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I have been craving spaghetti lately. And we have been spending a lot of our date nights at the Spaghetti Factory. I absolutely love their brown butter and mazithera and their meat sauce. But there might be a little reason why I have been craving these things…
I am pregnant!! And I couldn’t be more ecstatic about it!! I am 15 weeks along right now and this pregnancy has been very different than my last two. I never got sick a day with my other ones and I was able to eat whatever I wanted from the beginning. Not with this one! The whole month of October and November I have never been so sick and I even had to get on nausea medication. The smell of foods made me want to gag and even when I would try to make something for the blog I would get sick just photographing it! My first doctor appointment I had lost weight and that never happens. Luckily I am over the sickness stage of my pregnancy but now I have never experienced bigger migraines in my life. One day I hope that I will start feeling myself again. But my family couldn’t be happier for the arrival of this baby!
Enough talk about my exciting news, lets talk about this recipe. Now it will start to make sense why I have been making easy meals for the blog! I haven’t felt like cooking, but I still want to give my family a yummy dinner. This meal was awesome! I made the delicious marinara sauce and just dumped it all into the crockpot. In just a few hours, we had a delicious meatball sauce over pasta. Serve it with some garlic bread and a salad and you have a fantastic meal! This will be made probably weekly at our house from now on. 🙂
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Slow Cooker Meatball Marinara
Ingredients
- 3 cans italian stewed tomatoes 14.5 ounces
- 1 tomato sauce 8 ounce
- 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 pounds precooked meatballs I used Italian meatballs
Instructions
- Place italian stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, powdered garlic, italian seasoning, thyme, oregano, sugar and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until the sauce is smooth and ingredients are combined.
- In your crockpot, place meatballs on the bottom. Pour the marinara sauce on top of the meatballs.
- Cook on high for 4 hours and low for about 5-6 until meatballs are heated through.
- Serve over some hot pasta and enjoy. 🙂
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Spaghetti with meatballs is a favorite meal around here that, I admit, I don’t make often enough. Your photos, however, have me drooling on my keyboard at 6:30 a.m., and I’m seriously wondering how realistic it is to make this my dinner plan for tonight…
I need to try this in my Instant pot stat! I love the flavor imparted to sauces when the meat is cooked IN the sauce!
These look amazingly delicious, I’ve never done meatballs . .. err, but now I MUST. I’ve tested around with doing something similar (with beef) in the Instant Pot and browning beforehand, but also having done slow cooker agree that it’s not really a necessary step.
Such a great dish! Can i use swedish meatballs for this recipe? Since they start pulling in more of the delicious flavor when they are in sauce.
what is the total cook time for this? the ‘cook time’ at the top says 4 hours 20 mins but in the directions it says high for 4 hours then low 5-6. is that 5-6 hours on low? so is the total time 9-10 hours 20 mins?
thanks 🙂
Yes it is 5-6 hours on low. My slow cooker cooks pretty fast and only took 4 hours. 🙂