HAY, :) Remember that lovely, but kinda heartbreaking movie "Patch Adams," starring the one and only, late great Robin Williams? (Rest his beautiful soul). If you said no, go watch it people, it's a true classic. For real, I am that lil ol' lady whose dying wish is a swimming pool full of noodles! Not even joking. How fun would that be swimming in a pool full of spaghetti noodles?! Makes me smile just thinking about it, I'm a total dork, but I own awkwardness like a boss lol. I truly, do love noodles so much tho.... I even had a tiny dog back in the day named noodles that I adored for a brief moment (yeah, foodie love from a young age). He was this sad little soul of a dog that had been abandoned in an apartment complex that my Mum had managed at the time. He was never quite right from that horrible event, obviously (many curse/dirty words to those who did that to him, ugh), but he did touch my heart and I loved him enough to name him after one of my ALL TIME favorite foods. He found a furever home elsewhere (to my young dismay lol) w/ a sweet elderly woman who could give him the love, attention, and time he really deserved. Moving on, before I go into a much larger rant about my adoration of noodles the food/dog, the way wrongness of abandoning animals like Noodles, or anything else semi-irrelevant to this recipe, let's talk heritage.
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| From the movie Patch Adams found via web ~ |
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| The world could use more Docs like this <3 |
I'm a proud ethnic mutt of sorts! :) No shame about it either. I have roots that branch out in many different ethnic directions, and they all influence the being that I am in a gazillion different ways. German, Hispanic, Indian, Scandinavian, Swiss, Irish, YUP I'm a proud lil' mixed up mutt lol. This recipe is influenced by my recently deceased Grandfather, Nels, who was a big strong German/Swede who always had a fresh crew cut, loved canned fish and crackers (that gene I didn't get, eeks lol), was a great engineer and a free mason. He was also a collector of fine time pieces from wall to wrist. (His father was a clock maker (clock smith?), so it's fairly fitting that as his Alzheimer's progressed he would wear multiple wrist watches though he could longer read the time on them, nor had much concept of time itself. Just goes to show are roots will always influence us and we will always be tied to them no matter what ways we branch out in life). Honestly, I wish I would have paid more attention to all his seemingly silly stories when he was able to tell them in his full glory and not dismissed them like most jerky kids. We live and we learn though right, at least that's the plan....
Moving on to the way popular classic Swedish Meatballs; It is one of my Mother's favorite comfort food dishes, as well as my deceased Grandfather. I'm not a personal fan of mushrooms (which is in the traditional Swedish dish), blue cheese, or pretty much any food that seems like its gone sour. I've seen mushrooms grow on some pretty icky stuff in the wild and I've accidentally grown blue cheese on a stray dairy product in the back of my fridge lol, so yeah, I'm good without either of those prized culinary staples.(crazy right, a Swede who doesn't like mushrooms, blue cheese or canned fish, maybe I was really adopted like my brothers claimed ;) This AHHmazing dish is a fun and scrumptious twist on two traditional cuisines very dear to my stomach and heart, spaghetti and meat sauce meets mushroom less Swedish Meatballs and creamed spinach. It's a whole lot of creamy dairy goodness, lots of meat, onion and spinach yumminess all atop of a bed of beautiful noodles! Frankly, it's DA BOMB folks! Two dudes that claim to not even like spinach couldn't get enough of this delish dish ;)
Whatcha' Need:
- 1~box spaghetti noodles (prepared according to package)
- 1 14 oz bag of frozen, thawed meatballs
- 4 Bratwurst sausages
- 1 block Low Fat Cream Cheese
- 1 packet dry onion soup mix (like Lipton's)
- 2 cups milk (I use 1%)
- 2 cups tap water (plus sufficient amount for boiling the noodles)
- 2/3 cup low fat sour cream
- 1.5 cups frozen Chopped Spinach
- 3 TBS Parmesan cheese
- 1+/- tsp paprika, 1.5 tsp dried Italian Blend Seasoning, 1+/- tsp lemon pepper, salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp dry minced onion flakes (always season to your own personal preferences)
Start by removing the meat from the sausage casings. Simply cut the very tip off and squish out the innards and discard the casings. (You could also use a pound of ground pork if you'd like, but sausages have various seasonings and such already in them and it will effect the flavor profile, plus it is way simple to remove the skins even though it's a tad bit gross lol)
Place the sausage meat in a large sauce pan w/ about half of the above dry seasonings and heat on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, stirring and breaking apart the large chucks of meat frequently.
Next toss in the thawed meatballs and cook another 20 minutes allowing the meatballs to mingle and brown up with the brat meat. Carefully~ Drain off excess grease~
Now, we turn down the heat just a tad, and add in the milk, 2 cups water, remaining dry spices, onion soup mix, sour cream, and frozen spinach. Heat about 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly.
Start preparing the water for the noodles while all that awesome sauce comes together. Cook noodles according to package instructions.
Turn off the heat for the sauce and stir in the low fat cream cheese and Parmesan while the mixture is still nice and hot. OHh YEAH, cheesy meaty gooey goodness :)
Dish it up just like you would a normal ole spaghetti ;) but brace yourself for extraordinary awesome sauce. I sprinkled mine with even more cheesy dairy goodness, (because to a Swede there is no such thing as too much cheese) shredded mozzarella, and I served it with homemade garlic toast! If you like cheese, dairy, noodles and meat than you'll flip over this twisted devine spaghetti dish.
Hope you dig it, thanks for stopping by, and big HUGS!
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