large family dinner ideas–homemade spaghetti and chicken parmesan

One of my husbands very favorite meals is spaghetti.  I used to make it with store bought sauce and then we had an abundance of tomatoes from our garden this year and I was able to freeze many pints of pureed tomatoes.

This is how we make homemade spaghetti sauce and then we also make chicken Parmesan to go with it.  Some of the children prefer an Alfredo sauce and we substitute that in.

Maryon’s spaghetti sauce

• 1 lb hamburger, cooked
• 3 pints pureed tomatoes
• 1 pint tomato sauce–I buy the large supersize can of this for around $3 and then split it up into smaller pint containers and freeze.
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon basil and oregano
• 1 t dried minced onion
• 1 t dried green pepper
• 2 T sugar

We freeze  our pureed tomatoes and tomato sauce, so we just put all of the above ingredients into a pot and cook on med low heat until all melted and then I let it simmer for an hour or so depending upon my day.

I just grab my frozen precooked meat, and then pop out the frozen blocks of tomato puree, add some spices and then let it simmer.  I cook my pot of spaghetti noodles to go with this and you have Maryons spaghetti sauce.  All homemade, tastes wonderfully.  If we have homemade meatballs we add this to our sauce as well.

This alone is an excellent meal with some homemade bread and corn.  But today we are making chicken Parmesan as well.

Chicken Parmesan

• 4 eggs
• 2 c Italian bread crumbs
• 1 c Parmesan cheese
• chicken breast pieces ( I use 3 whole complete breasts and then slice them thinly)

First I take my bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and put on a plate.

Then I beat my eggs.

I then dip my chicken pieces into the egg mixture and  coat it in bread crumbs.

I place it into a 9×13 baking pan.  Cover and let bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  Uncover and cook 15 minutes or until done.

sprinkle with mozzarella cheese while still warm.

To serve, in our household everyone likes this different.  Dad likes it with a big plate of meat spaghetti and the little ones prefer Alfredo sauce on their noodles.

There you have Chicken Parmesan and our family, The Maryon’s homemade spaghetti sauce.