Sequestration Meal #406

 

There are some standby meals in my rotation, though this one managed to become slightly different than my typical version. Here we have some spinach spaghetti topped with Prego's "meatless meat" sauce and some Wegmans Don't Have a Cow meatballs, as well as some grated Violife Parmesan. I steamed some broccoli to go with it and, in a fun brainstorm, I made some easy garlic knots, too, rather than my typical garlic toast.

I would have preferred the garlic knots to have been made from pizza dough (wouldn't we all?), but I used crescent rolls and they still tasted great. I just took the dough in four rectangles and cut each one into three thin strips instead of using the perforations for two triangles per rectangle, being careful to press the seams together, and then tied each strip of dough into a knot and tucked the ends underneath. I covered these with a mixture of melted Earth Balance, Violife Parmesan, Italian seasoning, a pinch of salt, and some garlic paste. They were definitely good but I'm not sure they go with spaghetti as well as they'd go with something more classic American--there's something vaguely sweet about crescent rolls that makes it hard to pair with spaghetti and meatballs. (Before you chime in, yes, I know spaghetti and meatballs are classic American food, and not really Italian. But I meant the garlic knots would go better with your basic protein + potatoes + veggie meal, and I don't know how to shorthand that.) 

The garlic knots get extra points, however, for being adorable.

I didn't realize until after I'd gotten started that the only sauce I had for cooking my meatballs already had "meat" in it (TVP, I think), but it turned out to be wonderful anyway.

And I guess the final difference (which nobody cares about but me) is that I got down my box grater to grate the cheese on the tiny holes so I could get that wonderful, powdery texture, rather than the little shreds I usually grate over my spaghetti with a microplane grater. For some reason, this excited me. It doesn't take much to excite me, perhaps! But it's nostalgic, like the cheese that came in a green can. It tastes better than green-can cheese, but looks like green-can cheese.