Chinese - Style Spaghetti and Meatballs

A request from my daughter was to make my "secret recipe" spaghetti that the kids love so much and post my recipe on this blog. I think most people, including my children, love spaghetti.  I have always made a point to learn to make what they like to eat. However, they don't like vegetables.  They always complain whenever I give them vegetables.  As a result, I began sneaking in vegetables here and there without them realizing it.  My friend, Teresa, shared her spaghetti recipe with me.  She too made spaghetti with vegetables right under her children's noses.

This is a "blend" of my friend's and my own recipe:

Ingredients:

Meatball ingredients:
1 to 2 lbs of ground beef
6 Wood ears (soak in cold water for few hours until soft) finely chopped/ground -*Teresa's secret ingredient
1/2 cup ground walnuts -*Teresa's secret ingredient
1tbsp oyster sauce
1tsp soy sauce
1tbsp sugar
1tsp cornstarch
1tsp of water

1 (24 oz.) jar Ragu sauce (Teresa uses organic)
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 tomatoes, diced
3 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 cup sliced bella mushroom or any fresh mushroom
3 tbsp rolled oatmeal
1 package spaghetti ( I used Barilla, as it cooks faster)

Directions:
1. Put the ground beef, wood ears,walnuts,oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, a tsp of water into a big bowl and mix well with your hands until evenly blended. Form the meat mixture into shape of 1 inch balls.

2. Turn on high heat, heat the pan first until hot (when you see smoke), sprinkle 1 tbsp of cooking oil on pan so the pan is coated with oil.. Heat oil until hot. Pour in all the meatballs. Do not flip the meatballs right away, let them cook until a little brown, then flip with a spatula to cook the other sides of the meatballs. Make sure it's brown enough, if not the meatballs will crumble and become ground beef.

3.  Add  and cook onions first,then tomatoes and stir, then add mushroom, spaghetti sauce and oatmeal and mix well together and cook on high heat until boiling. Stir to make sure the bottom is not burned, then turn the heat down to low or to a simmer.

4.While spaghetti sauce is cooking, start to prepare the pasta according to the package instructions.
When the spaghetti is done, drain the water and pour them in a covered pot to keep warm (I used my tortilla warmer container). By then, the spaghetti sauce should be done. Turn off the heat and serve while hot.

*This is my modified recipe that includes the optional two ingredients wood ear, and walnuts.  I say that they are optional, for the meal will taste delicious whether or not you decide to use them.  All ingredients and sauce can be adjusted to your preferred taste.