Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs

I've said it before and I'll say it a million  more times... I love spaghetti, I love any kind of marinara sauce. I don't know what it is, but I could eat it for days! Which is why I make a huge dutch oven full of sauce.  This week I actually tried a variety of new things.  I made turkey meatball but followed a recipe by none other than Pioneer Woman.  Her Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe looks amazing!  I love how she cooks them first then puts them back in the sauce.  It made for a super simple yet flavor packed meatballs and sauce.  For my marinara I followed a recipe by Giada De Laurentis, kind of, I mostly followed what she put it in, especially after watching her on the Rachael Ray Show.

To start I threw all of the meatball ingredients into a bowl: Half a pound of turkey (PW uses beef and pork, but really you can use whatever ground meat you have), chopped parsley, chopped onion, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and then I added some chopped spinach (it was going bad and I didn't want to waste it).

Also, PW makes bread crumbs by toasting some old bread at 250 for 25 minutes... I tried and the bread never got crispy enough, so I used the bread I cooked for garlic bread and used store bought bread crumbs.

Then I mixed  it all together and threw them into a hot dutch oven with half oil and half butter.  I cooked them about 5 minutes each, while flipping through out.

 After they had all been seared (they were probably not all the way cooked on the inside), I transferred them to a plate and began on the sauce.

To the same dutch oven, I added chopped onions, carrots, mushrooms (I wanted to add celery, but alas, I was out), and fresh parsley and basil.
The idea for all of the vegetables came from Giada De Laurentis' marinara sauce.  I saw her make it on the Rachael Ray Show and it looked fabulous! Of course, on the show she did not cut up any of her vegetables and noted that it was optional to puree and add them back, after cooking.

 Then I deglaze with some chicken stock and some red wine, I throw in two cans of whole peeled tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, and sugar; and let it all bubble about for 30 minutes or so.

The next step was a little messy, but well worth it, I take out the large chunks of vegetables with a slotted spoon and throw them in the blender.  Then I throw them back in the pan and let everything simmer up with the meatballs back in it.

It was oh so very delicious, and we are eating it for leftovers! We had a TON!

Sidebar, Caleb and I were discussing the oddity of our food choices.  Now as 23-24 year olds, should we be cooking these kinds of things that 30-40 year old foodies, bloggers, and TV personalities are? You tell me...