Easy Crockpot Meatballs & Pasta

This is about the easiest dinner ever!  It’s pretty much a crockpot version of basic spaghetti-with-meatballs, except that my husband isn’t a fan of “long stringy pasta” so I use a short pasta like ziti or lately rigatoni (which is ridiculously inexpensive at Wegman’s, like 69cents a box!) I love how tender and flavorful the meatballs get in the crockpot! 

Here’s what you need:

~12 frozen meatballs, any variety

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1/3 cup water

Slightly more than ½ a box rigatoni or other pasta

Shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese, optional

Place meatballs in crockpot.  Cover with spaghetti sauce and water.  Cook on low for about 4 hours (or if you forgot to get started until 3:00 in the afternoon, start it on high for an hour or two!)

About 20 minutes before dinnertime, cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and add to the crockpot.  Stir well.  I like to top servings generously with shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese – yummy!

Lemon Chicken with Asparagus and Rice

Somebody brought me dinner kind of like this after my first baby was born, and I LOVED it!  That was more than three years ago now, but for some reason when I was making my grocery list the other day I thought I should try to figure out how to make that chicken dish with the asparagus and rice and lemon…  So I gave it a run tonight, and it was DELICIOUS! 

It’s pretty much a complete meal right in one dish, and plenty fancy for company.  And it was surprisingly easy and quick to put together!  Here’s how I made it:

Lemon Chicken with Asparagus and Rice

4 bone-in chicken thighs

1 small box Uncle Ben’s wild rice

1 bunch (or large handful) fresh asparagus

1 lemon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line an appropriate-sized pan with aluminum foil (or you can spray with non-stick spray, but I think the foil is so much easier.  No scrubbing!)  Place chicken thighs in pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes.  (You will cook it more later.)

Meanwhile, cook rice on the stove according to package directions.  While that’s cooking, wash asparagus and cut into 2-inch lengths (kitchen scissors make this super easy!).  Use a serrated knife to slice the lemon in half, and then each half into three pieces (leave the peel on, but take out any seeds you notice). 

Once chicken is finished with the first 30 minutes of cooking, use a fork to transfer chicken temporarily to a plate.  Spread cooked rice in chicken pan.  (If there’s a lot of chicken drippings in the pan, you may want to drain off some of that first, but leave a bit in the pan for flavoring.)  Layer asparagus over the rice.  Return chicken to the pan, on top of the asparagus.  Arrange lemon slices (with peel facing up) around the chicken pieces.  Return to the oven and bake for 25 more minutes.  Before serving remove at least two or three of the baked lemon slices, and squeeze the juice all over the chicken.  SO YUMMY!