Curried Vegetable Spaghetti & Meatballs

This is one of those dishes I wanted to be flavorful and moderately healthy, without spending the time I normally spend on a dish like this.  The original intent was to use zucchini noodles, but when I asked my 9-yr old son which he preferred tonight, he said he'd rather have the organic whole wheat noodles that my mom gave us.  I think she gave us a bunch and we are down to the last 1-2 packages, which has taken us over a year to use, as I rarely cook spaghetti noodles.

This dish is super easy and takes almost no time, about 30 min. and is very versatile.  I had an eggplant that was going to go bad soon, so I diced that up, chopped an onion, threw in some broccoli.  Gotta have some cruciferous stuff in there, eh?  Got a pack of meatballs from Trader Joe's, the appetizer size and their Red Thai Curry sauce with a little coconut milk.  Throw all that together and there you have enough for a family of 4 for 2 dinners.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of appetizer meatballs from Trader Joe's (this is about a pound)
• 1 bottle of Red Thai Curry Sauce from Trader Joe's
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (from Trader Joe's)
• 1 eggplant, diced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 overflowing handfuls of broccoli florets, chopped small
• sea salt
• olive oil (not extra virgin but regular olive oil as this can take the higher temperatures)
• 1 lb dried spaghetti noodles, cooked (with olive oil and sea salt)

Directions:

• Cook spaghetti noodles as per package instructions.  I also add some olive oil and salt to keep the noodles from sticking and the water from boiling over the pot.  Just something that works for me and I've been doing this a long time.  Drain and set aside.
• Heat skillet up to medium high heat.  Add about 1/3 cup olive oil (I really just eyeball this).
• Add eggplant.  Sprinkle generously with sea salt.  This helps me get the eggplant softer and better to eat.  Cook for a few minutes.
• Add onion and broccoli.  Stir fry and cook for another 5 min. or so, until onion is slightly translucent and broccoli is just a little NOT crisp.  If you like it crisp, don't cook as long.
• Add thawed meatballs.
• Pour curry sauce over meatballs & veggie mixture.  Cover and reduce heat to medium low.  Cook for about 10 min.  

• Uncover and pour meatball mixture in with the spaghetti noodles.  

• If the mixture seems dry, then add the coconut milk.  If not, then don't.  Mix well, but carefully do this as you don't want to breakup the meatballs.

• Serve hot.
• Note:  To make this Paleo friendly, you can replace the noodles with zucchini noodles.