Frozen Spaghetti and Meatballs

[gpurtz]

I have a special needs son who loves spaghetti and meatballs. Usually his mother (my wife) makes the real thing. Unfortunately, my wife has experienced some serious health problems during the past few months and is not able to cook the way she'd like and I'm not much of a cook. If you have a favorite frozen food spaghetti and meatball dish, could you please let me know who makes it? Thanks. Gary

 

[bogey21]

My choice is Braum's located in parts of TX and OK

George

 

[DeniseM]

I'm so sorry about your wife - I have a special needs (picky eater) son as well.

I recommend that you buy some brand name frozen pre-cooked meatballs, a jar of brand name sauce, and then cook some spaghetti noodles. (Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Break noodles in half and add them by the handful. Cook 10-12 min. Drain in a colander.)

Heat the sauce and frozen meatballs in a large pot over med. heat, until the sauce and meatballs are hot (15-20 min.) Stir gently a few times.

Then stir together the sauce, noodles, and frozen meatballs, and pour them into a greased 9x13 casserole dish.

Cover with foil and bake 30 min. on 350º Uncover and sprinkle liberally with mozzarella cheese (unless son doesn't like it) and bake 15 - 20 min. more, until cheese is melted.

If your wife doesn't bake her pasta you can simply skip the baking part.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

If you have a Trader Joe's in your area, they have good frozen spaghetti and meatballs.

 

[Passepartout]

Both our neighborhood Kroger's and Costco have pretty decent frozen meatballs. They should be available in your area, too. Just follow Denise's easy directions and you'll be a hero.

Best wishes for your son and for your wife's speedy recovery.

Jim

 

[Tia]

We sometimes use Prego jar sauce add some Sams Club frozen meatballs, heat through on stove top. Any leftover sauce with meatballs I freeze. Any leftover plain pasta can be kept in the frig in Tupperware a few days.

Hope your wife feels better soon.

 

[timeos2]

One trick I only recently learned is to never heat/reheat the meatballs quickly - it makes them tough. I knew sometimes they were tough and other times nice and tender but I didn't know that how they were heated a slow simmer vs a quick, high heat warming would affect so much. Since then I've allowed the extra time for a nice slow simmer & they've been tender every time. Enjoy!

 

[pjrose]

I get Cooked Perfect, made with Chicken, Pork, and Beef.

I microwave some for maybe a minute with just a little bit of water (so they don't dry out) then plunk them and the water into a big microwave bowl of Ragu seven-herb tomato and nuke the whole thing longer (definitely with a cover so it doesn't explode all over the microwave!)

I don't think I'd recommend that particular Ragu for a picky eater, though, as it has chunks of tomato in it. Get a smooth sauce instead.

 

[stmartinfan]

My picky eater likes the jarred Prego spaghetti sauce, I think because it's very smooth, has mild basil and oregano, and has a slight sweetness. I'd agree that adding frozen meatballs to that and simmering would probably be better than a completely frozen dish.

I don't know how much sauce your son likes on his spaghetti, but my picky eater needs a light amount, so I probably wouldn't mix the cooked spaghetti and sauce together. But leftover spaghetti heats well.

You can cook a whole box of plain spaghetti (just cook in boiling water per the package direction). After you've drained it, put it back in the pot and stir in a drizzle of olive oil (or a regular cooking oil). That will help keep it from sticking together. Refrigerate the leftover spaghetti and sauce separately after the first meal. Then put a single serving of the noodles in a MW bowl, add a spoon of water and heat in the MW. Heat the amount of sauce and meatballs you need in a separate MW container, and you've got a meal for one. Most picky eaters are fine eating the same thing for several days in a row, so you could probably stretch a jar of sauce and a box of spaghetti for a couple of meals.

 

[stmartinfan]

My picky eater likes some of the Michelina's frozen pasta dishes, I think because they are generally pretty mild in flavor. The white sauce ones go over pretty well, especially one that's got just pasta, cream sauce and a minute amount of broccoli (which she can skip if she tries). And they are inexpensive so it's not a big loss if your son doesn't like it. I suspect because they are less expensive, they don't use larger amounts of spices or pricer ingredients that can be polarizing for picky eaters.

In some ways, you might be better trying to find some other frozen pasta dishes he'll like, instead of trying to replace the homemade spaghetti and meatballs he loves. When my picky kid has an expectation of how something should taste, it's hard to accept something that's not the same - even if most people think it's good. But if you start with something familiar like a pasta, it might be OK to go with something new for the sauce.

Another thing you could try - is there a local restaurant the makes a spaghetti he likes? You could get an order for take out and divide it into smaller servings, since most orders are very generous. You could eat half and freeze half to heat in the MW later, or even divide into 1/3s. It might be slightly more expensive, but this dish is usually among the cheapest at most Italian places.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Classico 4 cheese is our favor jarred sauce. Costco meatballs are outstanding.

 

[Karen G]

We sometimes use Prego jar sauce add some Sams Club frozen meatballs

This is my favorite as well. If you have a crockpot you can do it even easier. I needed to serve a group of about 15 people so I got one of the big jars of Prego at Sam's. About half of the bag of meatballs filled up my crockpot. I put the sauce in with them, put it on high for about 3 hrs. It was perfect--I just boiled the pasta, drained it, and we were good to go. Everyone loved it.