What’s Up Wednesday- October 2019

Hey everyone! I’m joining Shay and Scheaffer for another What’s Up Wednesday link up. Every month they host and we answer these questions:

So here we go!

What we’re eating this week:

I made a big batch of spaghetti with meat sauce on Sunday and the leftovers have lasted us a few days. It is without a doubt my husband’s favorite meal. He requests it constantly. Here is the recipe:

1 lb. Lean ground beef
1 lb. Sweet Italian sausage(casings removed)
1 med. brown onion diced
1 green bell pepper diced
4 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
2-14.5oz. cans tomato sauce
2-6oz. cans tomato paste
1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. pepper

Saute the bell pepper and onion in the olive oil and butter until slightly translucent. Add minced garlic and cook over low heat while you cook the Italian Sausage in a separate pan. I like to break up the sausage into bite size pieces and get a good brown color on the meat. Add the sausage to the onion/bell pepper mixture(drain the grease if there’s a lot), then in the pan you used to brown the sausage, cook your ground beef until brown and crumbly. Add to the peppers, onion, sausage mixture. Add in all the other ingredients- I often will use chicken broth instead of water if I have an open carton in my fridge. Or I’ll do half water, half red wine. It will seem like a lot of salt and sugar- but it’s perfect at this amount. Bring it to a low simmer and cook, covered for 2 hours. Serve over your favorite pasta.

This recipe makes a big batch! It freezes well- it doesn’t last very long in our house. We tend to eat it for a few nights in a row. The sauce is great on it’s own if you are doing a meatless meal. Sometimes I’ll make the sauce without the meat and then brown up these meatballs that I buy in the Wal-Mart butcher block section. Then I throw the meatballs in the sauce and simmer for a couple hours. So good!

What I’m reminiscing about:

Cooper’s school held it’s annual Mother/Son night earlier this month and we had such a great time! The theme this year was Buccaneers Ball, so we donned our best pirate gear and had a great time. It was a fun night! I had to do some major convincing to get my kid out on the dance floor when they announced it was time for the Mother/Son dance, but once we were out there and I was twirling him around, I got some BIG smiles from him! It was fun getting some pictures with my fellow pirate friends too! I’m so grateful that our PTA puts together events like this for us.

What I’m loving:

All the Halloween fun we’ve been up to! We have been on Halloween overload- and I love it all. I did a little post on our Halloween decor if you’d like to check that out here:

Tuesday Talk October 2019: Our Halloween House

What we’ve been up to:

Where do I begin! This has been a busy month! We went to the Fall Festival that is held at a local park every year. There was trunk-or-treating, bounce houses, a train ride, a pumpkin patch, a reptile exhibit, and more. We had a great time with our friends!

Then we went to Legoland to check out the Halloween decor and finally visit the water park! We have annual passes and wanted to get some more use out of them before the year is gone. Also, Apple Fries! Yum…