid them like the plague.

I like meatballs.


Little Bit approves of this meal, too.



What more could I ask for? Enjoy!