Not everyone has the time or the ability to make fancy homemade meals every night. I totally understand. I grew up with a 10$ bill on the counter and was told to order out most nights. Instead I found myself creating easy semi homemade meals that took all but a few minutes to make. I sometimes make dinner for the family using what I taught myself growing up. One of my favorite meals was always meatballs and spaghetti. My Mom didn’t really know the ins and outs of the kitchen so Meal Mart has been my friend in the freezer since I’m little. I always loved their meatballs. Making a sauce for the meatballs was always the fun part. Sometimes I was in the mood for Italian so I added lots of garlic and Italian seasoning to my sauce and other times was a sweet and sour kind of a day. My kids love the sweet and sour so this was dinner the other night. It is so super simple and easy to prepare and in just a few minutes you have a sustainable meal to be proud of. I use a lot of Trader Joe’s products I especially like their marina in the green can, it doesn’t taste like too many extra ingredients were added so you can make it your own. Since I was short on time I also used their organic brown rice from the freezer section. You can use any can of crushed tomatoes you just might need to adjust the seasoning.
Ingredients
½ package heat and serve Meal Mart meatballs (in the red bag)
1 ½ cups Trader Joe’s Marinara in the green can
1 ½ cups water (if it’s too think you can add more)
½ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp Garlic powder
⅛ tsp Black pepper
1 package of Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice
Cooked according to package directions or if not pressed for time make your own
Directions
In a small sauce pan add the marinara sauce, the water brown sugar, and lemon juice.
Sprinkle the garlic powder and black pepper in as well allow to come to a boil.
When sauce is heated through add the meatballs adjust seasoning if needed.
Cook on a medium simmer for about 20 minutes.
Serve over brown rice.
Enjoy!
PRINTABLE VERSION BELOW
- ½ package heat and serve Meal Mart meatballs (in the red bag)
- 1 ½ cups Trader Joe’s Marinara in the green can
- 1 ½ cups water (if it’s too think you can add more)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp Garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp Black pepper
- 1 package of Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice
- Cooked according to package directions or if not pressed for time make your own
- In a small sauce pan add the marinara sauce, the water brown sugar, and lemon juice.
- Sprinkle the garlic powder and black pepper in as well allow to come to a boil.
- When sauce is heated through add the meatballs adjust seasoning if needed.
- Cook on a medium simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Serve over brown rice.