Spaghetti and Meatballs

 SPENDING FREEZE UPDATE: So far so good but the weekend hasn't hit so the reality hasn't set in that I can't spend money. I started to get a little desperate for disposable income that I decided to clean out my purse to see what I could dig up. Not including the pennies I have a whole 4 bucks in change!!! I'm not sure if I should spend it save it or buy a lottery ticket and hope for the best. Needless to say its still in my purse....waiting. Since I can't go and get my crack coffee from Einsteins Bros. I had to drink what the office has. It sucks, so to jazz it up I took my vanilla soy milk and shook it until the was foamy and poured it into the coffee. I call it the Cassi Latte.

Now for dinner a few nights ago I decided to be creative in the kitchen. I purchased a few spaghetti squash and almost forgot I had them so I knew I had to use them before they went bad. Also on Saturday while I was at Family Dollar picking up a headband they had chickpeas on clearance for 35 cents. It turns out that they will no longer be carrying them so I grabbed 3 cans. I told Keithon that I would be making Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner and he so graciously reminded me that we were out of Trader Joe's Meatballs. I told him I know but instead of meatballs I'm going to use chickpeas and spaghetti squash. He looked at me and walked away.

So I set to work on making the sauce and while the sauce was reducing I added half for the rinsed chickpeas and reserved the other half just in case half a can was too much. ( you can always add more if its not enough but its hard to subtract once its added) I was also being a short cut Sally and nuked the squash for 8 minutes versus the 30 in the oven. I should have used the oven because a small squash did not need the full 8 minutes so mine was not as crunchy as I would have liked. 

Once the sauce was to the thickness of my liking I scooped on a cup of the tomato mixture and garnished it with a few of the reserved chickpeas and VOILA spaghetti and meatballs. Since I am on this freeze and we are NOT  wasting food I used the tomato sauce and chickpea mixture for another dish that I will share on Friday. I like that dish even more.