Do You Know What "Ersatz" Means?

D.P. begged me to make an "oldie but goodie" for dinner--Cheesy Meatballs.

Being as we have had spaghetti and meatballs twice already in the past five days, I really wasn't up to rolling another batch of balls. Instead, I mixed the yummy ingredients squished the meat into a 9x13 pan. Then I simply cut the meat block into 1" squares (Meat squares instead of meat balls.!) before baking in the oven.

Now for a side dish...oh! I've used all the spaghetti noodles but I have rotini. I'll change it up by adding only butter and parm.

D.P. sat down for dinner and stared at his plate. "Nice ersatz Italian dinner Mom." he says.

Where'd he find his vocabulary!