Italian Meatballs and Stir Fry Peppers

Happily I announce that we are both back in the land of the living!

After decades with no serious respiratory problems, at least for me, we both came down with a doozy of a case of the “whatever it is that is going around”, starting about the time we went up to Tucson to start the new infusion chemo treatment.

We spent ten days in Tucson, and had had plans to visit several attractions there.  As it turned out, the trip to the Reid Park Zoo was one of only two sojourns that weren’t to the hospital.  We also went to a nearby (two miles away) Safeway store to replenish groceries.  And that is it for the Intrepid Travelers!

Coming home was good, but there were seemingly unending doctor visits to go to.  DH is scheduled for cataract surgery, and there are myriad forms to be filled out by every doctor he sees.

For extra fun and excitement, I had scheduled two months of physical therapy to try to get my hips to function enough to walk properly.  I’m happy to say it seems to be helping, but these old bones are not happy with the agony I am putting them through.

Turns out that my right hip ball head, instead of rotating in the socket, is fused there, and refuses to move – thus my peculiar gait, and short endurance for motivating – because my whole pelvis moves with each step.  It is annoyed with this, and lets me know with each step that this just isn’t right.

So – enough of health whines; it was just a lost month – the above stir fry was incredibly delicious, and happily there is enough left over to make at least another two meals this week.  Wheee!

For the meatballs, I grated up a couple of homemade rolls that were from the last batch and added them to about half a pound of Italian sausage, with an egg to hold it all together.  I didn’t use any seasoning at all since the Italian seasoning in the sausage was certainly sufficient.

I quickly sautéed the meatballs, and then let them simmer in pasta sauce with extra chopped fresh tomatoes for about half an hour.

The pepper stir fry, of course, was the star of the show.  There were green, red, and yellow peppers, chunky bits of Roma tomato, a huge, sweet onion cut into long vertical slices, and a couple of zucchini squashes, cut into medallions.

We’re warming to the rigatoni pasta shape as one that holds sufficient sauce, but is easy to spear, and doesn’t require winding around one’s fork.