School is back in session! With that comes fall sports. My oldest runs cross country and my youngest plays competitive soccer. The combination of growing boys and heavy exercising has made our grocery bill skyrocket. Finding things to satisfy and fuel both through their trainings has been tricky.

The first cross country meet was last Saturday, coincidentally the same day as the opening soccer match. I let the boys pick their choice of dinner. I had a feeling it’d be spaghetti and meatballs. I was right. We switched it up by using ground turkey.

Want to know the best trick I learned when using a food processor? Take the feed tube insert out and turn the machine on. Drop your whole garlic, onion, and everything else through the open tube with the machine running! It leaves no big chunks!

To make life easier, I oven baked the meatballs. The downside of using ground turkey is that you always run the risk of a dry meatball. I try to cook it just short of finished because in the next step I add them back to the sauce and pasta to finish.

Instead of the usual red sauce, the boys requested white sauce. It starts out with a roux which helps to thicken the sauce after you add your liquid, in this case a combo of milk and cream. Yeah, I admit I feel a little guilty when I make a sauce that features cream, butter & cheese prominently. I definitely don’t make it often, which is probably why the boys love it so much!

At the end, I mix everything together and serve right from the pan. Even though there’s parmesan in the meatballs–and in the sauce–and on top–the kids typically sprinkle more on top. A friend of theirs has a t-shirt that says ‘I put ketchup on my ketchup’. In this case, my boys put parmesan on their parmesan!