I made this meal last week and had the foresight to photograph and note the results. I have not cooked since then because we’ve been out of town in a city where you can eat dinner on a street corner if you’d like.

I made this recipe for Oven-Baked Meatballs with Quick Marinara from Family Fun’s Supper Solutions section. I’ve used their dinner recipes before because they’re generally geared toward kids. I also added a secret ingredient to the recipe totally inspired by Deceptively Delicious, making the failed experiment not a complete waste of time.

I made the recipe as indicated but served it over pasta (white, fiber free pasta to appease my marathon preparing husband).

Can you see the secret ingredient? Of course you can’t, you can’t taste it either. I added 1/2 cup flax seed meal to the meatball mix, which is an excellent source of omega 3’s.

I know I’m committing a heinous act against my children by hiding this in their meatballs but I think we’ll all recover.

The Results:

Logan: “I want to eat the meatballs but you’ve added fiber to them and fiber is not good for my digestive track when I’m about to run 26.2 miles.” Ate one meatball and a lot of pasta with the sauce.

Madison: “I am a lunatic and it’s impossible for my parents to understand my eating preferences.” She likes pizza which has a tomato based sauce on it. And yet, she can not will herself to eat marinara. Though she will lick it off while explaining how much she does not like it. Ate one small bite of meatball, washing it down with a swallow of milk and then ate the rest of her pasta plain.

Maxwell: “I’m a huge fan of meat. These meatballs are so good, if you told me right now they have flax seed meal in them I’d kiss you.” Ate two meatballs and a bit of pasta.

Melissa: I liked this recipe, it was easy to make and was one of those rare times when the estimated times for prep were actually accurate. Right as I finished the sauce the meatballs were ready. The meatballs were a little too salty. This may have been user error because I have been known to add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for. Ask my family about the time I added 3 tablespoons of dry mustard to my devil eggs when just 3 teaspoons were called for. Salty.

On Thursday I want to talk about re-entry techniques after vacation. I left my laptop behind while we traveled this weekend for the first time in four years and I currently feel buried in an avalanche of spam and important information I’ve missed.

There must be an easier way and I intend to find it.

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